diff --git a/pkgs/tools/graphics/optar/default.nix b/pkgs/tools/graphics/optar/default.nix
new file mode 100644
index 00000000000..bc141907075
--- /dev/null
+++ b/pkgs/tools/graphics/optar/default.nix
@@ -0,0 +1,35 @@
+{ stdenv, fetchurl, imagemagick, libpng }:
+
+stdenv.mkDerivation rec {
+  name = "optar-${version}";
+  version = "20150210";
+
+  src = fetchurl {
+    url    = "http://ronja.twibright.com/optar.tgz";
+    sha256 = "10lr31k3xfcpa6vxkbl3abph7j3gks2210489khnnzmhmfdnm1a4";
+  };
+
+  buildInputs = [ libpng ];
+
+  enableParallelBuilding = true;
+
+  postPatch = ''
+    substituteInPlace Makefile \
+      --replace /usr/local $out
+
+    substituteInPlace pgm2ps \
+      --replace 'convert ' "${stdenv.lib.getBin imagemagick}/bin/convert "
+  '';
+
+  preInstall = ''
+    mkdir -p $out/bin
+  '';
+
+  meta = with stdenv.lib; {
+    description = "Optar stands for OPTical ARchiver - it's a codec for encoding data on paper";
+    homepage = http://ronja.twibright.com/optar/;
+    license = licenses.gpl2;
+    maintainers = with maintainers; [ peterhoeg ];
+    platforms = with platforms; linux; # possibly others, but only tested on Linux
+  };
+}
diff --git a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
index d818bc71d88..4a6a8dfb1bc 100644
--- a/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
+++ b/pkgs/top-level/all-packages.nix
@@ -1226,6 +1226,8 @@ with pkgs;
 
   onboard = callPackage ../applications/misc/onboard { };
 
+  optar = callPackage ../tools/graphics/optar {};
+
   patdiff = callPackage ../tools/misc/patdiff { };
 
   playerctl = callPackage ../tools/audio/playerctl { };