Pro Paint Mac is the best paint program as paint equivalent for mac at present. More Basic Features of Paint for Mac Pro Software - Layers Style that is not available in ms paint for Mac. This Mac drawing software holds all the aces when it comes to versatility. Sketch can be used to create professional artwork, draw and design websites and so much more. Sketch is a vector-based application with several features such as a toolbar, canvas, editable shapes and so much more. Paintbrush is a Cocoa-based painting and illustrating program for the Mac, very similar to the Paint application on Windows. Paintbrush is easy to install and can support BMP, PNG, JPEG, and GIF.
Digital art software gets better and better each year.
The right software can help you paint faster and feel better about your artwork. Each program handles brush strokes and color blending differently, and the price tags vary from expensive to free.
Adobe Photoshop still reigns supreme as an all-round industry standard for digital artists. Yet there’s always new software coming out to compete against Adobe’s throne.
Choosing your art software is no longer about the biggest features, but rather finding an application that suits your specific needs as an artist.
Beginners who just want to practice are better off choosing a free program compared to professionals who want to learn software for an industry job. If your goal is to work for a game studio as a concept artist then you’ll probably have a different set of goals.
In this post we’ll take an in-depth look at 7 of the most popular programs for digital drawing & painting by comparing their features and seeing how they stack up.
But if you’re in a hurry here’s a quick overview to help you decide:
- Professional Choice: Adobe Photoshop
- Free Choice: Krita
- Budget Choice: Clip Studio Paint
If you need a bit more info on these programs just keep reading.
Adobe Photoshop
Price: $9.99/mo
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular and widely used software for digital art.
It’s feature-heavy, regularly updated, and you can use it to create everything from concept thumbnails to comic book pages or even photobashed pieces.
Photoshop started as an image-editing program for photographers. Over time it slowly became a staple for many other industries, digital art included.
With this software you have a huge variety of painting tools, brushes, filters, plugins, and layer styles.
It’s an industry standard for all digital artists across the entertainment industry because it just works. If you want a career in video games, animation, feature films, or any general production studio, knowledge of Photoshop goes a long way.
The learning curve is pretty steep here. If you are a beginner you may feel overwhelmed by all the options and get lost in technical aspects of the program. But once you’ve learned the basics, your imagination is the limit!
You can do anything in whatever style you choose and edit photos to boot!
Being the most popular software for creatives artists, there’s a mass of Photoshop tutorials available online. Adobe even released a series of up-to-date free tutorials which will take you from beginner to expert level.
If you ever have a problem or question on anything, a quick Google search will get you a video answer or helpful forum post.
Concept artists like Photoshop’s custom brushes and often create their own. Detailed layer settings, regular updates, and a sleek user interface are the driving force behind Photoshop’s continued popularity.
You can rotate your canvas naturally to mimic the rotation of paper. And you can setup grids and rulers for complex scenes, or even bring in 3D objects to paint over. PSD files(Photoshop’s native file format) play well with other Adobe programs and this file type is an industry standard.
That means you can import PSDs into almost any other art software without a hitch. GIMP and Krita both accept PSD files along with many other programs.
This is why many artists combine Photoshop with other painting software. Depending on the workflow you’re going for you could do your concept and lineart in something like Clip Studio Paint, then bring it to Photoshop for coloring and final touch-ups.
Best Paint Program For Mac Os X
Other digital art software doesn’t try to replace Photoshop but instead tries to improve on the interface for specific types of art(ex: comics, storyboards, environment paintings, etc).
Once you’ve signed up for a Creative Cloud membership you get a free, non-conditional seven-day trial version of Photoshop. This offer applies to Adobe’s other software as well. If you like Photoshop and want to buy it, there are four purchase plans to choose from.
The cheapest is the Photographers package which is $9.99(only available annually) and it includes Lightroom CC. If you want to buy a monthly plan you can get Photoshop for $29.99 a month.
If you want to go the extra mile and get the rest of Adobe’s software, the entire suite costs $74.99 monthly(or annual for $49.99 p/m).
Bonus Tip: Students 13 years and older get a 60% discount on the full Adobe suite plan!
People love Photoshop for its versatility and wealth of free knowledge online. Adobe has thrown millions of dollars into development so Photoshop isn’t going anywhere.
It’s a solid, professional choice for aspiring digital artists and concept artists.
Corel Painter
Price: $350
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Corel Painter is characterized by painterly brush strokes and a traditional artist’s feel to the interface.
