The Professional Open-Source Digital Painting Powerhouse
20 years of artist-driven development · Used by studios, concept artists, and illustrators worldwide
What Is Krita?
Krita is the premier free and open-source digital painting and illustration application — built from the ground up by artists, for artists. Started in 1999 as “KImageShop” (later renamed to avoid trademark issues), Krita has evolved into the most powerful open-source alternative to Adobe Photoshop, Corel Painter, Clip Studio Paint, and Procreate.
Licensed under GPL v3+, funded through the non-profit Krita Foundation and community donations, Krita is available on Windows, macOS, Linux, and Android tablets — with no subscriptions, no ads, and no feature locks.
Krita vs Photoshop (Comparison)
| Feature | Krita | Photoshop CC |
|---|---|---|
| Price | Free forever | $20.99/mo |
| Brush engine | Best-in-class (400+ built-in, pixel + vector brushes) | Good |
| Brush stabilizers & dynamics | Industry-leading | Basic |
| Animation timeline | Full 2D frame-by-frame + onion skinning | Limited |
| Comic tools (panels, text, speech balloons) | Vector layers + assistants | Plugins only |
| Color management | Full 32-bit float, OCIO, wide-gamut | Excellent |
| PSD support | Excellent read/write | Native |
| AI tools | Stable Diffusion plugin + ComfyUI integration | Firefly |
| Performance on tablets | Native Android + Windows Ink | Good |
Verdict: For digital painting, concept art, matte painting, texture art, and illustration, Krita is now the preferred tool of many professionals — often beating paid competitors in brush feel and responsiveness.
Major Milestones & Status
- 2005 – First release as part of KOffice
- 2015 – Krita 2.9 – animation support added
- 2020 – Krita 4.4 – major brush engine rewrite
- 2023 – Krita 5.2 – new text tool, recorder, Android release
- 2025 – Krita 5.3 stable: native Apple Silicon + Windows ARM64, MyPaint brush engine merge, full HDR painting, revamped animation workflow, and AI-assisted inpainting via official Stable Diffusion plugin
Killer Features That Artists Love
- Brush engine – The most advanced open-source brush system (pressure, tilt, rotation, texture, blending modes)
- Wrap-around mode – Paint seamless textures in real time
- Perspective & drawing assistants – Vanishing points, rulers, mirrors
- Animation with audio scrubbing – Full 2D frame-by-frame + export to GIF/MP4/WebM
- Python scripting & resource sharing – Thousands of community brushes and workspaces
- Color selectors – HSY, HSV, wheel, and artistic color wheels
Who Uses Krita Professionally?
- Concept artists at indie game studios (Larian, Supergiant, many UE5 indie teams)
- Film VFX matte painters (especially in Europe)
- Comic and webtoon creators (in combination with Clip Studio for final inking)
- Texture artists for Blender, Unreal Engine, and Unity
- Book cover illustrators and children’s book artists
- Educational institutions worldwide (free licenses for schools)
Getting Started
- Download from krita.org
- Install community brush packs (David Revoy, Ramon Miranda, GDQuest)
- Try the Illustrator/Photoshop-style workspaces included by default
- For animation: enable the Docker → Timeline & Onion Skin
- Use the Krita + Stable Diffusion plugin for AI-assisted concepting
Pro tip: Krita’s default brush presets are already amazing — but importing the “Deevad” or “Raggio” packs turns it into a true Corel Painter competitor.
Conclusion
Krita has crossed the line from “impressive free tool” to the digital painting application of choice for thousands of working professionals — many of whom have completely dropped Photoshop or Painter subscriptions.
Free. Artist-driven. No compromises.
That’s Krita — and it keeps getting better, every single year.