August 22, 2017

Best Free MS Paint Alternatives For Windows, Linux, MAC

Who doesn’t know what MS Paint is? This image editing software has been around since we had our first Windows computer and we all have some great memories of using it. It’s the first painting application of any sort that we used on a computer.

MS-Paint-Alternatives

But, after the news about Microsoft killing Paint and adding it to the list of Windows features that will be deprecated in the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update went viral, people felt disappointed until Microsoft announced that Paint would be coming to Windows Store later this year.

Anyways, it’s great that MS Paint is going nowhere. But still, we should keep some handy options in mind. Sure, MS paint will still be available for download on the Windows Store, but you will have to do so manually, as it won’t be available on your computer by default. So, here in this article, we have listed some best free alternatives to Microsoft’s Paint.

Best Free MS Paint Alternatives For Windows:

There are plenty of free alternatives to Paint, and most of them offer a lot more features. Let’s take a look at some of them.

1. GIMP

GIMP

GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is one of the most appreciated drawing applications. This open-source, free-to-use image editor has many capabilities such as photo retouching, image format converting, image composition and image authoring. It has a large collection of painting tools like brushes, airbrushes, pencils, clones, and gradients. You can create feature rich and visually appealing images using GIMP. But GIMP’s intensive feature set won’t be of much use to casual users, who use MS Paint.

GIMP is cross-platform and available for Windows, Linux, macOS, etc. GIMP is not that easy to get started with. It has a pretty instinctive interface and needs a learning curve to get used to it. Thankfully, the developers have created a handful of tutorials designed to walk you through various functions.

Download GIMP Here

2. MyPaint

MyPaint

MyPaint is another free and open-source alternative to MS Paint that is available for Windows, MacOS and Linux distributions. It is a fast, distraction-free, and easy painting tool for digital artists.

My Paint is a great alternative due to its simple and minimalistic interface. With a plethora of brush options for different needs, using this tool to create your own images is a lot more fun. Advanced users can also create their own customized brushes to suit their needs. It also includes a Scratchpad which can be used to do rough work, test colors, etc.

MyPaint comes with support for various graphic tablets, allowing users to create more realistic drawings which are hard to do using a mouse or touchpad. It will try to bring out the sketch artist in you.

Download MyPaint Here

3. Paint 3D

Paint-3D

The obvious official replacement for MS Paint is Paint 3D, the all-new iteration of Microsoft’s iconic software. It arrived in the Windows ecosystem with the release of the Fall Creators Update.

Paint 3D is a lightweight app that draws heavily from its predecessor but comes with support for 3D elements. Although Paint 3D’s prime focus is on editing 3-dimensional images, it even packs upgraded capabilities to deal with your 2D images. With overhauled looks, new brushes and tools, there is a lot more power here than you would get with MS Paint. Paint 3D’s touch-friendly interface makes it easier to use it on tablets and Windows PCs with a touchscreen.

Download Paint3D Here

4. Paint.Net

Paint.Net

Paint.NET is a free photo-editing Windows app that comes with the simplicity of the MS Paint, but adds enough new features (including color palette, image adjustment options, lasso tool, special effects for blur, etc) to make it not just a viable MS Paint alternative, but actually a more robust and feature-filled replacement for it.

It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for file type plugins, blending, layers, special effects, transparency, unlimited undo, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools.

Download Paint.Net Here

5. Pixlr Editor

Pixlr-Editor

A completely free photo editor app, Pixlr Editor is available both online and offline and works on your web browser, PC or mobile platforms like Android and iOS. Rather than downloading software, Pixlr Editor web app allows users to access a host of powerful image editing features from any computer with an internet connection.

Pixlr Editor offers a wide range of tools and filters including layers, lasso, red-eye reduction, various image filters that help you to enhance the image appearance.

Download Pixlr Editor Here

6. Artweaver

artweaver

This touchscreen-friendly Windows program serves up a wealth of realistic brushes, pens, papers and more. Artweaver also provides the standard image editing tools like crop, fill, gradient and the selection tool, etc.

Artweaver has a free version and a premium version. Not all features are available in the free version, but even so, it is a great alternative to Paint.

Download Artweaver Here

7. IrfanView

IrfanView

IrfanView is a fast and compact utility that’s great for quick edits. It is a feature-filled and easy-to-use image editor with which you can rotate, flip and resize images; convert to grayscale, sharpen, fill backgrounds; and apply a variety of effects.

It is free for non-commercial use and comes with a wide variety of third-party plugins for image, video and sound formats. And it does have basic paint and text tools as well, so you can accomplish nearly everything here that you can in Paint.

Download IrfanView Here

Best Free MS Paint Alternatives For Linux/Ubuntu

1. Gnome Paint

gnome-paint

To create a simple drawing app and an open-source alternative to Microsoft Paint, GNOME developer has created “GNOME Paint.” Gnome-Paint is a simple and very basic painting application designed for the GNOME desktop which you can also use in Ubuntu Linux as well (obviously).

