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You can try these fantastic Free Alternatives to Paint on your Windows 10, 8.1, 8 and 7 PC/Laptop. All these are best MS Paint Alternatives and users can use them online and offline. All are best Microsoft Paint replacement, and you can use them on your Computer. I have shared the top Alternatives to Paint to replace MS paint. You can even use these Paint Software online.
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Further thanks for this additional info. Did get the color working. Shall try out straight lines. Having got used for so many years to MS Paint, I need to get familiar with this or any other similar app on Mac. Right now I have downloaded sketchbookexpress which is a free download from apple store. This seems to be more grand than paintbrush.
Why Should you Use Alternatives to Paint
The default MS paint application only has some limited features such as brushes, pencils, rotate, resize, crop, shapes and some more. But, sometimes we want more features in our favourite software like the MS paint. So, using an alternative will have more function than the default software. The other options come from across various organisations such as GNU, Probst, etc. Thus, an alternative from a third party includes many extra features than the default application. It is the primary reason why we switch to the replacement of software.
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After doing some research, I have created a list of Alternatives to Paint. Each of the mentioned software is a best and free alternative to MS paint software. However, using an option for MS paint will give you many extra features like layer support, blending, 3D shapes, and much more. Let us have a look at the list of top 10 best and free Alternatives to Paint.
MyPaint is a free and OpenSource software & Alternatives to Paint. It is available on Windows, Linux and Mac OS. The user interface of MyPaint is straightforward. This software mainly focuses on the painting aspect than the image manipulation. MyPaint comes along with some essential feature. Also, it has some fantastic features like dynamic brush library which changes itself in pencil, ink, and charcoal. For advanced paint users, brush customisation feature has also been given to it. Moreover, it supports layer management and also has unlimited canvas.
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Paint.Net is a photo editing software which is free to use. It has the simple features as like Microsoft paint. But, it does not have the builtin Microsoft paint features only. In fact, it has more than that, and that is why it is the Alternatives to Paint. Features like support for layers, special effects, transparency, blending, and Paint.Net offers much more. So, these are the features which you are not going to get in MS paint. Moreover, it has unlimited undo and many useful tools also to make sure that the person does not face any difficulty while using it. It is only available for Windows OS. Although, adjustment and file type plugin is also supported in this software.
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If you are looking for a fantastic and featured version of MS paint, then Paint 3D will be perfect for you. Paint 3D is a part of Windows 10 Creator Update and its a kind of new and latest 3D applications such as 3D builder. It is available to download for free on Windows PC. It’s very light weighted software that can be easily installed and can be used. It supports 3D elements like shape, text, animals, humans, etc. The 3D feature makes it a Alternatives to Paint. However, it has many new features and also has the necessary function such as multi-window support. Paint 3D is a smooth and decent software that works fine on any system.
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Pinta is a free and OSS (Open Source Software) for image editing. It is available for Windows, Linux and Mac OS. Some essential feature that every image editing software must have like support for image layers are present in Pinta image editing software. Jonathan Probst, which is the creator of Pinta software says that this software is inspired by Paint.NET which is an OpenSource Software as a Alternatives to Paint. In Pinta, adjustments and effect codes are taken from Paint.NET. But, most of the parts are of Pinta itself. Pinta will also be a good option if looking for Alternatives to Paint.
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Greenshot is another free and OpenSource image editing software that can be considered as Alternatives to Paint. It is available for Windows PC with GNU Public License. If you mostly use MS paint for editing and saving screenshots on PC, then Greenshot is only for you. Greenshot’s speciality is in screenshots. It very beautifully describes, edits, and creates screenshots on a system. It also supports plugin for Dropbox, Imgur, Office, Flickr, and many others. Moreover, it also has the necessary feature which MS paint is having such as rotate, crop, resize, etc. Its resources are very light, but the elements are hefty.
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GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) is a free and open source image editing and drawing software. It is available for Windows, Linux, Mac OS, BSD, Solaris under the GNU Public License. It can be used as a photo finalising program, drawing program, and an image converter program also. Although, it has a vast collection of painting tools such as brushes, clones, pencils, etc. It supports almost every image file type so that it will be easy for a beginner. Also, it takes limited size for the canvas from your disk space.
Photoscape is another Alternative to Paint which is free to download and use. It is available for Windows and Mac OS only. If you use MS paint to edit and some tweaks then you can replace it with Photoscape software. Many of the tools offered by Photoscape is unavailable in MS paint. Also, you can combine one or more photos in one image and can make a slideshow of your multiple images. You can also convert a RAW image to a JPEG image and can also splice a photo in various pieces. However, essential features of MS paint is already present in Photoscape image editing software.
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Fotor was previously a web-based image editing tool. But, nowadays it available for Windows to download and use offline. It works well for editing images and screenshots as like Photoscape. Fotor has some practical features like resize, crop, many new fonts, shape drawing tool and much more. It also has the necessary function which MS paint also has. However, the effects are not much efficient as compare to some other image editing tools. But, it is better than MS paint application. The interface of Fotor is divided into three sections that are edit, collage, and design. Moreover, it is free to use by anyone. So, users can use it freely.
