Nandakumar Edamana
Promotional poster with the text 'Vara: Minimalist digital painting'
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Vara

Drawing and digital painting application with pressure-sensitive brushes. Works on GNU/Linux, BSD, and Windows.

Screenshot

Screenshot of apps/vara

Release history

Latest unstable release: 0.1.241208 2024-12-08

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What Vara isn't

Vara is not an image editor, unlike GIMP or Photoshop. It probably isn't a kindergarten drawing program either, unlike TuxPaint. It belongs to the group of drawing applications like Krita and MyPaint, but with a limited number of features.

Features

  • 32-bit High Dynamic Range, Linear RGB internals
  • Dynamics: Pressure-for-size, Stroke smoothing
  • Layers, Undo/Redo, HSL
  • Brush presets, Quick palette, Keyboard shortcuts, Zooming
  • Pencil, Brush, Eraser, Eyedropper (Colour Picker), Bucket Fill (basic)
  • Save and open XCF, export PNG
  • Runs on GNU/Linux and Windows

In the pipeline

  • Advanced Bucket Fill, Selections/Masking
  • Pressure-for-opacity, Size and opacity based on velocity, etc.
  • Hand tool for navigation, Buffer area, Canvas rotation
  • Export JPEG, OpenEXR
  • macOS support, better packaging for Windows

Releases per year

20233202417