After more than a year and a half, a new Pinta version was released yesterday, getting add-in support along with other new features and a huge list of bug fixes.
Pinta is a drawing / image editor which was initially based on Paint.NET, available for Linux, Windows and Mac OS X, designed to serve as an alternative to more advanced applications like GIMP, for casual users. The application features drawing tools, unlimited layers and undo history, includes over 35 image effects and adjustments and can be configured to use a docked interface or multiple windows.
The most important new feature in Pinta 1.5 is the addition of add-in support. Users will be able use the Add-in Manager (available in the Add-ins menu) to browse and install add-ins which can provide additional effects, tools, brushes and and file formats.
Currently, there are no add-ins for Pinta (other than the default/core ones), but its developers are in the process of setting up a community add-in repository which will be included by default in future Pinta releases. Developers who are interesting in contributing add-ins for Pinta should check out THIS page.
Important changes in Pinta 1.5:
- Re-editable text;
- Mouse cursors now resize based on the active brush size;
- The Move Selection and Move Selected tools can now rotate the selection using the right mouse button;
- Added an Invert Selection command;
- New or redesigned mouse cursors for every tool;
- Improved JPEG Compression Dialog (remembers previous settings and has the OK button as the default control);
- The Open File dialog now shows image previews for ORA files, as well as any file formats provided by add-ins;
- Users can use the Add-in Manager (under the Add-ins menu) to browse and install add-ins;
- More than 90 bugs were fixed in this release, including:
- Fixed a crash when the Pixel Grid was turned on for very small images;
- Fixed a bug in the text tool that caused font variants (e.g. Segoe Black and Segoe Condensed) to not work correctly;
- Fixed a bug that caused the Rectangle Select markers to still be visible after undoing a selection;
- Fixed a bug that caused the Rectangle Select markers to still be visible after undoing a selection;
- Fixed a bug that caused part of the image to be lost when pasting a large image onto a smaller canvas;
- Fixed a bug where using the Backspace key in the text tool while inside a selection would fill the selection instead of deleting a character;
- Fixed a bug where some icons would not display correctly with GTK# 2.12.20;
- Fixed several bugs when running Pinta with newer versions of Mono.Cairo (such as on Ubuntu 14.04).
Install the latest Pinta in Ubuntu / Linux Mint
Ubuntu / Linux Mint (and derivatives) users can install the latest Pinta by using its official PPA. The PPA provides the latest Pinta 1.5 for Ubuntu 14.10, 14.04, 13.10 and 12.10. There are no Pinta 1.5 packages (Pinta 1.4 is available though) for Ubuntu 12.04!
Add the PPA and install Pinta using the following commands:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable
sudo apt-get update
sudo apt-get install pintaReport any bugs you may find @ Launchpad.