Painter is for artists who love loose, messy brushwork and want to capture the beauty of traditional mediums on a digital canvas. It comes standard with 900 brushes covering every possible situation you could imagine.
As you might guess from the name, Corel Painter is focused on painting. But this should be great for artists who only want software to draw or paint digitally.
It has a 2.5D brush toolset that mimics real-world brushes giving you full control over the final “style” of your work.
Painter has been a serious alternative to Photoshop for several years and is the company always listens to user requests. They’ve been working hard to add new features every year and have added a bunch of artist-suggested tools into their latest release.
For example, some users complained of UI sensitivity and slow response times. Those issues were fixed with the 2019 version along with an entire UI design overhaul.
Icons were redesigned to be more intuitive and the interface was changed to a darker theme.
Among all the new features with that version, the most celebrated was the pinned color wheel.
You can position the color wheel wherever you like on the screen giving an instant look at color options without swatches. This spectral feature means you can work in detail without the circular brush icon obscuring your view.
In Painter’s web series “Paint like Bob Ross” you can learn how to paint digital landscapes in 30 minutes using their brushes—a great introduction to conceptualizing landscapes for beginners.
The software is feature heavy and beginners might still feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of brush options and settings. But Corel is worth learning because it is another trusted industry staple among character designers, concept artists, and visual development artists.
Corel Painter has been around since 1992 and you can find an extensive library of free tutorials on their website. Or if you search on YouTube I’m sure you can find plenty of free tutorials there as well.
You won’t find as many resources compared to Photoshop. But Corel Painter is still a beast in the concept art world, or just the digital painting world in general, making it an awesome choice for hobbyists or newbies just picking up digital art for the first time.
As of this writing, a brand new copy of Corel Painter costs $350 making it an expensive once-off purchase. Although you can get a free 30-day trial to demo the software and see if it’s right for you.
Krita
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
Krita is a free open source digital painting program designed for cartoonists, illustrators, concept artists, and pretty much all digital artists.
The software was initially developed as a general image editing competitor to Photoshop but focused their efforts on digital painting starting in 2009. The Krita community donates monthly to the software efforts helping it to stay free and funding development of new features
If you have a background in some other digital art software(Photoshop for example) then Krita’s tools will be a little familiar and a little not-so-familiar.
Whether you’re switching or just getting into Krita it’s worth the time to watch a few tutorials to find out how everything works.
Krita hasn’t released many official tutorial videos but they have created detailed documentation online. If it’s your first venture into digital art then start off learning about the basic UI and toolsets.
Use the pop-up pallet to select your brushes, erasers, and colors intuitively. All other tools are stored in the panels to the left and right. Krita supports PSD files so that you can switch between Photoshop and Krita with ease.
And there’s a ton of freebies online like free brush packs that mimic everything from charcoal to watercolors and so much more. The beauty of Krita is the free price tag and the immensely supportive community around this software.
Krita has been criticized by some professional artists for its lag, seemingly unintuitive design, and uneven brush softness. Although the criticism has merit, the program’s core features work well and you will learn them with practice.
Also worth noting this has to be the absolute best choice for anyone on a Linux machine. Photoshop does not support Linux outside of a virtual emulator but Krita can run natively in any Linux distro.
This is a huge +1 for Krita since it’s really the best digital painting alternative for our Linux & Unix friends.
If you don’t have the cash to burn on digital art programs Krita is the perfect choice.
Use the program while you save up some money to grab another program. Or just stick with Krita and use it free for life! Many professional artists like David Revoy create all of their work with Krita and their stuff looks amazing.
Best thing about Krita is that it’s simple for beginners to learn and it doesn’t confuse you with a ton features or fancy tools. Krita’s purpose is digital painting and that’s precisely what it does well.
Clip Studio Paint
Price: $49
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Clip Studio Paint is the most popular software for creating comics and manga artwork.
Clip Studio Paint was originally named Manga Studio but changed names in 2013. It originated in Japan as specialist software for manga, illustration, and animators.
The program has long been a worldwide affordable alternative to Photoshop for digital artists but got more recognition with the name change.
The most notable drawing difference between Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop is the brush tool. In Clip Studio the brush tool instantly corrects any minor wobble you make while drawing on a tablet, leaving you with smooth clean linework.
Clip Studio is optimized for comic book creation and has various tools to speed up the process.
A canvas layout tool makes paneling quick with perspective rulers and a library of predefined formats. The pen tool lets you to work in a versatile vector format which means your creations can be scalable without quality loss.
