You switched to a Mac and you find yourself missing MS Paint, your go-to program for simple image editing and bad memes. What are your options for a replacement that is simple, free, and just works? Is there an MS Paint alternative for the Mac?
You bet there is! Let’s take a look at some of your best options for an MS Paint alternative.
Pinta
Pinta is modeled are the defacto MS Paint replacement Paint.NET. It has all the tools of MS Paint, and then some. It has all the features you want in an MS Paint alternative.
You have your basic drawing tools, a host of image adjustments and effects. Pinta has a full history and multiple image layers. Best of all, it’s free and open-source!
LazPaint
LazPaint is also modeled after Paint.NET. It has support for layers and transparency. LazPaint also has a lot of filters and brushes for you, if you decide to get fancy!
While it may not boast all of the features of Paint.NET, it works as a Mac alternative to MS Paint. It is also free and open-source, which is always a plus. You can find a lot of alternative software like this on several websites, including this original site.
Krita
Krita is a bit more complicated than the previous items, as it is mainly aimed at people in the visual effects industry. That shouldn’t stop you from trying Krita, though. It has a lot of great tools.
Some of its features include a quick color selector, brush stabilizers, and vector support. You also get group filters and layer support. It also ‘drawing assistants’ that help you to create better shapes!
Photoscape X
Photoscape, as the name implies, is geared for photo editing, something MS Paint was also used for. This has far more tools for the job, though. It can let you create simple drawings, too!
Some of the main features of Photoscape include the photo editor, which allows you to transform images, clean them up, or add filters. It includes batch editing tools for resizing, format changing, and renaming. Plus you get tons of brushes and tools to work with.
MyPaint
MyPaint is aimed at digital painters. The app’s main focus is full-screen and distraction-free editing, so you can focus better on what you are doing. This can be a boon if you are on a deadline.
MyPaint has brushes that can imitate charcoal, pencils, ink, and paint. The best part though is that you can create new brushes to imitate whatever you’d like.
Installation for the Mac can be a little difficult, but as long as you follow instructions, you should be fine.
GIMP
If you are looking to get a little more complex, GIMP is worth looking into. It’s more of a Photoshop alternative than an MS Paint alternative, but GIMP has appeal for everyone, whether you are a tinkerer, a graphic designer, a photographer, or an illustrator. It’s a very powerful, free tool.
GIMP offers support for layer and channels, as well as advanced image manipulation tools. It also has a large library of plugins to allow massive customization. Plus, GIMP is open-source with a large and active community behind it.
Paintbrush
Paintbrush aims to be the successor to MacPaint, which used to be the default image editor for Mac in the past. Since MacPaint has been gone for years now, the developers of Paintbrush have stepped into that void. Of every other program on this list, it’s the closest to actual MS Paint you’ll find.
Paintbrush can open and save to the major image formats and supports transparent images. You can paste items directly from most other Mac applications into Paintbrush. Take a look if you want something light and simple without all the bells and whistles of the other programs.
Seashore
Seashore is a native Mac app based on GIMP. It is intended to be easier and simpler to use than the program it is based on. It does have a lot of features, though not as many as GIMP does.
Still, Seashore supports layers, transparency, supports the major file formats, and includes graphic tablet support. It includes more than enough to keep an MS Paint user satisfied.
One last note. You might see people say that Seashore isn’t being worked on anymore, but that is not true. It did go several years without maintenance but got picked back up and as of this writing is getting consistent updates.
Preview
What? But Preview is Mac’s native image viewer. You can’t edit an image there, can you?
You can! Just click on the *Toolbox* icon to bring up the *Markup Toolbar* and you’ll see several image editing features come up. You’ll recognize the tools right away when you see them.
You get selection tools, a sketch tool, which will automatically tidy up a shape you draw. Other tools include the usual shape tools and general photo editing tools, such as resizing and a text tool. Some things, like the crop and rotate image tools, aren’t here, but they are in the *Tools* menu in the top menu bar.
Of course, these are just basic tools that Preview gives you, but if you don’t need more than that, why look at another program? Even if you don’t use it, it’s nice to know that these kinds of hidden gems exist right under our noses!
MS Paint Alternative Heaven
MS Paint may be deprecated, and MacPaint went the way of the dodo, but there are so many good alternative paint programs for Mac that you won’t miss either of them.
From the simple to the complex, you can accomplish whatever you need to with the apps on this list. You’re sure to find the MS Paint alternative you need.
Check them all out, then check out the rest of our site for other great and informative articles!