Downloading Praat for Linux

### 1. Downloading the Linux edition

The most straightforward way to obtain the newest version of the Linux edition of Praat is to download Praat from this page. The following executable work on most distributions, such as Ubuntu 22.04 and 24.04, Fedora 38 and 40 and 42, Debian 12 and 13, and Centos 9 and 10. Click on the compressed archive for your processor type:

  normal edition (for interactive work as well as scripting):
  - for Intel64/AMD64/x64: praat6449_linux-intel64.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 28.3 MB) <-- you probably want this
  - for ARM64/AArch64: praat6449_linux-arm64.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 27.2 MB)
  - for s390x: praat6449_linux-s390x.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 29.0 MB)
  barren server edition (no GUI, no network, no sound, no graphics):
  - for Intel64/AMD64/x64: praat6449_linux-intel64-barren.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 29.0 MB)
  - for ARM64/AArch64: praat6449_linux-arm64-barren.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 27.8 MB)
  - for s390x: praat6449_linux-s390x-barren.tar.gz (23 December 2025; 29.4 MB)

Unpack with gunzip and tar xvf. This will create the executable file praat. You can remove the tar file.

You could also simply do sudo apt install praat if you are on Ubuntu, although you may obtain a years-old version. Or you may get Praat from Debian, or compile it yourself (64-bit or 32-bit) from the source code.

### 2. How to start

Praat will work fine wherever it is on your disk; just type ./praat into a terminal window after cd-ing to Praat’s folder.

If Praat doesn’t start immediately (i.e. it may complain about missing `.so` files), then you may have to install one or more standard (system or audio) libraries on which Praat depends. On Ubuntu or Debian this may be:

`sudo apt install libgtk-3-0 # the graphics toolkit sudo apt install libasound2 # the ALSA audio library sudo apt install libpulse0 # the Pulse audio server sudo apt install pipewire-jack # the Jack audio library (overridden by Pipewire; from Ubuntu 24.04 on) # Ubuntu 22.04: jackd2 and libjack0 instead (not via pipewire) # on Debian perhaps also: sudo apt install libjack0 # on Ubuntu sometimes: sudo apt install libcanberra-gtk-module # if your system complains about missing this`

On Fedora, the installs may be:

`sudo dnf install gtk3 # the graphics toolkit sudo dnf install alsa-lib # the ALSA audio library sudo dnf install pulseaudio-libs # the Pulse audio server sudo dnf install pipewire-jack-audio-connection-kit # the Jack audio library (overridden by PipeWire) # i.e. usually *not* jack-audio-connection-kit`

If you use Praat for the first time, choose Intro from the Help menu.

### 3. Phonetic symbols

If you want to see good phonetic characters, you have to install the Doulos SIL and Charis (or Charis SIL) fonts, for instance from the packages fonts-sil-charis and fonts-sil-doulos on Debian or Ubuntu:

`sudo apt install fonts-sil-doulos sudo apt install fonts-sil-charis`

or on Fedora:

`sudo apt install sil-doulos-fonts sudo apt install sil-charis-fonts`

If you cannot install those packages, you can download the two fonts from Summer Institute of Linguistics and follow the installation instructions there.

### 4. Running Praat from the command line

To run Praat from a terminal window, write a Praat script and specify that script on the command line, optionally with arguments, e.g.:

`praat --run playsinewave.praat 377 0.9`

For details see Calling from the command line in the Scripting manual.

### 5. Known possible problems, and their solution

1. Sound not working?

Audio on Linux is notoriously fragile. For playback, Praat either uses PulseAudio or Alsa, and you choose between these with Praat -> Preferences -> Sound playing preferences.

In the SoundRecorder window: if you don’t see any devices, then ALSA isn’t available. You may then try to obtain a JACK device by starting Praat via (if you have Pipewire):

`pw-jack praat` or (if you don’t have Pipewire): `sudo apt install jackd libjack0 jack_control start # starts the Jack server praat`

### 6. Debian info

Praat is included in the Debian distribution. To install Praat on your Debian computer, do

`aptitude install praat`

The Debian package includes a `praat-open-files` command that allows opening files from the command line inside a Praat process that is already running.

Recent upstream versions of the Praat package backported to the stable and testing distributions of Debian are available in an APT repository.

### 7. Editions of Praat for older computers or older operating system versions

- We do not create Praat editions for 32-bit Linux any longer (except for Raspberry Pi). The last one is Praat 6.1.15 of 20 May 2020. If that is too old for you, you could try to compile a newer version by yourself from the sources.
- The last version for Ubuntu 20.04 is Praat 6.4.30 of 29 April 2025:
  - for Intel64/AMD64/x64: praat6430_linux-intel64.tar.gz, praat6430_linux-arm64-barren.tar.gz
  - for ARM64/AArch64: praat6430_linux-arm64.tar.gz , praat6430_linux-intel64-barren.tar.gz

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(This page: © Paul Boersma & David Weenink 1992–2025, CC-BY-SA 4.0)