In the most recent release there’s a new library of 3D objects and posable models. This is useful for concept artists who like to use references to get poses down quickly.
You can drop in a 3D model, pose it using an intuitive joint system, change the camera angle, make the character fat or thin, and choose between genders. After you’ve drawn over it you can use that same model’s shading as a reference for lighting.
Then when you’re done just delete it. Easy-peasy.
With CSP your art will always have a crisp digital finish as the software doesn’t strive for a traditional look. Although it’s possible to give your brush strokes a blended texture using brushes, Clip Studio Paint is not designed to mimic traditional mediums.
The standard version of Clip Studio Paint also comes with some very basic animation features. You can quickly test character movement over 24 frames without the annoyance of switching programs. But this is not really the best software for animation so it works best in conjunction with other programs for that purpose.
Now Clip Studio Paint comes in two versions: PRO(standard) and EX(full-featured).
Unless you’re planning on putting all of your projects through Clip Studio Paint and creating various manga & comic books, you’ll probably be happy with the PRO version. The EX edition has only a few extra features that would benefit expert users.
EX lets you save manga & comic pages in a ‘book’ which acts like one editable file. You can then bulk save them for printing which shaves off a ton of time and organizational effort.
The animation feature also gets an upgrade with EX and you can create an unlimited number of frames(instead of the standard 24).
EX comes with filters for 3D assets too turning them black and white for easier integration into your scenes.
Generally speaking, the PRO version is the same and EX minus the above features. It’s unlikely you’ll need those features as a digital painter or concept artist. Only serious comic and manga artists would find the EX features useful.
Try out either version with a free 30-day trial of both PRO and EX versions. If you don’t like it then just move on. The free version does give plenty to toy with so you’ll know whether you like CSP or don’t.
And it’s worth mentioning that the PRO edition is an affordable option at only $49 flat fee, while EX comes at a premium of $219.
Although sometimes you can get CSP at a discounted rate from annual sales so keep checking their prices.
GIMP
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
GIMP is another open source program built as a free Photoshop alternative.
Back when computer graphics were slowly becoming “a thing” it was up to software developers to create graphics for companies. With Photoshop costing a lot more back then, buying it was out of the budget for many companies.
GIMP was built to fill the need for a cheaper option to digital imaging editing software.
Unlike other free digital art software, GIMP was designed to be a full replacement for Photoshop. This means you can use it for digital painting but it’s really meant for graphic design, photo editing, text effects, and similar features.
Likewise this program has all the tools you need for digital art. If you are looking for Photoshop’s functionality without the price tag you’ll be happy to with GIMP’s default functionality.
If you know a little about software development you can also add to GIMP’s code by creating your own plugins for the system. But the default setup is more than enough for artists.
Many versions of GIMP have been released over the years, but their team of volunteers hasn’t been able to keep up with the sheer financial power of Adobe. The user interface is definitely unrefined and will be very confusing to beginners.
There are loads of GIMP tutorials created by their loyal users and there’s enough content to help you learn everything you need about the software.
Although GIMP doesn’t have a dedicated support team to answer your questions, many issues are well documented on various forums and you’ll be able to troubleshoot a solution with a few Google searches.
The painting tools are reasonable, although in my opinion Krita is a stronger option if you just need painting.
Granted you can find plenty of free GIMP brushes all made for digital drawing & painting.
But really this software is the best all-round alternative to Photoshop. If you see yourself doing a bit of design work, some painting, and some photo editing, try out GIMP and see what you think.
ArtRage
Price: $79
Platforms: Mac, Windows
ArtRage is a digital painting powerhouse that’s perfect for traditional artists moving digital and for existing professional artists.
Unlike other digital art programs, ArtRage has stepped away from the complicated user interface and ditched the blocky side panels. They want your focus on the canvas creating great work.
When you open the program you’ll find a semi-circular brush picker on the bottom left of the screen and a color picker on the bottom right. Both give you immediate access to the most important tools.
Small “pods” containing extra options hover just above the circles, minimizing extra clutter.
After you’ve picked your color and brush you can start drawing on the canvas. The UI automatically disappears(although this setting is optional) and without the UI you get a full screen canvas to work on without any distractions. Pretty cool!
If you’ve never used digital painting software before then ArtRage is fantastic. It’s beginner friendly and super affordable.
You can start off slow, familiarizing yourself with the various brushes, and slowly work your way up to painting full scenes and character designs.
If you are coming from Photoshop you’ll find the minimalist layout refreshing and easy to pick up. The brush presets are so good that you don’t need to waste time adjusting them much at all.
