Krita is a free, open source digital painting/drawing program, written in C using Qt and available for Mac OS, Linux and Windows. Created by Matthias Ettrich in 1998, it was previously named KImageShop, then Krayon, and now finally renamed to Krita in 2002. Krita is built for those who do concept art, texture painters, illustrations and comics, with a huge set of tools that specifically support painting.
If you are looking for a professional drawing program which runs in Linux, be sure to try Krita. In this article, we are going to show you several ways to install Krita on Ubuntu 20.04 so you can find out which method suits you best.
How to install Krita on Ubuntu
Install Krita using AppImage
Using AppImage is by far the fastest and easiest way to install Krita on Ubuntu. Just download the Appimage file from Krita’s homepage , place it in any folder you like, make it executable and voila – the program is ready to work. Moreover, you can copy this file to a flash drive and, if necessary, run it not only on a computer with Ubuntu, but also any other machine which runs a Linux distro.
Head over to the download section of Krita homepage, then click the big blue button named “Linux 64-bit Appimage”
To make Appimage executable, hover over the file thumbnail and right-click. In the context menu, select Properties, and then go to the Permissions tab and check the box next to the Allow executing file as program option .
Now you can run Krita just like any other program by double click its icon. A popup may shows up allowing you to integrate Krita icon to the Activities board for quick program launching.
Install Krita from PPA
It is also possible to install Krita from the developers’ repository after adding it to the system. To do this, run the following command in the terminal:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:kritalime/ppa
Input your password to run the command as root, then press Enter to confirm adding Krita’s PPA to the system. After that, you should update the package list using this command
sudo apt-get updateCode language: JavaScript (javascript)Finally, run the installation with the following command
sudo apt-get install krita -yCode language: JavaScript (javascript)
Install Krita using Snap
There are two ways to install Krita from the Snap Store. To use the first one, open the Ubuntu Software Application Manager and search for the program name. After finding Krita in the list, go to its page and click the Install button. Snap will take care of the installation from now on. 
You can also run snap installation via the terminal. Open up a terminal emulator, then run the following command:
sudo snap install krita
Krita snap packages are provided by its core developers team, so the Snap Store always contains the up-to-date version of the program.
How to uninstall Krita from Ubuntu
Removing the graphical editor Krita installed as an Appimage is no different from removing regular files. Move the cursor over its icon and right-click. In the context menu, select Move to Trash .
If the program was installed from the PPA repository, run the following command in the terminal emulator:
sudo apt-get purge kritaCode language: JavaScript (javascript)
The next step is to clean up the obsolete packages that comes with Krita’s installation.
sudo apt autoremove
If in the near future you do not plan to install this program again, it is recommended that you remove Krita’s PPA from the system:
sudo add-apt-repository --remove ppa:kritalime/ppa
As for the snap version of Krita, its removal requires much less effort and can be performed with only one command:
sudo snap remove krita
It is also possible to uninstall the Krita installed from the Snap repositories using the Ubuntu Software Application Manager. Go to its page and click the Remove button . 
Conclusion
Currently, the best way to install Krita on Ubuntu 20.04 is by using Appimage. This kind of installation has several advantages. First, the system is not clogged with junk files. Secondly, such a program starts much faster than, for example, the snap version. In addition, the removal of the Appimage file takes place without unnecessary problems, and it is also possible to get a “portable” version of the graphics editor. Have you tried Krita? Share your experience in the comments below!
If you use Krita extensively in your workflow, you might need a reliable backup solution. Rclone is one of the best cloud storage backup/synchronization tool in Ubuntu. Pick up a few commands from our ultimate rclone command examples and you will never have to worry about losing your works ever again.
Krita FAQ
Krita is designed for digital drawings, hence its toolset is optimized for that purpose. Photoshop, on the other hand, focus on image manipulation. Since they are fundamentally different, Krita cannot be considered as an alternative of Photoshop. In Linux, you can use GIMP to replace Photoshop.
Yes you can. In fact, Krita supports a wide range of drawing tablet. Checkout Krita’s list of supported tablets for updated information.
Yes, you can. Krita has the ability to read Photoshop Brush (*. ABR) format, as specifically mentioned in Krita documentation.
Yes, Krita supports reading and writing to PSD files. But since PSD is a proprietary format controlled by Adobe, we highly recommend you use open formats like ORA or TIFF for future compatibility.