Picasa is a best and free image editing tool which is offered by Google Inc. It makes your editing more perfect for no cost. You can also organise and share your images without any difficulty because it is integrated to Picasa online web. It creates a professional slideshow without having any expert knowledge. A user can easily share pictures on Google page and other website using Picasa photo editor. While on first-time installation it takes some time to show the user interface but, afterwards you will get many fast tools to edit and refine your images at just free.
Pixlr is an entirely free image editing tool which works online and offline both. It is available to download for Windows, Android, and iOS platforms. Pixlr can also be used in a web browser of a system for the online purpose. It has many features as like the ultimate photoshop. It has the collection of some excellent image editing tools which you are not going to get in MS paint. Because, it has a wide range of features, most of the companies use it. The navigation panel of Pixlr is very smooth and easy to use. Although, you can create an empty canvas by choosing an image from your PC folder in Pixlr. It is free of cost.
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Last Words Top 10 Best Free Alternatives to Paint – Must Try
We have just seen the top 10 list of best and free Alternatives to Paint. These alternatives have many extra features as compared to default MS paint software. Also, every single choice is free to use and available to download for your PC. Share this article with your friends and tell them about these best and free Alternatives to Paint.
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One thing I use constantly when writing posts is MS Paint to edit screenshots and sometimes featured images. Since I decided to do everything on my MacBook for this blog I needed to find an equivalent of Paint on Mac. And I think I was able to do it.
In short, there are following options available for Paint on Mac:
Installing MS Paint on Mac with Wine
In my article about Notepad on Mac, I described how to install Notepad++ on Mac with the help of Winebottler. The Winebottler also has an option for MSPaint 2010 install, but no matter what I did the installation was failing on multiple MacBooks I used. Still determined to find a way to run native Windows app on Mac I found another Wine based platform: PlayOnMac.
If you curious the way Wine works is by translating API calls from Windows programs to the operating system from Windows to macOS. This is not an emulator, in fact, the name Wine is an acronym that stands for “Wine Is Not Emulator”. This means that only a small subset of Windows calls was translated and it requires quite a bit of work in order to run Windows applications on Wine.
That’s why users instead of copying programs directly from Windows to Wine need some kind of packaging tool where other people did all this work for you. In the case of Paint such tool is PlayOnMac.
Installing PlayOnMac
To install PlayOnMac download the image from the link.
After download double click on DMG file to unpack the app. If you are curious about DMG files, what they are and how safe to install them check my article on this topic.
Now drag and drop the PlayOnMac icon to the Applications folder.
Depending on your settings your Mac may warn that developer is not approved, so you need to do additional things to allow it. Open System Preferences, go to System and Privacy and under General tab click on “Open Anyway” button.
Once PlayOnMac starts, click on the plus icon with the label “Install a program” and in the popup window click on Graphics icon. In the list of programs select Microsoft Paint and click on Install button. Follow wizard instructions and click Next several times.
This will start a process of downloading and installing Paint app. If you don’t have Wine platform already installed then PlayOnMac will ask if you want to install Wine and Gecko. Just click Install button to install them.
After installation is finished a new Microsoft Paint shortcut will appear on the Desktop and you will be able to run Paint on Mac any time.
This approach has pros and cons. Pro is that you can run other Windows programs besides Paint. The main purpose of PlayOnMac was to port some Windows games to Linux and Mac. So check out the tool and see if they have your favorite game ported.
The downside of this approach is that the version of Paint is pretty old. Paint in Windows 10 is a much nicer tool and unfortunately, it is not available at this time.
Also, while Wine is not an emulator and not a virtual machine it still takes some space and ported programs are not native macOS apps.
Use Preview to edit images and photos
If you looking for a native macOS app then definitely check Preview, a built-in macOS program. It has a lot of features that Paint offers and I will show you how you can use for some simple operations. After all, people use Paint for simple image editing. People who edit images professionally use Photoshop or GIMP instead.
Annotate screenshots with Preview
One of the main uses of Paint is to add some annotation for screenshots or photos. By the way, if you are looking for PrintScreen button or snipping tool, i.e. if you don’t know how to make screenshots on Mac check my article: How to Take Screenshots on Mac : 27 Tricks and Tips.
This is how I edited the previous screenshot in Preview.
Before doing anything in Preview remember a simple key combination: Command-Z. If you did something wrong you can always undo it with Command-Z, so don’t be afraid of experimenting, you can always undo anything.
First I double clicked on the image file. By default, .png files (file format for screenshots) associated with Preview so double-clicking on png file will start Preview.
I made sure that both Toolbar and Markup Toolbar are visible by going to View menu and clicking on Show Toolbar and Show Markup Toolbar options.
To make red rectangles around Install Program and Install buttons I had to do some preparations:
Preview will add a red rectangle shape to the image. Now you need to move it to a proper place and adjust the size. You do it by hovering the cursor over the rectangle lines and once the cursor changes you can move and resize the element.