One of ArtRage’s most exciting features is called “real color blending”. It calculates realistic color mixing as you paint and it’s useful for digital painting in an oil or watercolor style.
If you want to try your hand at digital painting for the first time, this software will hold your hand and take you from hobbyist to professional if you put in the effort.
It doesn’t have all the gadgets and gizmos that some prominent art programs have, but it’s got all you need to make fun paintings(and a little extra).
ArtRage is budget software and friendly to those getting started. You can also use the demo version for an unlimited amount of time. The demo doesn’t let you save anything, which of course is a drag, but you can use that to familiarize yourself with the program.
If you decide you want the full version it costs $79 and you’ll receive all future updates included with your license.
Free Paint For Mac
If that sounds a bit expensive you could go for ArtRage Lite which is only $29.90. The lite version is great for beginners and includes all the painting features of the full version.
Think of this much like Krita but aimed for simplicity. It’s cheap enough that you could run ArtRage for life and it’s certainly refreshing when you come from a big bulky art program.
Paint Tool SAI
Price: $49
Platforms: Windows
Lastly on this list is Paint Tool SAI: a simple painting program that’s exceptionally popular among anime & manga artists.
Paint Tool SAI was first released in 2008 to a wave of popularity. It quickly spread among the art community who loved the clean brush strokes and unique interface.
SAI is a small, old program and has not been significantly updated over the years. It only runs on windows and has a limited set of features.
That being said, it’s aged remarkably well and is easy for beginners to pick up.
Many artists use SAI to achieve a digital watercolor effect where the blending modes can mimic watercolor, but the overall feel is smooth and sleek. Others use it primarily for lineart, or for creating a ton of anime.
You’ll find that Japanese artists almost exclusively use SAI for their artwork. It’s a very popular choice in Japan, likely because this software was originally developed by the Japanese Systemax Software.
SAI’s learning curve is minimal and if you’re coming from Photoshop you’ll pick it up almost instantly. It’s still very detailed though and great to use as a sketching program.
Use the pencil brush to get realistic sketches down on a textured canvas. Then switch over to brushes and color your line art to completion.
Now there are some minor limitations like that new projects are limited to 256 layers per canvas. It’s also known to slow down with larger file sizes and glitch when trying to preview .gifs in the explorer window.
They also have a weird system of brushes where you can import textures to merge with brush styles and create totally new brushes. I haven’t mastered this setup but you can find a ton of textures in this post with dozens of free brush assets for SAI users.
SAI is a Japanese program and is priced in JPY(Japanese Yen). It costs ¥5400 which roughly equates to $49.
Compared to other software on this list, SAI is a tad on the pricier side considering the last update was in 2016.
Small complaints aside, considering the price tag and the anime-centric fanbase I’d say SAI is an awesome choice for anime lovers the world over.
Get started using SAI by following some easy beginner tutorials on painting in the program. If you put in the time you’ll be a pro within a few weeks.
A fantastic program for anyone serious about anime-style art or any kind of digital painting. Biggest downside is you’ll have to be a Windows user.
Although if I had to cast a vote for the absolute best digital painting software, that title falls with Photoshop.
Here’s hoping even more digital art software comes out in the next 10 years and gives some stiff competition to Adobe’s reign.
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Well, it's not possible to play Paint on the Mac, but there is a simple paint application in the preinstalls that you may like to play around with - you just need to know where to look. Unfortunately Microsoft Project, also known as MS Project, wasn’t designed for Mac computers, so it won’t work on any version of Mac OS. But there is a workaround that can solve your problem. It’s not complicated, and in fact, it’s easier to use than the MSP interface. Best of all, it’s free (well, for 30 days, but after that you’ll.
Scribbles is yet another Microsoft Paint for Mac. It is said to be designed especially for kids but due to its utmost usefulness when it comes editing images, it has made it into the hearts of adults as well.
Formerly known as “Paintbrush for Windows”, Paint is a simple graphics painting program pre-installed on all versions of Microsoft Windows. This nifty tool from Windows gained much popularity due to its ease of usage and simple graphics editing tools. However, the major downside of Paint is that it is only available to all Microsoft Windows users. This means that Apple fan boys wanting the same application should look for program like Paint for Mac.
On its early years, Apple has had the same application called MacPaint. It was released together with the first Macintosh PC on January 1984. It was then sold separately but due to decline sales, the distributor stopped selling the product. Since then, MacPaint never made a comeback to modern PCs. If you are a mac user currently in search for a simple editing tool just like Microsoft’s Paint, check out these great alternatives below.
