11 Best Krita Alternatives of 2024

If you’re looking for a good Krita alternative for editing raster graphics, 2D-animations, and digital art, then check out the programs listed below. They offer many awesome functions completely for free.

I’ve put together a list of the best Krita alternatives for editing vector and raster images. By using these programs and apps, you’ll receive most of the same functions as well as some advanced features. You’ll be able to work with photos using professional tools and an intuitive UI.

This list includes Krita alternatives that are suitable for both professionals and beginners. It goes over cross-platform desktop programs as well as mobile apps.

Main Features of GIMP:

• Includes flexible customizable drawing tools.
• Provides a broad range of scripting capabilities.
• Supports the original Photoshop format - PSD.
• Ability to create multilayered projects with alpha-channel support.

GIMP has batch image editing capabilities, a sharing system, and image format conversion. It supports various plugins and add-ons, allowing you to expand the program’s functionality to satisfy any needs.

You can create full-fledged drawings using a complete set of pencils, brushes, stamps, and other tools. Each element can be freely customized by changing the thickness and shape of the lines as well as their opacity. Additionally, users have access to broad scripting capabilities that allow automating all kinds of tasks from extremely basic to incredibly complex.

Other than its native XCF format, GIMP supports popular graphic formats like JPG, JPEG, GIF, and many others. Developers also provide limited PSD support – the original Photoshop format.

Main Features of Paint.NET:

• Can receive data from a scanner or camera.
• Ability to cancel and repeat actions using the “History” option.
• Exposure control with the help of levels and curves.
• Large pack of blur and sharpness effects.

The interface of this graphics editor represents a combination of a classic toolset panel and a series of floating windows that are responsible for some advanced functions. Additionally, Paint.NET provides layer support. You can create an empty layer or make a copy of the current document.

All actions performed on an image are reflected in the History window. Users can freely move through the history list, rolling back as many steps as they want. The panel also has a quick rewind button for further convenience, as it allows moving to the first and last elements on the list with a single command.

Paint.NET can retrieve photos from cameras and scanners. The program has an active and growing online community that offers friendly advice, tutorials, and plugins.

Main Features of Fotor:

• Quality tools for exposure adjustments.
• Allows creating collages with adjustable aspect ratios.
• Fast photo retouching with the use of weather-related filters.

Fotor is supplied with tools for enhancing images and filters that ensure the photos look as appealing as possible. It supports all popular image formats and even provides RAW processing.

Fotor has single-click filters designed for enhancing your shots depending on the subject and conditions in which they were taken. Examples include artificial lighting, sunset, portrait, landscape, and theater. Fotor is also a great photo restoration software since it includes impressive color correction functionality.

Unlike most Krita alternatives, this software emphasizes fast results, which is why, for instance, Fotor has 13 different single-touch scenes that you can use to change the look of your images completely. Overly dark scenes are made brighter, overexposed ones are toned down, and colors become truly sharp.

Main Features of MediBang Paint:

• Allows saving multiple pages in one file.
• Has perspective grids for convenient background and speed line drawing.
• Ability to create your own brushes.
• Ability to customize hotkeys.

If you compare MediBang vs Krita, the latter will come across as more functional, but MediBang still has many awesome functions like multiple types of guiding and ancillary lines that you can use for brush drawing. You can select the guideline type using the buttons in the upper toolset panel or the "Ruler" menu. These lines make it easy to draw parallel lines, grids, ellipses, perspective lines, and radial snapping, as well as Bezier curves.

The app offers an enormous palette and over 50 brushes, starting from GPen and Mapping Pen to watercolor brushes for coloring. Each brush has its own adjustable parameters. You can also create a new brush with original settings and save it for quick access.

MediBang has a convenient control panel that includes all essential drawing tools. This panel can be adjusted to your liking so that you have all frequently used functions at the ready.

Main Features of MyPaint:

• Interface and functions are designed exclusively for drawing.
• Hotkeys for all the main functions.
• Illustrative color selection in the form of a colored triangle under the mouse cursor.
• Basic layer support, transparency adjustments, and copy/paste.

MyPaint has a conveniently designed brush system. It gives you a visual presentation in the shape of medium-sized colored icons that make it instantly clear what you can expect from each brush. Additionally, they’re sorted into sets: “Classic”, “Experimental”, “Favorites”, and three unnamed ones.

That said, the brush creation interface might seem too complex for beginners since it focuses on the brush dynamics (speed and pressure changes).

The software has a special “Notepad” window, which the user can use for experimenting with brushes and colors to their heart’s content. The Notepad doesn’t affect the main canvas. You can create and save as many notepads as needed.

