What it does
Pinta is a free drawing and raster image editor for Windows, Mac and Linux. It combines painting with selections, cloning, recolouring and live effect previews. Layers let an illustration sit separately from a photograph or background, while OpenRaster files preserve that structure for later work.
Keep an editable copy of the composition
Create a canvas with the required dimensions, orientation and background, then add a drawing layer above Background. Import From File brings an existing picture into the layer workflow. Duplicate Layer is useful for trying a change before committing to it; Merge Layer Down combines adjacent pieces when they are ready.
Use Save As and choose OpenRaster to keep the layers. A PNG or JPEG is a finished image with the visible layers flattened, so retain the ORA copy if the drawing needs further revision.
The History panel can move back through several actions at once. That history ends when Pinta closes, even when the project itself has been saved. Live previews let you judge effects before accepting them.
Strengths
- OpenRaster keeps layers available for later editing
- Effects and adjustments offer live previews
- The History panel can undo a sequence of actions
Watch out for
- Undo history is lost when the application closes
- PNG and JPEG exports flatten the visible layers
Best for
- Illustrations combined with photo edits
- Layered raster projects across Windows, Mac and Linux
Sources
- Pinta drawing tools and supported platforms (Oct 27, 2026)
- Pinta repository licensing and platform information (Oct 27, 2026)
- Pinta canvas setup, project saving and undo history (Oct 27, 2026)
- Pinta layer creation, duplication, merging and imports (Oct 27, 2026)
- Pinta Save As and image format choices (Oct 27, 2026)