Krita: the Free Digital Painting App

Last updated: 12 October 2026

What Krita replaces, and how well

Krita is a painting app first. It replaces Clip Studio Paint for illustration and comics, and Photoshop for artists who mostly paint rather than edit photos. Its brush engines cover pencils, inks, watercolour-style blending and textured smudging, and it works with pressure-sensitive drawing tablets and pens. Creative Bloq's review headline called it "finally, a real Photoshop alternative".

It is not a photo editor, though. For retouching and compositing photographs, therefore, GIMP or Affinity is the better free choice. And it does not run on iPad or iPhone, so anyone painting in Procreate on an iPad has no Krita to move to. On Android, the tablet version is still in beta.

Key features

• Brushes: more than 100 preloaded brushes across nine brush engines, plus three stabiliser modes for smooth lines.
• Wrap-around mode: paint seamless textures and patterns that tile edge to edge.
• 2D animation: a frame-by-frame timeline with onion skinning, audio and video export.
• Colour management: full ICC colour profiles, CMYK colour spaces and HDR painting.
• Drawing assistants: vanishing points and fisheye guides for perspective drawing.
• New text tool: version 5.3 rebuilt it, with text on a path and text inside a shape.
• PSD support: opens and saves Photoshop files.

Krita 5.3 or Krita 6?

Since 24 March 2026, Krita has shipped two versions side by side. Of the two, Krita 5.3 is the one the team recommends for production work. Krita 6 is the same app rebuilt on a newer toolkit, with extra features such as HDR on Linux, and the team describes it as more experimental. Both then updated on 7 October 2026, to 5.3.4.1 and 6.0.4.1. So if you are starting out, download 5.3.

Who makes Krita, and the paid store versions

The Krita Foundation in Deventer, the Netherlands, runs the project and sponsors four full-time developers. Krita is open source under the GPL v3. The download from krita.org is free. Krita is also sold on Steam for £8.50, the Microsoft Store for £12.49 and the Mac App Store for £12.99. Those copies are the same app with automatic updates, while the money funds development. The Mac App Store version was behind at 5.3.2 when I checked.

Get Krita for Mac, Windows, Linux or Android

No iPad version, and the other limits

The missing iPad version matters most to anyone who paints on a tablet, and Krita's download page says iPads and iPhones are not supported. Also, on a Mac it needs macOS 10.15 or newer. Krita 6 may have new bugs from the move to a new toolkit, so keep important work on 5.3. In the October update, Krita also removed its importer for GIMP's XCF files for security reasons, so export from GIMP as PSD or PNG instead. Finally, the full feature list is on Krita's features page.

FAQs

Is Krita free?

Yes. Krita is free from krita.org for personal and commercial work. The paid store versions are optional, although they fund development.

Is Krita available on iPad?

No. Krita runs on Windows, Mac, Linux, ChromeOS and Android tablets, but not on iPad or iPhone.

Is Krita a good Photoshop alternative?

For painting and illustration, yes. For photo editing, however, GIMP is a better free choice.

How much do Clip Studio Paint and Procreate cost in the UK?

Clip Studio Paint PRO's annual plan normally costs £20.99 a year, and Procreate is a £12.99 one-off purchase on the iPad. I checked those prices on 12 October 2026.

Should I download Krita 5.3 or Krita 6?

Krita 5.3 is the version the team recommends for real work. Krita 6, meanwhile, is the newer, more experimental build.

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