{"slug": "pinta", "name": "Pinta", "category": "media", "category_name": "Media and creative", "description": "", "recommenders": 3, "commenters": 7, "warners": 2, "score": 1.292, "rising": 0.35, "first": "2025-11-08", "latest": "2026-09-03", "why": "it would be much easier to build off of something like Pinta", "why_is_quote": true, "has_verdict": false, "sentiment": {"recommend": 3, "neutral": 2, "compare": 0, "warn": 2}, "spark": [0, 1, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 0, 1, 0, 1, 0], "listed": true, "loved": [], "caveat": "", "short_quote": "it would be much easier to build off of something like Pinta", "kind": "", "icon": true, "domain": "pinta-project.com", "github_repo": null, "official_url": "https://www.pinta-project.com/", "pricing": "", "aliases": ["Pinta"], "verdict": null, "praise": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792636609, "item_id": 49539788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539788", "by": "fletchowns", "date": "2026-09-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pinta gets pretty close though", "excerpt": "I also miss paint.net on Mac. Pinta gets pretty close though: https://www.pinta-project.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}, {"id": 783556000, "item_id": 48972250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972250", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-07-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For minimal edits, Pinta does the job IMO", "excerpt": "For minimal edits, Pinta does the job IMO: https://www.pinta-project.com/ Gimp still has a lot of good features that I find myself crawling back for, on bigger projects. But Pinta has that good ol' fashioned Paint.NET feel to it that a lot of people still strive for.", "context": "", "use_case": "Simple image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}, {"id": 741859057, "item_id": 46366191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366191", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2025-12-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it would be much easier to build off of something like Pinta", "excerpt": "What would you expect to happen? Photoshop 1.0 is an almost unusably basic image editor by modern standards. It doesn't even have layers (they were introduced with Photoshop 3.0 4 years later). Even if the code was licensed in a manner that allowed distribution of derivative works (which it isn't), it's written in Apple's Pascal dialect from the mid-80s and uses a UI framework that's also from the mid-80s and only su", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code (2013)"}]}], "caveats": [{"label": "", "summary": "", "quotes": [{"id": 792770801, "item_id": 49548175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548175", "by": "slazaro", "date": "2026-09-03", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Pinta just had a lot of broken UX and it didn't behave the way I expected.", "excerpt": "Krita is what I use. Pinta just had a lot of broken UX and it didn't behave the way I expected. Krita is closer to Photoshop, but having extra features is not a problem. I'm pretty sure anything you'd do in paint.net you can do in Krita.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}, {"id": 792649152, "item_id": 49540572, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540572", "by": "Macha", "date": "2026-09-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Pinta is an inferior Paint.NET . It's about the same level of complexity, but everything is just like... 60-85% as good.", "excerpt": "Paint.Net was only really open source entirely from 2004-2007 and partially from 2007-2009 (engine only, not the UI for the latter part). My experience: Pinta is an inferior Paint.NET . It's about the same level of complexity, but everything is just like... 60-85% as good. Krita is a heavier program, but has a similar level of polish. You might not use half the features, but Krita's what I'd suggest for anyone wantin", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}]}], "who": [], "tags": [], "use_cases": ["image editing", "simple image editing", "simple image edits"], "compared": [{"slug": "krita", "name": "Krita", "co": 3, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 1}, {"slug": "paint-net", "name": "Paint.NET", "co": 4, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "adobe-photoshop", "name": "Adobe Photoshop", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}, {"slug": "gimp", "name": "GIMP", "co": 2, "switched_from": 0, "switched_to": 0}], "makers": [], "threads": [{"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539389", "title": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux", "mentions": 3}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48911021", "title": "Blender 5.2 LTS", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47382072", "title": "GrobPaint: Somewhere Between MS Paint and Paint.net. Multiplatform by Default", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46313962", "title": "Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code (2013)", "mentions": 1}, {"url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45860273", "title": "How to declutter, quiet down, and take the AI out of Windows 11 