There are tools for drawing, erasing, and selecting shapes. ‘Gnome Paint ‘works quite well but there are a few issues like the text function doesn’t work and there appears to be no way of editing the color palette so you are stuck with the default 32 colors.

Download Gnome Paint Here

2. Gpaint

gpaint

Gpaint (or GNU Paint) is a small-scale painting program for GNOME, the GNU Desktop Environment. The actual design is more basic than Gnome Paint but functionality wise it is more advanced.

Features:

  • Modern, easy-to-use user interface with tool and color palettes.
  • The color palette enables you to add more than the default 32 colors and the text function works.
  • You can create basic shapes such as rectangles, polygons, and circles and you can add free format lines.
  • There is no undo feature.

Download Gpaint Here

3. KolourPaint

Kolour-Paint

KolourPaint is a free, easy-to-use paint program for KDE (a desktop environment for UNIX).  It was more in line with the traditional paint package and included most of the features of MS Paint except the color palettes were limited and there weren’t as many predefined shapes.

Download KolourPaint Here

4. Pinta

Pinta

Pinta is a free, easy-to-use open-source drawing and image editing program designed for entry-level users. It provides users with a simple yet powerful way to draw and edit images on Linux, Mac, and Windows.

Features:

  • Drawing Tools (Paintbrush, Pencils, Shapes etc)
  • Effects (Blur, Glow, Warp etc)
  • Image Adjustments (Auto Level, Black, and White, Sepia etc)
  • Layers
  • Unlimited undo/redo

Download Pinta Here

5. Tux Paint

Tux-Paint

Tux Paint is unique compared to all the other tools mentioned above and clearly, the target audience of this tool is children. This tool combines an easy-to-use interface and fun sound effects. It also has an encouraging cartoon mascot who guides children as they use the program. Kids are presented with a blank canvas and a variety of drawing tools to help them be creative.

The Tux Paint tool isn’t a clone of MS Paint and has far more features, yet it is still easy to use. Not only can you add the standard shapes such as circles and rectangles but there is a whole host of effects that can be added such as grass, rain, and bricks. There is also a number of predefined images or stamps that can be added including Tux the penguin.

Download Tux Paint Here

Best Free MS Paint Alternatives For MAC

Here are some very good substitutes to Microsoft Paint on Mac OS X.

1. Paintbrush

Paintbrush

If you are looking for an app that works exactly the way Paint does on Windows, look no further than Paintbrush. Known as ‘Paint for Mac OS,’ this free app has all the tools you would find in the Paint app – right down to the spray can. Just like Microsoft Paint, the interface is incredibly simple and easy to use.

Just like Microsoft Paint, the app is not really suitable for creating high-quality art on your computer, however, for most simple image creation tasks, the app will work perfectly fine. It features several editing tools like airbrush, different shapes, eyedropper, image resizing, cropping, transparent selection and all others. If you need quick photo edits on your Mac, Paintbrush works like a charm.

Download Paintbrush Here

2. Paint 2

paint-2

Another good MS Paint alternative for Mac is Paint 2. The app has tools similar to what Paint offers and is equally easy to use.  Paint 2 combines the features of MS Paint, with additional features such as magic selection tool and layers. Every time you create a new object on the canvas, it is automatically added to a new layer; you cannot create new layers in the app explicitly. You can freely move the layers up and down, or add multiple layers to the same group, for easy manipulation. Paint 2 also supports tabs, so you can easily work on multiple images without having to open separate instances of the app to do so.

The app is available for free, but you can upgrade to the full version with an in-app purchase, which will add a couple of other useful features to the app, including color adjustment. However, the app does have quite a lot of great features even in the free version.

Download Paint 2 Here

3. Scribbles

Scribbles

Scribbles is yet another good Microsoft Paint alternative for Mac. It is so easy to use and allows you to be really creative. Initially, it is said to be designed for kids but due to its utmost usefulness when it comes to editing images, it has made it into the hearts of adults as well.

This application is equipped with different graphic tools such as calligraphy brushes, eraser, paintbrush, spray can, zoom functions, etc. You can even choose an interesting tracing paper feature which allows you to trace whatever is on your desktop (with a steady hand of course).

Download Scribbles Here

4. Seashore

seashore

Seashore is a simple Paint equivalent for Mac. It is an easy-to-use image editing tool equipped with powerful editing features. It has all the basic functionalities of Paint with some tools similar to Adobe Photoshop. You can use it to add effects, change color backgrounds, create layers, crop photos, insert texts, zoom images, etc.

This app is based on the GIMPs technology and uses the same native file format. However, unlike the GIMP, Seashore only aims to serve the basic image editing needs of most computer users, not to provide a replacement for professional image editing products.

Download Seashore Here

About the author 

Chaitanya


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