Click somewhere on the picture to deactivate the element. The cool thing about Preview is that all the elements you are adding on the image you change later before saving the file. With MS Paint once the element is not active it becomes a part of the image so you can’t come back and change it.
To add some text to the image click on the Text icon. Preview will add a sample text shape which you can move and resize just like any shape. If you need to change the font style and size of the text shape click on Text Style icon in the toolbar.
Sometimes, you may need to add arrows to connect parts of the image together. Use arrow shape from Shapes section, it is very flexible, you can rotate and resize arrows anyway you like it. Alternatively, use Bubble Speech element.
Cropping images in Preview
Preview creates very large files to keep the quality of images as high as possible. Unfortunately, the internet still is not fast enough in some areas and people who read your articles would appreciate if you keep the images as small as possible.
The first thing we will do is crop the image so we can remove the parts we don’t need.
Click on Selection Tools which looks like a rectangle with dotted border and down arrow on the right and select Rectangular Selection.
Click at the top left corner of the image you want to cut and then drag the bottom right to cover the part of the image you need.
Now you have two options:
Combining multiple images in one
For each blog post, I always create a featured image. Since I can’t always find the perfect image online I often combine multiple images to create something interesting. For this blog I decided to combine an image I found on Pixabay with the screenshot of Paint app inside.
I started with the original image and opened it in Preview window.
In another Preview, I opened the second image: a screenshot of Paint. Using Selection tools I made a rectangular selection and copied it to the clipboard.
Then I switched to the original image and pasted the selection by using Command-V key combination. Then I adjusted the size and position of the selected image inside the iMac screen and saved the file.
Resizing images in Preview
For featured images, I need the ones with the specific dimensions: 833 by 450 pixels. The original image dimensions were 1280 by 1043. To resize the image I clicked on Adjust Size option in Tools menu. I wanted to keep the picture proportional so resized it to 552 by 450 pixels.
Then I switched back to screenshot pic and adjusted its size to 833 by 450 (non-proportional). Then selected everything with Command-A and deleted the entire image with Delete button. Now I had a clean canvas with the correct size (833×450) to which I copied the 552×450 picture.
The result you can see at the top of the blog post.
Converting to JPEG
All screenshots on Mac are saved in PNG format which is too big for the internet. I prefer to save all images in JPEG which makes smaller files by compressing and slightly reducing the quality.
To save the picture in another format open it in Preview and select the Export option in the File menu.
Choose JPEG, other formats are not better than PNG. Don’t use JPEG-2000 because it’s not supported by most browsers.
There will be a slider which allows you to choose the quality of the JPEG: higher the quality larger the file. When you move the slider Preview will tell how big the file will be, so choose what works best for you.
Drawing in Preview
Preview has tools to draw pictures besides the predefined set of shapes. But here is a problem: if you start the program by itself there is no option to create a new file. But I found a workaround:
I use Command-Shift-3 keys to make a screenshot and while the thumbnail floats I click on it to open it in Preview. Then I select all with Command-A and Delete. Then I resize the picture and on the clean canvas I can draw.
In the toolbar, there are two pencil-like icons: Sketch and Draw. The difference between is that with Sketch has ability autocorrect the lines you draw so shapes look nicer than when you use Draw option.
Paint alternativesPaintbrush
If you search on forums the application most mentioned as an alternative to Paint is Paintbrush. You can download the app from sourceforge.io, just google for “paintbrush app”.
Installation is very simple. Download the zip file to your Mac, unpack it. Double click on Paintbrush app to start it. In the beginning, it will ask you whether you want to copy it to the Applications folder. That’s it.
Macbook Paint App
It’s a very simple app, the only problem with it that it’s not being maintained for a long time. The last entry in their blog “We are not dead yet” appeared nine years ago.
Anyway, this could be a good alternative, especially to equally old Paint on PlayOnMac platform.
Paint Application For MacbookPixelmator Pro
Another tool is Pixelmator Pro. This one is much more sophisticated and it is not free. You can download it from the Apple Store for $39.99 or try it first for free and see if you like it.
The number of features packed in the app is huge. So, after playing with it for a little I don’t feel it’s a replacement for Paint because it requires me to learn a new tool which was not needed with Paint.
Online toolsJSPaintMs Paint For Macbook Pro
I found a neat online clone of old Paint at jspaint.com. It’s a free web-based tool built entirely in JavaScript and you can run it in the browser without needing to install anything.
ConclusionDownload Paint For Macbook
I presented several ways to run Paint and its alternatives on Mac or online. If all you need is old Paint app then PlayOnMac, Paintbrush or JSPaint options is all you need. Pixelmator could be a viable approach as long as you don’t mind to invest some money and time to learn the new tool.
Preview could also be a good choice if all you need is to annotate images or photos. The annotation part of Preview is probably the best, otherwise, it’s really a pain to edit in Preview.
Unfortunately, if you are looking for MS Paint which is a part of Windows 10 I wasn’t find anything close to it.
Paint For Macbook Pro
So, after several days of research and trials, I ended up with setting up a remote desktop connection from my MacBook to my Windows 10 PC and use it only for editing images.
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