Top Microsoft Paint Alternatives for Enhanced Creativity
Microsoft Paint, being bundled with every version of Windows in recent memory, has long served as a basic option for image and graphics editing. While its tools are usually enough to get basic jobs done, many users find themselves needing more advanced features. For those seeking enhanced capabilities like layer support, extensibility through plugins, or a more intuitive user interface, there are plenty of free and feature-rich Microsoft Paint alternatives available across every major operating system and device form factor.
Best Microsoft Paint Alternatives
If you're ready to move beyond the basics and unleash more creative power, explore these fantastic alternatives that offer a richer experience for digital art and image manipulation.
Paint.NET
Paint.NET is a free image and photo editing software that serves as an excellent Microsoft Paint alternative, offering an intuitive interface with powerful features like layer support and unlimited undo. It's a freemium option primarily for Windows users, with a robust community providing tutorials and plugins, making it extensible and beginner-friendly for various image editing tasks including photo editing and PNG export.
Krita
Krita is a complete creative sketching and painting application, functioning as a robust open-source Microsoft Paint alternative for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Android Tablet users. It boasts commercial-quality features such as advanced brush settings, digital drawing, animation capabilities (including frame-by-frame and keyframe), and extensive customization, making it ideal for professional digital artists.
MyPaint
MyPaint is a fast painting program with an emphasis on full-screen use, offering a fantastic open-source Microsoft Paint alternative for Mac, Windows, and Linux. It supports pressure or tilt-sensitive graphic tablets, features an infinite canvas, and includes an easy-to-use brush collection with complex options for creating custom brushes, perfect for sketching and drawing without distractions.
Paint 98
Paint 98 is a simple yet powerful drawing tool for iPhone and iPad, providing a straightforward free Microsoft Paint alternative for mobile users. It focuses on uncomplicated image creation, editing, and sharing, making it a great choice for quick sketches, pixel art, and basic image manipulation on the go.
Pinta
Pinta is a free, open-source drawing and editing program modeled after Paint.NET, offering a lightweight yet powerful Microsoft Paint alternative for Linux, Mac, and Windows (requiring the .NET framework). It provides users with essential features like layer support and image editing capabilities, making it a simple yet effective tool for various graphic tasks.
Photopea
Photopea is an online photo editor that stands out as a powerful free, web-based Microsoft Paint alternative. It can work with PSD, XCF, and Sketch files, offering robust features like layer support, color blending, drawing, and photo editing directly in your browser. Its Photoshop-like interface and ability to convert between numerous formats make it highly versatile.
MediBang Paint
MediBang Paint is a lightweight freemium software for illustration and making comic books, serving as an excellent Microsoft Paint alternative for Windows, Mac, Android, and iOS devices. It offers multi-choice brushes, pen pressure support, cloud storage, comic creation tools (like easy panel making and perspective grids), and unlimited layers, perfect for both beginners and experienced artists.
Photoscape
PhotoScape is a fun and easy freemium photo editing software for Mac and Windows, providing a comprehensive Microsoft Paint alternative for fixing and enhancing photos. Key features include batch editing, image combining and splitting, lossless cropping, color correction, and a built-in image editor, making it versatile for various photo manipulation needs.
Procreate
Procreate is a multi-award winning, commercial creative illustration app built specifically for iPad and iPhone, offering a powerful Microsoft Paint alternative for professional mobile artists. It features hundreds of configurable brushes, a robust layering system with blend modes, vector tools, Apple Pencil support, and animation capabilities, providing a complete professional design toolset on mobile.
Clip Studio Paint
Clip Studio Paint, previously Manga Studio, is a commercial software suite for Mac OS X and Microsoft Windows, making it an advanced Microsoft Paint alternative essential for comic and manga artists. It delivers powerful drawing and coloring tools, including customizable brushes, vector graphic support, keyframe animation, layer support, and excellent tablet pressure sensitivity, ideal for professional digital art creation.
Whether you're looking for basic image editing, advanced digital painting, or comic creation, these Microsoft Paint alternatives offer a wide range of features to suit different needs and skill levels. Explore them to find the perfect fit for your creative projects!