Given the less-than-intuitive controls in GIMP, many less experienced users long for an easier image processing solution. Pinta [1] targets this group. The program was originally created from the source code of the Paint.NET [2] program, which was originally open source but is proprietary today, although free. As a result, Pinta (the name is an anagram of Paint) is based on the free.NET Mono implementation, an open source implementation of Microsoft's .NET Framework, which fails to generate enthusiasm with many Linux users.

Whereas Paint.NET uses a proprietary storage format for its files, the Pinta developers use the tried-and-trusted ORA OpenRaster format. ORA is supported by many free graphics tools (Table 1), which at least makes exchanging data easy. The format also includes enough functionality to integrate all of the features of Pinta files.

Getting Started

After setting up the current Pinta version  1.5 from the distribution repositories, you will see an uncluttered window at first launch (Figure 1). Holding Ctrl and rolling the mouse wheel zooms the view in the image window; however, Pinta does not support movement of content by holding down the center mouse button. Window widths are adjusted at the sides with the mouse.

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