Install — Arto

macOS

Install with the Homebrew tap. Arto is not signed or notarized with an Apple Developer ID, so the tap removes the quarantine attribute that would otherwise stop macOS from opening it.

Terminal

brew install --cask arto-app/tap/arto

Tip

Quick Look preview not showing? macOS normally registers the extension the first time you launch Arto. If pressing Space on a Markdown file still shows nothing — or a stale preview right after an upgrade — register it by hand and refresh the cache.

Terminal

pluginkit -a /Applications/Arto.app/Contents/PlugIns/ArtoQuickLook.appex
qlmanage -r && qlmanage -r cache

Linux

On Debian and Ubuntu, download the .deb matching your architecture from the releases page and install it with apt, which pulls in the GTK and WebKit libraries it declares.

Terminal

sudo apt install ./arto_<version>_amd64.deb

On every other distribution — Fedora, openSUSE, Arch — download the .AppImage instead, make it executable and run it.

Terminal

chmod +x arto_<version>_x86_64.AppImage
./arto_<version>_x86_64.AppImage

The AppImage needs WebKitGTK 4.1 installed on the system — the one thing it deliberately does not carry, since WebKitGTK's helper processes only work as the set your package manager installed. Install it first if it is missing:

Terminal

sudo dnf install webkit2gtk4.1          # Fedora
sudo zypper install libwebkit2gtk-4_1-0 # openSUSE
sudo pacman -S webkit2gtk-4.1           # Arch

Requirements

Both artifacts are built on Ubuntu 24.04, so they need glibc 2.39 or newer — Ubuntu 24.04+, Debian 13+, Fedora 40+. On older distributions, build from source or use Nix.

Windows

Download the installer for your architecture from the releases page and run it. It puts Arto on the Start menu and offers it for .md, .markdown and .txt files — in a file's Open with menu, in the “Choose another app” dialog and under Settings → Apps → Default apps. Whatever opens those files today keeps doing so until you say otherwise.

Releases

Arto_<version>_<arch>-setup.exe

Arto renders through Microsoft's WebView2 runtime. Windows 11 ships it and Windows 10 usually has it from Edge; where it is missing, the installer fetches it, so that first install needs a connection. Nothing after it does.

Both x86-64 and ARM are built. If you would rather not install anything, the same release carries arto-windows-x86_64.exe and arto-windows-aarch64.exe — one self-contained executable that runs from wherever you put it. See A single binary for what that leaves out.

Experimental

CI builds and tests Windows on every change, and a release carries these artifacts when that build succeeds — but almost nobody runs Arto here, so expect rough edges the other platforms do not have.

A single binary

Every release also carries the application as one executable, for Linux and Windows, when a package is more ceremony than you want. Download the one for your machine and run it from wherever you put it — the stylesheet, the scripts and the icons are compiled into it, so there is nothing to install beside it.

Terminal

chmod +x arto-linux-x86_64
./arto-linux-x86_64 README.md

It is the same application without what an installer arranges around it: no menu entry, no file associations, and no arto on your PATH unless you put it there. The Linux binary still needs WebKitGTK 4.1, exactly as the .deb and the AppImage do.

On Windows the two also differ at a terminal. The installed copy is a GUI program, so no console opens behind a document started from Explorer; the single binary is a console program, so the shell waits for it — which makes it the copy to put on your PATH for scripts. Both carry the Microsoft C runtime, so neither asks for the Visual C++ redistributable first.

macOS has no such download on purpose. Most of what makes Arto worth installing there — the Finder associations and the Quick Look preview — is carried by the app bundle rather than by the executable inside it, so the DMG is the whole story.

Nix

Nix works on both macOS and Linux. To try Arto without installing it:

Terminal

nix run github:arto-app/Arto

For a permanent installation, use nix-darwin or home-manager. Add the flake input, then add the package to environment.systemPackages (nix-darwin) or home.packages (home-manager).

flake.nix

arto.url = "github:arto-app/Arto";

environment.systemPackages = [ inputs.arto.packages.${system}.default ];

The standalone page renderer is a separate package, arto-page, for machines that only need arto page without the app.

Terminal

nix run github:arto-app/Arto#arto-page -- README.md > README.html

Platform support

Platform	Status
macOS	Supported. Developed and tested here, and the only platform with Quick Look integration.
Linux	Experimental. Builds are published and CI runs the test suite, but the desktop integration gets far less real use.
Windows	Experimental. CI builds and tests it, and a release carries an installer and a single binary when that build succeeds, but almost nobody runs it.

Bug reports for the experimental platforms are welcome, and so are pull requests.

After installing

Launch Arto and the window opens on the welcome page, which lists what you have read and the shortcuts to get around.

Homebrew, the .deb and Nix also put an arto command on your PATH. The AppImage and the single binary do not — each is one self-contained file, so run it by its own path instead.

Terminal

arto README.md            # open a file
arto docs/                # open a directory in the panel
arto --behind NOTES.md    # open without taking the focus
arto page README.md > README.html

Full flags and behaviour are in the CLI documentation, where config.json lives and what it holds in the configuration documentation, and the shortcut file format in the keybindings documentation.