Main Features of FireAlpaca:

• Ability to adjust workspace windows.
• Has perspective tools, including 3D perspective.
• Allows grouping brushes.
• Brush adapts to pressure and speed when using a tablet.

FireAlpaca’s flexible window function makes it an interesting Krita alternative. You can move windows from left to right, place them anywhere on the workspace, or pin them to other windows. You can also add or hide windows.

FireAlpaca users have several image manipulation tools at their disposal. Those include rotation, selection, size change, mirroring, filters, canvas size, and layer support. The same tools are available in Adobe Ps, so you may also want to check out the Krita vs Photoshop comparison. With these tools, you can also create and sort images.

Perspective tools like cancellation lines and multi-perspective images are also available in FireAlpaca. The 3D perspective feature gives users a chance to swap 3D objects, while panel mock-ups and built-in templates are a treat for comic artists.

Main Features of Ibis Paint X:

• Ability to upload videos featuring the created project.
• Publish drawings in ibisPaint.
• Compatible with stylus pens.

The program contains over 2500 high-quality materials, including traditional Japanese backgrounds, patterns, tones, dialogue stickers, line effects, etc. Users can utilize these materials for free.

As for artists, ibis Paint X developers have prepared over 380 brushes, including an Artistic brush, Pen tool, Airbrush, Pencil, and other realistic brushes and funny stamps. Other than choosing the brush size, you can also adjust settings like opacity, start and end thickness, etc.

To make the designer’s job easier, the program’s library includes over 70 high-quality filters like blur, color balance, gradient, and background-generating ones that use imported images.

Main Features of Gravit Designer:

• Works with both vector and raster graphics.
• Perfectly suited for creating web images.
• Allows making prints and presentations.
• Offers support for importing images from the Sketch editor.

Gravit Designer stands out with its convenient UI and a rich library of icons, stickers, frames, and lines. All versions have a single library source. You can export your project as a vector SVG file, PDF, or some of the most popular raster formats. It also has its own format .gvdesign for saving works that you plan to edit in the future.

Even though Gravit Designer is a vector editor, it allows working with raster pictures. After you highlight a raster image with the Pointer arrow, you can transform (while maintaining the original proportions), move, rotate, and crop it.

Additionally, it offers tools for applying effects to your picture – blur, shadow, contrast, and even a container mask.

Moreover, Gravit Designer supports Boolean operations, allowing users to combine and manipulate shapes using operations like union, subtract, intersect, and exclude.

Main Features of Enve:

• Allows importing images, audio, and videos.
• Adjustable preview resolution.
• Divided into a core and a graphical interface.
• Supports connectable path and raster effects.
• Ability to create multiple scenes in a single project.

Enve is divided into two parts: a base library and the app itself. The library contains most of the supported code and can be used for creating your own effects on C++. The app, on the other hand, combines parts of the base library and the graphical interface.

Enve’s source code is available on GitHub under the GPLv3 license with binary files that are suitable for Windows and Linux. When a user edits a path, Enve shows the control points of two neighboring nods to make shape adjustment easier.

A panel can be duplicated vertically or horizontally, giving the user access to, for example, different timescale or canvas areas. This software like Krita also provides convenient hotkeys for moving, scaling, and rotating elements.

Main Features of Autodesk SketchBook:

• Ability to synchronize with iCloud, AirPrint, and social networks.
• Panel pinning and color settings functionality.
• Import SketchBook illustrations to Revit.
• Import Sketch projects to AutoCAD and transform them into engineering blueprints

The UI of both the mobile and desktop apps is very convenient. The workspace can be easily adjusted – close the panels and call them up when needed, add frequently used brushes, and set the required colors. When you first launch the app, you’ll go through a short tutorial available in multiple languages.

All sketches are saved in your own gallery. You can open a saved image and continue redaction it whenever you want. The gallery allows viewing works, deleting, copying, moving, or uploading works to your iPad photo gallery, iCloud, social networks, and email, or print them via AirPrint.

For those still only beginning to work with the app, Autodesk’s official website has educational resources, documentation, a FAQ section, and a gallery with project examples.

Main Features of Tayasui Sketches:

• Ability to divide an image into separate PDF layers.
• Has a special function for recording videos featuring the drawing process.
• Apple Pencil support.

Tayasui Sketches’ UI is rather minimalistic – the main menu, toolset panel, editor, and color palette aren't shown during the drawing process but are rather summoned with a single screen touch. This way, the user always has a full view of the canvas without any distractions.

The app’s toolset consists of over 20 items. Here you’ll find various adjustable brushes, an eyedropper, pencil, pen, eraser, marker, etc.

A separate source of the developer’s pride is the watercolor tool that accurately imitates the drawing process on wet paper, while also recognizing the pencil’s pressure. On top of that, you can split images into separate PDF layers (up to 4).