Pixelitor Installation

Pixelitor is written in the Java programming language, and this means that it needs a Java runtime (version 17 or higher) in order to run on your computer. If you are using the Windows installer or the Flathub package on Linux, then you don't have to worry about this, because the Java runtime will be automatically installed for you. However if you want to use the jar file, then you need to install OpenJDK as well. The same jar file can be used on all operating systems.

Windows

On Windows you have two possibilities:
  1. You can just run the installer program, it will install everything. If Pixelitor was already installed, it's not necessary to uninstall the previous version first.
  2. Alternatively, you can install OpenJDK and use the jar file:
    • Download OpenJDK from here. When installing OpenJDK, make sure to select the "Set JAVA_HOME variable" option.
    • Download the jar file and double-click it.

Linux

On Linux you can install Pixelitor either using Flathub or manually. Please note that Pixelitor can't currently use ImageMagick if you are using the Flathub installation.
  1. Flathub: see the Pixelitor page on Flathub
  2. Manually:
    • Java: You can use the newest OpenJDK package for your Linux distribution. Or you can get OpenJDK from here.
    • Pixelitor: Run it as a Java program according to your distribution guidelines (double-clicking on the downloaded jar file should work, the command line java -jar pixelitor_VERSION.jar always works).

Mac