A Photo Tool (Libre)

Photo editing app for Linux

Easy to use photo editing software.

Change exposure, contrast and color of your jpeg photos. Turn color photos in to black and white images with control how color is handled. Rotate, crop, straighten and resize photos.

Copyright © 2021-2025 Jari Ahola

A Photo Tool (Libre¹ version) is free image editor published under GNU Public License version 3 (GPLv3).

You are free to use it, free to download source code and use it in accordance of the GPLv3 and basically you are free to do what you like. If you publish modified app you need to publish the source code also (as dictated by GPLv3). Original author Jari Ahola will remain as the copyright holder of A Photo Tool (Libre).

See LICENSE file or https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-3.0.txt for GPLv3.

How to Install

A Photo Tool (Libre) supports Debian based systems (Debian, Ubuntu etc.) and Arch Linux based systems. There is also AppImage available. If you like snaps (Ubuntu likes) then really easy installation is from Snap Store:

  

or with command

sudo snap install aphototoollibre

Otherwise follow correct instructions below:

• How to Install (.deb for 64 bit Intel / AMD and ARM).
• How to Install (Arch User Repository (AUR) for 64 bit Intel / AMD and ARM).
• How to Install (AppImage for 64 bit Intel / AMD).
• How to Install (Flatpak for 64 bit Intel / AMD and ARM).

How to Run

A Photo Tool (Libre) is shown on your applications menu. Depending on your environment it may be under category Graphics or you may search it by entering A Photo Tool on your app search.

On command line you can enter aphototoollibre to launch A Photo Tool (Libre) application.

How to Uninstall

Use your favorite graphical package manager. For command line (Debian) use

sudo apt remove aphototoollibre

If you use pacman (Arch Linux) enter

sudo pacman -R aphototoollibre

If you use Snap enter

sudo snap remove aphototoollibre

If you use AppImage delete .AppImage file.

A configuration is saved in your home directory in .config folder. Use

cd ~/.config

rm -R aphototoollibre

to delete configuration.

If you have snap installed then the .config folder may be located somewhere deeper under ~/snap/aphototoollibre/ hierarchy. Uninstalling (removing) snap should remove configuration as well.

BUILD INSTRUCTIONS

If you just want to use A Photo Tool (Libre) app you can ignore build instructions and just follow instructions at How to Install. These build instructions are here only to comply with GPLv3 source code requirements.

Technical

• Programming language C++
• Framework Qt 5.15.2 (see https://www.qt.io/ and https://doc.qt.io/qt-5/lgpl.html and https://www.qt.io/licensing/open-source-lgpl-obligations)

Prerequisites

• Basic knowledge of C++, Qt, QMake, GitHub and Linux development.
• Advanced knowledge of Debian package management (see https://www.debian.org/doc/manuals/maint-guide/index.en.html and other relevant documentation).

Steps to build

• Install necessary Debian developer tools
• Create and configure .pbuilderrc

BASETGZ=$HOME/pbuilder/base.tgz
BUILDPLACE=$HOME/pbuilder/build/
BUILDRESULT=$HOME/pbuilder/result/
DEBEMAIL='Your Name <your@emaild.id>'
BUILDUSERNAME=username
AUTO_DEBSIGN=yes
APTCACHEHARDLINK=no
DEBBUILDOPTS="-sa"

• Run

pbuilder --create

• Get project from GitHub into aphototoollibre-x.x.x folder (x.x.x is current version number)
  • Use released source package (see Releases), main branch may contain untested new features
  • For version 1.0.6-1 (and later) manually delete CMakeLists.txt file before continuing
• Compress aphototoollibre-x.x.x folder to aphototoollibre_x.x.x.tar.xz (filemanager Compress... works usually)
• Go to aphototoollibre-x.x.x folder and run

dh_make -e your_email -f ../aphototoollibre_x.x.x.tar.xz -s -c gpl3

pdebuild --debbuildopts -sa

• aphototoollibre_x.x.x-y_amd64.deb file is created on pbuilder/result folder

Special note

Pre-build .deb file was built on Debian 11.8 with Qt 5.15.2

Snap store (at snapcraft.io) version was built with Qt 5.15.3

• To create snap use snapcraft.yaml file located in snap folder and documentation available at snapcraft.io

Pre-build AppImage was built on Ubuntu 20.04 LTS with Qt 5.15.2 and packaged with linuxdeployqt

• To create AppImage build release with Qt Creator and follow instructions at linuxdeployqt. See also folder appimage

CONTRIBUTING TO THE PROJECT

At this time source code contributions to A Photo Tool (Libre) project are not accepted. This is to avoid any copyright issues with any of the commercial products of Ahola Development (https://www.ahola.dev) and the need to require Contributor License Agreement (CLA) or a Copyright Transfer Agreement (CTA). This does not in anyway limit the rights you have under GPLv3.

Footnotes

1. See explanation of Libre in https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Free_software ↩