Krita is a free, open-source painting program built specifically for digital art, rather than photo editing with painting features bolted on. That focus shows: brush behaviour feels natural, pressure sensitivity from a graphics tablet is well supported out of the box, and the default brush presets are genuinely usable rather than needing hours of setup before you can paint comfortably.
Key takeaway: Krita is a serious free alternative to paid painting software like Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, with excellent brush and layer tools, though its photo-editing and print-preparation features lag behind dedicated tools.
Getting started
Krita runs on Windows, macOS and Linux, and installs with a sensible default workspace: a canvas, a docked brush and colour panel, and a layers panel on the right. New users benefit from working through Krita's built-in tutorials, accessible from the Welcome screen, which cover brush basics, layer blending and canvas navigation in under an hour.
Brushes and tablet support
Krita ships with hundreds of brush presets, from basic round brushes to textured pencils, inking pens and full painterly brushes that mimic oils or watercolours. Pressure sensitivity, tilt and brush stabilisers are supported with Wacom, Huion, XP-Pen and most other graphics tablets, and Krita also works reasonably well with a mouse for anyone without a tablet, though a tablet is strongly recommended for serious painting work.
- Connect your graphics tablet and install its official driver before opening Krita.
- In Krita, open Settings > Configure Krita > Tablet Settings to confirm pressure input is detected.
- Start with the "Basic-5 Size" brush preset to get a feel for pressure-based line weight.
- Use the stabiliser setting (in the tool options, top of screen) to smooth shaky lines while sketching.
Layers and non-destructive editing
Krita supports a full range of layer types — paint layers, vector layers, group layers, clone layers and adjustment layers — along with blending modes and layer masks, giving you the same non-destructive workflow professional illustrators expect. Its animation tools, added in later versions, let you build simple frame-by-frame animations too, a feature many paid painting programs charge extra for.
Tip: Save your working file in Krita's native .kra format to preserve every layer and its properties, and only flatten and export to PNG or JPEG once the artwork is finished.
Where Krita falls short
- Photo editing: Krita can open and touch up photos, but it's not built for retouching workflows the way GIMP or Photoshop is.
- CMYK and print prep: Print-ready colour separation and preflight checks are limited compared with dedicated print design software.
- Performance on very large canvases: Extremely large, high-resolution files with many layers can slow down on older, lower-RAM machines.
Before you start: Download Krita only from krita.org or the Microsoft Store/Steam listings. Some third-party download aggregators bundle unrelated installers alongside legitimate free software.
| Feature | Krita | GIMP |
|---|---|---|
| Best suited for | Painting and illustration | Photo editing and retouching |
| Brush engine | Excellent, tablet-focused | Good, less painting-focused |
| Animation | Built in | Basic, via plugin |
Frequently asked questions
- Do I need an expensive graphics tablet to use Krita?
- No. Entry-level tablets from Huion or XP-Pen, often under £40, work well with Krita and support full pressure sensitivity.
- Can Krita open Photoshop .psd files?
- Yes, Krita can open and save .psd files, though very complex layer effects created in Photoshop may not convert perfectly.
- Is Krita really completely free, with no paid tier?
- Yes on desktop. Krita is fully free and open source; the only paid option is buying it through the Steam or Microsoft Store listings to support development, which is entirely optional.