OmaPhoto Brings Compositor to Linux

OmaPhoto appeared on GitHub on September 26, 2026, with a fairly specific objective: reproduce the editing environment of Compositor on Linux without abandoning Compositor projects at the operating system boundary. Compositor itself arrived earlier this month and has already collected more than 5,800 GitHub stars as a free image editor for macOS.

OmaPhoto has accumulated roughly 175 stars in its first two days, along with packaged releases and the beginnings of an active issue tracker. The numbers are still small, but they establish something more concrete than curiosity around a mockup or unfinished experiment.

Compositor is written for macOS, while OmaPhoto is being implemented separately in C++ and Qt for Linux. The developer describes Compositor as the specification, which means OmaPhoto is attempting to preserve its tools, menus, shortcuts, and project behavior rather than borrowing only its appearance. Most significantly, both applications read and write the same .comp project format. A document can therefore move between macOS and Linux without first being flattened into a finished JPEG or PNG.

A Linux Port With a Compatibility Problem to Solve

That shared project format gives OmaPhoto a different problem from the one faced by most new image editors. Its long term usefulness depends not only on adding features, but on continuing to interpret Compositor projects correctly as Compositor itself changes. A conventional editor can evolve according to its own priorities, while OmaPhoto is tying part of its value to software maintained by another project. If the two remain aligned, Linux users gain access to the same documents and a familiar editing model without requiring Compositor itself to become cross platform.

The first release already covers much of the structure expected from a layered raster editor. OmaPhoto 1.0.1 includes layers, folders, masks, clipping masks, blend modes, adjustment layers, selections, brushes, clone stamping, spot healing, smudging, liquify, gradients, type, and several layer effects. Levels, Curves, Hue and Saturation, Exposure, Gradient Map, and Grain are available as adjustments, while filters include Gaussian blur, motion blur, noise, lens correction, content aware fill, and background removal. The background removal system uses U² Net through ONNX Runtime and operates locally rather than sending the image to a remote service.

The Stable Release and the Development Branch Are Already Diverging

OmaPhoto is moving quickly enough that the current repository documentation has already advanced beyond the feature list attached to version 1.0.1. The stable release documents JPEG, PNG, TIFF, and HEIC import, together with PNG and JPEG export and .comp project compatibility. The current development README has since added Photoshop files and camera RAW to the import list. Those formats appear to be arriving, but they should not yet be treated as features of the packaged 1.0.1 release.

That distinction is worth preserving because the repository is less than two days old and development is occurring almost continuously. Version numbers and README changes can move faster than ordinary users update installed software, particularly during the first week of a project. A feature visible on GitHub today may not exist in the binary someone downloaded yesterday. OmaPhoto is therefore better understood at this stage as a rapidly changing application with usable releases, rather than a finished editor with a settled compatibility contract.

Linux Packaging Arrived Before the Project Had Time to Settle

OmaPhoto 1.0.1 already provides x86_64 packages for Arch based systems, Ubuntu 24.04, Ubuntu 26.04, and Fedora. NixOS users have a release flake, and the provided installation scripts verify packages against published SHA256 checksums before handing them to the system package manager. The current release assets have recorded roughly 182 package downloads, with the Arch build accounting for 149 of them. That concentration is unsurprising for software initially built around Omarchy, but it also shows that the project is being installed rather than merely starred.

The packaging discussion has already moved beyond those first distributions. One contributor proposed a self contained AppImage that would allow users on unsupported Linux distributions to download a single executable package instead of selecting among distribution specific builds. Another issue asks whether the current Arch installation can avoid relying on AUR related assumptions. These are ordinary packaging questions, but their appearance this early suggests that users are already trying to fit OmaPhoto into Linux systems beyond the environment for which it was initially designed.

OmaPhoto's Growth May Depend on Compositor

OmaPhoto does not enter an empty Linux graphics market. GIMP, Krita, and several smaller editors already exist, so reproducing familiar tools alone is unlikely to distinguish it for very long. Its more unusual advantage is inherited from Compositor: the possibility that a growing macOS application creates demand for a compatible Linux counterpart. Searches for Compositor on Linux, .comp compatibility, project migration, or a Compositor alternative could eventually point toward OmaPhoto without OmaPhoto needing to create that demand independently.

That relationship also creates risk. If Compositor changes its document format or editing behavior faster than OmaPhoto can follow, the shared workflow begins to fracture and the project's clearest distinction weakens. If compatibility holds, however, OmaPhoto can become more useful as Compositor becomes more popular, which is an unusual position for such a young independent project. The next few releases will therefore reveal more than another list of added filters or tools; they will show whether OmaPhoto can remain a Linux counterpart rather than gradually becoming a separate editor with a common ancestry.

Download OmaPhoto on Arch and Omarchy

The official OmaPhoto 1.0.1 package for Arch based systems and Omarchy is an x86_64 package published through the project's GitHub releases. The Arch build currently accounts for most of the release downloads, which fits the project's original audience. ARM64 is not currently offered as an official packaged build. The official Arch and Omarchy download is available here: https://github.com/ZacharyZhang-NY/OmaPhoto/releases/download/v1.0.1/omaphoto-x86_64.pkg.tar.zst

Download OmaPhoto on Ubuntu 24.04

Ubuntu 24.04 has its own Debian package rather than sharing one generic Ubuntu build across releases. The project documentation also identifies Linux Mint 22 and Pop!_OS 24.04 as systems built around the same Ubuntu release family. Other Debian based systems are not automatically covered by that claim and may require a different installation route. The official Ubuntu 24.04 package is available here: https://github.com/ZacharyZhang-NY/OmaPhoto/releases/download/v1.0.1/omaphoto-noble_amd64.deb

Download OmaPhoto on Ubuntu 26.04

Ubuntu 26.04 receives a separate package compiled against its own release libraries. Keeping the two Ubuntu packages separate reduces the likelihood of dependency problems caused by assuming both distributions provide identical library versions. The current package is available only for x86_64 systems. The official Ubuntu 26.04 download is available here: https://github.com/ZacharyZhang-NY/OmaPhoto/releases/download/v1.0.1/omaphoto-resolute_amd64.deb

Download OmaPhoto on Fedora

Fedora users receive an RPM package built for x86_64 systems. The repository notes that Fedora's standard libheif package does not decode HEVC, so HEIC import may require the corresponding RPM Fusion package. That limitation concerns HEIC decoding rather than the rest of the editor. The official Fedora package is available here: https://github.com/ZacharyZhang-NY/OmaPhoto/releases/download/v1.0.1/omaphoto.x86_64.rpm

OmaPhoto on GitHub

OmaPhoto remains young enough that the repository is the most reliable place to distinguish the current development branch from the latest packaged release. Release notes, issue reports, installation scripts, and compatibility changes are appearing quickly, and some documented features are already ahead of version 1.0.1. The repository also provides the clearest indication of whether AppImage, ARM64, PSD, or camera RAW support has moved from development into a stable build. OmaPhoto is available on GitHub at https://github.com/ZacharyZhang-NY/OmaPhoto

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