Krita and Gimp are the most popular free and open-source image editors for Linux.
However, if you are using a HiDPI/Retina display you will notice that both programs look unusable.
At the moment, Gimp has no solution to this problem other than downloading a hidpi-theme This will fix the size of the icons, but there will still be a lot of components that are not scaled properly.
It’s actually quite simple. You need to set the environmnetal variable of KRITA_HIDPI to 1.
If you use just about any other desktop environment that isn’t Gnome, you’re probably using Xorg.
Create or edit the file ~/.profile and copy and paste the following:
export KRITA_HIDPI=1
Restart your machine and you’re done!
If you are on a Wayland desktop environment (As far as I know, Gnome is currently the only one not using xorg) you have to create a file in your environment.d folder.
Create and edit the file ~/.config/environment.d/krita.conf.
Copy and paste the following:
KRITA_HIDPI=1
You’re done! Restart you’re machine, and you should experience Krita at a proper DPI.
By now, Krita should look perfect on your HiDPI display.
If it doesn’t, first be sure you are using an up-to-date version of Krita. At the moment of writing this, I am on version 3.3.3.
You could also troubleshoot by running the command KRITA_HIDPI=1 krita in your terminal. If that fixes the HiDPI, it simply means that you didn’t set the environmental variables properly. You should look into your desktop environment / distro / display server to see if there is a preferred method for setting environmental variables.
Thanks for reading!
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