Linux Command Line

As a native Linux program, Krita allows you to do operations on images without opening the program when using the Terminal. This option was disabled on Windows and macOS, but with 3.3 it is enabled for them!

This is primarily used in bash or shell scripts, for example, to mass convert KRA files into PNGs.

Export

This allows you to quickly convert files via the terminal:

krita importfilename --export --export-filename exportfilename

importfilename

Replace this with the filename of the file you want to manipulate.

--export

Export a file selects the export option.

--export-filename <filename>

Export filename says that the following word is the filename it should be exported to.

exportfilename

Replace this with the name of the output file. Use a different extension to change the file format.

Example:

krita file.png --export --export-filename final.jpg

This line takes the file file.png and saves it as file.jpg.

--export-sequence

New in version 4.2.

Export animation to the given filename and exit.

If a KRA file has no animation, then this command prints “This file has no animation.” error and does nothing.

krita --export-sequence --export-filename file.png test.kra

This line takes the animation in test.kra, and uses the value of –export-filename (file.png), to determine the sequence fileformat(‘png’) and the frame prefix (‘file’).

PDF export

PDF export looks a bit different, using the --export-pdf option.

krita file.png --export-pdf --export-filename final.pdf

This option exports the file file.png as a PDF file.

Warning

This has been removed from 3.1 because the results were incorrect.

Open with Custom Screen DPI

--dpi <dpiX,dpiY>

This legacy option does not do anything anymore.

Open template

Open krita and automatically open the given template(s). This allows you to, for example, create a shortcut to Krita that opens a given template, so you can get to work immediately!

krita --template templatename.desktop

--template templatename.desktop

Selects the template option.

All templates are saved with the .desktop extension. You can find templates in the .local/share/krita/template or in the install folder of Krita.

krita --template BD-EuroTemplate.desktop

This opens the European BD comic template with Krita.

krita --template BD-EuroTemplate.desktop BD-EuroTemplate.desktop

This opens the European BD template twice, in separate documents.

Start up

New in version 3.3:

--nosplash

Starts krita without showing the splash screen.

--canvasonly

Starts krita in canvasonly mode.

--fullscreen

Starts krita in fullscreen mode.

--workspace Workspace

Starts krita with the given workspace. So for example…

krita --workspace Animation

Starts Krita in the Animation workspace.

--file-layer <filename>

Starts krita with filename added as a file-layer. Note that you must either open an existing file or create a new file using the new-image argument.

Example:

krita file.kra --file-layer image.png

krita --new-image RGBA,U8,1000,1000 --file-layer image.jpg

If an instance of Krita is already running and Multiple instances are disabled, then this option can be used alone to add a file-layer to the running krita document.

Example: krita --file-layer image.png