A compact, high‐peak‐power, user‐friendly, single‐longitudinal‐mode (SLM) tunable dye laser has been developed. The device yields ≳12 mJ pulses of 6 ns duration and ∼2.7×transform‐limited linewidths of <200 MHz. Seamless single‐mode tunability of ≳20 cm−1is possible without resetting. The dye laser makes efficient use of the pump laser, with ∼10% conversion of the 532 nm pump energy to tunable dye power and occupies <4 m2(including pump laser and all diagnostics). The linewidth of the device can be switched from <200 MHz SLM operation to <0.5 cm−1broadband modeless operation by moving one mirror. This allows rapid interchange between high‐resolution scanning and a ‘‘fast survey scan’’ mode of operation to isolate the spectral region of interest at low resolution.