FreeGPL-3.0C++

Krita

A painting program made by artists, for illustration, concept art and comics

Alternative toPhotoshopClip Studio Paint

Krita is a digital painting application with a strong brush engine, layers, animation and comic tools. It is the open source alternative to Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint for drawing and painting, under GPL-3.0.

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Best for when

you paint or draw digitally with a tablet
you make concept art, illustrations or comics
you want frame by frame animation without another subscription

Watch out for

it is not a photo editor, so retouching and raw photo work belong elsewhere
complex PSD files with smart objects or adjustment layers may not round trip cleanly
large canvases with many layers need plenty of RAM

Built for painting, not photo editing

Photoshop is a photo editor that people also paint in. Krita starts from the other end: brush engines, a pop-up palette, stabilisers for smooth lines, wrap-around mode for textures, perspective assistants and a frame by frame animation timeline. It works well with drawing tablets on Windows, macOS and Linux.

It reads and writes PSD files with layers, exports PNG, JPEG and other common formats, and keeps its own KRA format for full fidelity. It also handles comic work with panel templates and text, which is where many artists otherwise reach for Clip Studio Paint.

What switching really costs

If your work is mostly photo retouching, Krita is the wrong replacement: it lacks Photoshop's selection tools, content aware fill, camera raw workflow and most of its adjustment depth. It is a painter's tool, and it is honest about that.

PSD import is good but not perfect. Adjustment layers, smart objects and some layer styles may come through flattened or changed, so test your real files. Photoshop brush packs can be imported partly, but expect to rebuild your favourite brushes by hand.

Last checked: 2026-10-25.md