Why pay when you can use these 5 free drawing apps for Windows – Charm

Graphics suites like Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator are excellent choices for designers and digital creators because of their free plugins and other powerful features. However, they aren’t cheap, and the monthly subscriptions can add up to thousands of dollars over time. Luckily, many free, open-source alternatives to Photoshop are available for users who’d rather try free software and put their cash towards a new laptop or other hardware.

The best free Windows drawing apps have different features and target specific types of users. Some are meant for professionals looking for the best graphics tools, while others are more basic and geared toward beginners and hobbyists wanting to create art. Either way, there’s no reason to pay when you can use these five free drawing apps for Windows.

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Krita

A feature-packed graphics powerhouse

Krita is a free and open-source app available for multiple platforms, like Windows, Linux, and Mac, and it can also work on Android and ChromeOS. It’s packed with features that mimic Photoshop, and those that aren’t available as part of the core app, like AI tools, are easily downloadable as Krita plugins. The app also has a familiar layout and keyboard commands, so it’s easy to transition from one app to another.

When it comes to drawing tools, Krita has a massive range of brushes, like pencils, watercolors, and more, for creating and editing images. You can also use the brush engine to customize your selection to add unique effects to your project. Krita is also lightweight on system resources and offers impressive versatility by supporting raster and vector layering tools to edit layers effectively.

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Fresh Paint

Simple painting and sketching

Fresh Paint is a free drawing and sketching app from Microsoft. Its simplicity and user-friendliness make it ideal for kids and beginners who want to create fun images, but it lacks the advanced features of some of its rivals. Getting started is easy: You can choose from the preset images, start a new project from scratch, or import your own picture. Then, you can select from a range of canvases and various brushes to create or edit your image.

When starting the app, you’re offered the options to Paint with Oil, Draw with Pen, or Sketch with Pencil, and your selection determines which tools will be available. Each one offers numerous thick and thin options and lets you pick any color from the extensive palette. If you can’t find a specific color that you’re looking for, you can try the handy matching tool, which lets you lift the one you like from an image and copy it to another part of the drawing. As a Microsoft product, Fresh Paint syncs your work with OneDrive so you can access it from anywhere.

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Inkscape

Vector-based graphics and PDF editor

Inkscape is a free alternative to Adobe Illustrator for creating vector-based graphics. You won’t need to worry about compatibility because it can handle various file formats, like SVG, CDR, GGR, and others, so you can share your work with people using different apps. It’s perfect for digital artists on multiple platforms and works on Windows, Linux, and macOS systems.

There’s no shortage of features, including numerous brush and shape tools and path effects like symmetry, tiling, and more to design your images. If you can’t find the tool you’re looking for, you can download numerous extensions, like the Line Animator and Inkscape Grids, to complete the job. Inkscape isn’t just a drawing app. It’s also a PDF editor that lets you add and remove objects and text and change the colors on a document without requiring Adobe products.

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Fire Alpaca

Fire Alpaca works on Windows, Mac, and Linux. Getting started is easy because the app offers various exciting templates to practice your skills, or you can start on a fresh canvas or import other images. Like most drawing software, it provides a massive range of pencils and brushes, and you can download more with weekly new releases on the Fire Alpaca website.

This app is perfect for creators who want to create their own comics and animations. The animation mode lets you save your images as individual frames and compile them to make a video. You can also use the time-lapse tool to record your progress when drawing. There’s also a feature to create custom comic panels and adjust their sizes into smaller rectangles and other shapes for an authentic book-like feel.

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MyPaint

MyPaint keeps things simple with an uncluttered, minimalist interface perfect for distraction-free drawing. Opening the app reveals a paper-like canvas on which you can use the freehand, inking, connected lines, and other tools to create an image. The app includes user-friendly tools for resizing, flipping, or rotating the canvas to get the best orientation for your drawing.

MyPaint offers multiple palette options, such as a standard RGB wheel, liquid wash, and crossed bowls, to help you find your desired color. An extensive brush range includes charcoal, pencil, watercolors, and more to mimic real-life drawing tools. The scratchpad is another handy tool that opens another smaller window to work in. You can then import pictures into the scratchpad to use as a reference or import colors from it to use in your drawing.

Are these free Windows drawing apps as good as paid alternatives?

It depends on your preference and what you’ll use them for. Many of the apps listed here can do the job of drawing and image editing but may lack AI tools and other features you may be looking for. However, you can’t go wrong trying them because they are free and might save you money in the long run.