Top Krita Alternatives for Digital Artists
Krita is a powerful, free, and open-source creative sketching and painting application beloved by many digital artists for its advanced features like a customizable UI, pop-up palette, brush stabilizers, and full color management. However, for various reasons – perhaps specific feature needs, platform preferences, or a desire to explore other workflows – artists often seek a reliable Krita alternative. This article delves into the best software options that can serve as excellent substitutes for Krita, catering to different artistic demands and budgets.
Best Krita Alternatives
Whether you're looking for a free solution, a professional-grade tool, or something designed for specific devices, these alternatives offer a diverse range of features to meet your digital art needs.
GIMP
GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open-source raster graphics editor, often considered the closest free alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Available across multiple platforms including Mac, Windows, Linux, and BSD, GIMP offers robust features like customizable interfaces, extensive layer manipulation, photo effects, animation capabilities, and strong scripting support, making it an excellent all-around Krita alternative for both painting and image editing.
Adobe Photoshop
Adobe Photoshop is the industry standard for professional image editing and compositing. While a commercial software available on Mac, Windows, and iPad, Photoshop provides unparalleled features for digital artists, including advanced brush settings, comprehensive color correction, non-destructive editing, support for CMYK mode, and integration with stock libraries. Its extensive toolset makes it a powerful Krita alternative for those needing top-tier capabilities.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a free and capable image editing software exclusively for Windows, offering a great alternative to Krita for users who don't need all the advanced features of professional suites. It boasts a minimalistic UI, lightweight performance, strong support for layers, and extensibility through plugins. Its beginner-friendly nature and features like a built-in color picker and history panel make it a practical choice.
Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a professional, full-featured raster graphics editor available commercially for Mac, Windows, and iPad. It stands out as a strong Krita alternative with its focus on non-destructive editing, raw photo processing, and exceptional performance. Key features include batch processing, advanced color management, panoramic stitching, and full support for layers and PSD files, all without a subscription model.
Autodesk SketchBook
Autodesk SketchBook is a drawing software known for its unobtrusive user interface and powerful drawing engine, making it an excellent Krita alternative, especially for digital sketching. Available as freemium software on Mac, Windows, Android, and iOS, it offers a wide array of multi-choice brushes, color blending, layer support, and excellent tablet pressure sensitivity, including support for Wacom tablets, making it ideal for pure drawing.
MyPaint
MyPaint is a free and open-source painting tool designed for digital artists, offering a fast and distraction-free experience. As a Krita alternative, it excels in its support for graphics tablets (including Wacom), infinite canvas, color blending, and full-screen mode, focusing purely on the painting process. It's available on Mac, Windows, and Linux, and is also portable.
MediBang Paint
MediBang Paint is a lightweight freemium software designed for illustration and comic book creation, available on Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS. It serves as a great Krita alternative for comic artists, offering features like comic templates, pen pressure sensitivity, various blending brushes, and unlimited layers. It also includes auto-saving, a dark theme, and no subscription requirement.
Photopea
Photopea is a free, web-based online photo editor that can work with PSD, XCF, and Sketch files, making it a highly accessible Krita alternative for quick edits or those without dedicated software. It offers a Photoshop-like interface with features such as layer manipulation, color blending, drawing tools, and real-time magic wand, all directly in your browser.
PaintTool SAI
PaintTool SAI is a commercial, high-quality, and lightweight painting software for Windows, known for its smooth anti-aliased paintings and stable operation. As a Krita alternative, it shines with its digitizer support, advanced brush settings, excellent color blending, and intuitive pen pressure sensitivity, making it a favorite for many digital illustrators and comic artists.
Procreate
Procreate is a professional digital drawing and painting application exclusively for iPad (and iPhone as a Pocket version), making it the premier Krita alternative for iOS users. A commercial app, it offers exceptional features like Apple Pencil support, 4K canvas support, extensive texture for brushes, animations, and robust layer manipulation, all within a highly optimized and intuitive interface.
Choosing the best Krita alternative depends entirely on your specific needs, budget, and preferred platform. Each of these options brings unique strengths to the table, from free and open-source powerhouses to industry-standard commercial tools. We encourage you to explore their features and find the perfect fit to enhance your digital art workflow.