The habit
The creative suite you already know how to use is a set of applications that, on Linux, has usually meant a VM, a second machine, or a web app in a browser tab. Illustrator, Photoshop, and InDesign are the muscle memory: pen, brush, frames, type, export. Affinity is the other suite people install when they want those jobs without that subscription, and its desktop builds have not been the thing you apt-get on the machine you actually work on. You want the letters, the layer stack, the RAW develop, and the timeline in a binary that installs into your home directory and runs on the glibc you already have.
You also want the chrome to look like the rest of the desktop. A creative tool with its own theme, fighting the colors you set this morning, is a second set of preferences you will never maintain.
The constraint
The install target is ~/.local. The public installer and scripts/install.sh put the binary in ~/.local/bin, the desktop entry and MIME XML under ~/.local/share, and the docs, skill, licenses, and plugin examples under ~/.local/share/omadesign. Nothing is written to /usr. That is what makes the same line usable on Silverblue, Bazzite, NixOS, and SteamOS desktop, and on Omarchy, where /usr is not the place you drop a vendor tree. $XDG_DATA_HOME replaces ~/.local/share when it is set. An isolated prefix exists for people packaging a copy. The default is home.
The binary has to run on glibc 2.35, which covers Ubuntu 22.04, current Arch, and Asahi Omarchy. ARM64 and x86_64 are both release archives. Lua, RAW, JPEG, and the C++ runtime pieces ship inside the package so Photo and plugins do not wait on a distro package name. Templates and the plugin guide have to work with the network cable unplugged, because a first launch that needs a CDN is not an install. It is a download with extra steps.
What landed
curl -fsSL https://omadesign.app/install | sh
That resolves the current release, checks the archive, and installs. If omadesign is not on PATH, run ~/.local/bin/omadesign or add ~/.local/bin to PATH. One omadesign.desktop launcher remains. .oma and .omaphoto can point at it. Preferences live in ~/.config/omadesign, or $XDG_CONFIG_HOME. Recovery swaps live in ~/.local/share/omadesign.
0.5.8 is the release this package line installs as current. The archives are ARM64 and x86_64. Both report 0.5.8 and need no glibc newer than 2.35. The x86_64 executable was tested through QEMU against Ubuntu 22.04's glibc, not on a physical x86_64 GPU. Lua 5.4.9 is in the binary. Studio starter, the offline docs, the creation skill, and the Lua and Phosphor licenses are in the archive. Reinstalling preserves a plugin you already edited under plugins/org.omadesign.studio-starter.
On launch the chrome reads, in order, ~/.local/state/omarchy/current/theme/colors.toml, then ~/.config/omarchy/themes/<current>/colors.toml, then the stock Omarchy palette if neither is there. UI type is omarchy font current, then fontconfig sans-serif. Override with OMADESIGN_FONT=/path/to/font.ttf. Icons are Phosphor Light. The welcome screen uses that palette. There is no in-app light/dark switch. The title bar stays visible. omadesign in that bar opens Config, Update, About, and Docs. About shows the version. Update checks the channel and, when you confirm, runs the official installer, waits for work in progress, writes a local recovery snapshot, and restarts with the same documents and photo adjustments.
The five personas are the suite. Design, Layout, Pixel, Photo, Motion. V, P, T, and B are the letters. F1 is the rest. Fifty-two vector templates and the Layout starters ship with the app and open offline. Photo decodes RAW without an external converter. Plugins run without a second runtime. The brand kit is .omacolors, .omatype, and .omabrand/ in the project folder. Cloud sign-in is there when you push a snapshot, and the file opens without it.
omadesign --version prints the build. omadesign --agent-docs manual prints the manual baked into it. omadesign --list-plugins works with no window.
In the hand
On a machine that does not have the app:
curl -fsSL https://omadesign.app/install | sh
~/.local/bin/omadesign
The welcome screen is the file browser plus the creation buttons. Click + Vector. Press R, P, T. The colors on the chrome match the Omarchy theme you are already using. The icons are the Phosphor set, not a private metaphor you have to learn.
Open + Photo and a RAW file if you have one. Grade it. Ctrl+S writes a .omaphoto beside it and leaves the camera file alone. Place into the poster when you want pixels in the .oma.
Open Plugins → Manage plugins. Studio starter is there on a first install. Run one action. Ctrl+Z. If you are on a train, read the API with:
omadesign --agent-docs plugins
The title-bar Docs item opens the website when you have a network and you want it. The share folder is the copy that installed with you.
Click omadesign → Update when a newer package exists and you want it. Confirm. The installer runs. Your open documents come back. The plugin folder you edited is still the plugin folder.
If you are checking a box without installing over your live copy, the archives and checksums are on the release. Both architectures. The installer is the path that puts them in ~/.local and stops there.
The edge
The installer writes nothing to /usr. A machine that cannot run glibc 2.35 cannot run this binary. The x86_64 build's published check is QEMU against glibc 2.35, not a claim about every GPU. Templates do not fetch themselves. Lua does not come from the distro. Docs in the title bar open the site. The offline pages are --agent-docs and ~/.local/share/omadesign/docs. Sign-in is not required to draw, grade, or animate.
Run curl -fsSL https://omadesign.app/install | sh, then ~/.local/bin/omadesign.
The thread
Part 144 of 144 in the Omadesign 0.5.8 feature thread.
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