25H2", "mentions": 1}], "sentiment_by_month": {"2025-11": {"neutral": 1}, "2025-12": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-01": {}, "2026-02": {}, "2026-03": {"neutral": 1}, "2026-04": {}, "2026-05": {}, "2026-06": {}, "2026-07": {"recommend": 1}, "2026-08": {}, "2026-09": {"recommend": 1, "warn": 2}, "2026-10": {}}, "versions": [], "version_unnamed": 0, "family_ref": null, "runs_on": null, "lines": [], "quotes": [{"id": 792770801, "item_id": 49548175, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49548175", "by": "slazaro", "date": "2026-09-03", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Pinta just had a lot of broken UX and it didn't behave the way I expected.", "excerpt": "Krita is what I use. Pinta just had a lot of broken UX and it didn't behave the way I expected. Krita is closer to Photoshop, but having extra features is not a problem. I'm pretty sure anything you'd do in paint.net you can do in Krita.", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}, {"id": 792649152, "item_id": 49540572, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49540572", "by": "Macha", "date": "2026-09-02", "version": null, "stance": "warn", "quote": "Pinta is an inferior Paint.NET . It's about the same level of complexity, but everything is just like... 60-85% as good.", "excerpt": "Paint.Net was only really open source entirely from 2004-2007 and partially from 2007-2009 (engine only, not the UI for the latter part). My experience: Pinta is an inferior Paint.NET . It's about the same level of complexity, but everything is just like... 60-85% as good. Krita is a heavier program, but has a similar level of polish. You might not use half the features, but Krita's what I'd suggest for anyone wantin", "context": "", "use_case": "image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}, {"id": 792636609, "item_id": 49539788, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49539788", "by": "fletchowns", "date": "2026-09-02", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "Pinta gets pretty close though", "excerpt": "I also miss paint.net on Mac. Pinta gets pretty close though: https://www.pinta-project.com/", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Paint.net 5.2 alpha now runs on Linux"}, {"id": 783556000, "item_id": 48972250, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=48972250", "by": "bigyabai", "date": "2026-07-19", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "For minimal edits, Pinta does the job IMO", "excerpt": "For minimal edits, Pinta does the job IMO: https://www.pinta-project.com/ Gimp still has a lot of good features that I find myself crawling back for, on bigger projects. But Pinta has that good ol' fashioned Paint.NET feel to it that a lot of people still strive for.", "context": "", "use_case": "Simple image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "Blender 5.2 LTS"}, {"id": 758134401, "item_id": 47383400, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47383400", "by": "hbcondo714", "date": "2026-03-14", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I'm accustomed to using the Magic Wand tool in Paint.net[1] and Pinta[2] to select pixels based on color.", "excerpt": "Great effort and reason to create this! I'm accustomed to using the Magic Wand tool in Paint.net[1] and Pinta[2] to select pixels based on color. Any chance you could add that functionality? [1] https://www.getpaint.net/doc/latest/MagicWand.html [2] https://www.pinta-project.com/user-guide/wand/", "context": "", "use_case": "Image editing", "switched_from": "", "story": "GrobPaint: Somewhere Between MS Paint and Paint.net. Multiplatform by Default"}, {"id": 741859057, "item_id": 46366191, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46366191", "by": "ndiddy", "date": "2025-12-23", "version": null, "stance": "recommend", "quote": "it would be much easier to build off of something like Pinta", "excerpt": "What would you expect to happen? Photoshop 1.0 is an almost unusably basic image editor by modern standards. It doesn't even have layers (they were introduced with Photoshop 3.0 4 years later). Even if the code was licensed in a manner that allowed distribution of derivative works (which it isn't), it's written in Apple's Pascal dialect from the mid-80s and uses a UI framework that's also from the mid-80s and only su", "context": "", "use_case": "", "switched_from": "", "story": "Adobe Photoshop 1.0 Source Code (2013)"}, {"id": 733813236, "item_id": 45863327, "url": "https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=45863327", "by": "wltr", "date": "2025-11-08", "version": null, "stance": "neutral", "quote": "I use Pinta for simple tasks.", "excerpt": "On the other hand, I migrated from macOS, and chose to stick to Gimp. Its interface is the worst I\u2019ve seen, but with PhotoGIMP it\u2019s tolerable. Now, when I\u2019m used to it, I don\u2019t care about Affinity or Photoshop to ever come to Linux. I want Gimp to consider rewriting their interface. And maybe to change this idiotic name nobody in the real world thinks is funny. Then it would be quite good product to promote. Also, I ", "context": "", "use_case": "simple image edits", "switched_from": "", "story": "How to declutter, quiet down, and take the AI out of Windows 11 25H2"}]}