Graphics App ‘Pinta’ Updates, Brings Improved Tools, Layer Blending

A new release of graphics app Pinta has been made available for download.

Pinta is a basic-but-useful drawing tool and image manipulator based on the Windows app ‘Paint.NET’.

Version 1.4 sees a number of notable new features and improvements made, and various bug and performance issues fixed.

What’s New?

A new release means new things and Pinta 1.4 is no exception.

• New Magic Wand tool selections (Union, Exclude, Xor, and Intersect)

• New layer blending modes (accessed via Layer Properties dialog)

• Color Picker now supports different sampling sizes, as well as sampling from a single layer or the entire image.

• Lower RAM usage for Open Images Pad and History
• New “Copy Merged” command
• Canvas sports a drop-shadow
• Text Tool supports more non-English character inputs and copy/paste

Does it Crash?

My chief complaint with Pinta has always been that its usefulness has always been undermined by its instability.

But, I’m pleased to say, performance has taken a gargantuan leap forward in this release. Pinta 1.4 did not crash once during the half hour or so I spent fooling about in it.

What changed? 39 bugs were squashed, including some super annoying crash-causing culprits like ‘Copy/Paste’.

Install Pinta 1.4 in Ubuntu

With new features and a fresh new slate in performance, Pinta 1.4 is well worth checking out.

It is to Linux what Paint.NET is to Windows; it’s not super advanced and won’t suit Photoshop enthusiasts. But when you’re looking to knock together a silly image or adjust a photo before you share it online, Pinta is the best app for the job.

Ubuntu 11.10, 12.04 and 12.10 users will need to add the Pinta Stable PPA to get this release.

• sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable
• sudo apt-get update && sudo apt-get install pinta

Don’t want to add a PPA? The most recent version of Pinta in the Ubuntu Software Center of Ubuntu 12.04 is version 1.1.

source: omgubuntu.co.uk