Review of Top Programs like Paint for Mac
#1. Online Image Editor
The Online Image Editor is a free, no-installation needed application that features a very similar interface as with Microsoft’s Paint. This program can crop images, add texts, insert symbols, pick colors, remove red eye, select background colors, add gradient effects and all other things you could usually do with Paint. Additionally, you can add layers as well as amazing effects to further beautify your picture.
Top versatility makes the Online Image Editor one of the best Paint equivalent for Mac. This program comes totally free of charge and it works with all browsers as well as operating systems. Whether you use Firefox, Chrome, Safari, Opera and the likes, rest assured that the Online Image Editor will work the same way.
#2. Paintbrush
One particular application that is very similar to Microsoft’s Paint is Paintbrush. This software works just like Paint, the only difference is that it is made exclusively for Mac users. It features several editing tools like airbrush, rounded rectangle, eyedropper, zoom, image resizing, cropping, transparent selection and all others. If you need quick photo edits on your Mac, Paintbrush works like a charm.
This Paint alternative on Mac comes free and it has two variants available depending on your Mac OS version. First is the Paintbrush 2.1.1 for Mac OS X 10.5 or higher, then the Paintbrush 1.2 for Mac OS X 10.4 or higher.
#3. Scribbles
Scribbles is yet another Microsoft Paint for Mac. It is said to be designed especially for kids but due to its utmost usefulness when it comes editing images, it has made it into the hearts of adults as well. This application is equipped with different graphic tools such as paintbrush, spray can, calligraphy brushes, eraser, various effects, zoom functions, direct publishing of works, etc.
Although, bear in mind that Scribbles doesn’t come free. It has a price of tag $19.95 but free to try. Additionally, it runs on Mac OS X 10.4 and 10.5. Sadly, support for Scribbles has already been discontinued by the developer.
#4. Pixelmator
For a more advanced graphic editing tool, Pixelmator is a must to try. This Paint alternative for Mac is actually leaning towards the Adobe Photoshop side in terms of features and functionalities. With it, you can quickly remove unwanted objects using the repair tool, distort images with move tool, paint realistically, add texts, create color adjustments, and all others.
Recommended for professional image editors, Pixelmator is priced at $29.99 which is quite steep compare to other programs like Paint for Mac. The most recent version of this software requires Mac OS X 10.9.1 or later as well as 64 bit processor.
#5. Seashore
Created by Mark Pazolli, Seashore is a simple Paint equivalent for Mac. It is an easy-to-use image editing tool equipped with powerful editing features. It has all the basic functionalities of Paint with some tools similar to Adobe Photoshop. You can use it to insert texts, change color backgrounds, create layers, zoom images, crop photos, add effects, and many more.
Seashore is free to use and it has several versions openly available for downloads. The most stable version is the 0.1.9 that works with Mac OS X 10.3 to 10.5 while the most updated one is the Seashore 0.5.1 with compatibility to Mac OS X 10.4.11 or later.
There are many programs that functions just like Microsoft Paint for Mac, some of them are free while others are paid. If you only need basic image editing, it is advised to use free online applications that need not to be installed. They have a very similar functionality as with paint and it will not slow down or bulk up your system. Premium software are good as they are packed with extra features but why splurge on them when you can have free applications that works just like Microsoft Paint.
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.
Is There Microsoft Paint For Mac
In short, there are following options available for Paint on Mac:
- Install Paint app on Mac on top of Wine based platform
- Use Preview to edit images and photos
- Use Paint alternatives such as Paintbrush or Pixelmator
- Use online apps such as JSPaint
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:
- Click on Border Color icon in the toolbar to select red
- Click on Shape Style to choose a thicker line
- Click on Fill Color and then click on Show Colors to bring up the Color dialog and change the Opacity all the way down to 0% so that rectangle in the next step does not hide the underlying image.
- Click on Shapes and then on rectangle icon.
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.
Is There An Ms Paint For Macbook Pro
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:
- You can click on Crop button that appears after selection. In this case, the part of the image outside of the selection will be removed and you will have only the selected part left. With this option, the selection will replace the original image.
- You can copy the selection to the clipboard with Command-C key combination and then in the menu go to File -> New from Clipboard. This will open a new Preview window with the selected part of the image, so you can save it in another file without changing the original.
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 alternatives
Paintbrush
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.
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.
Pixelmator 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 tools
JSPaint
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.
Conclusion
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.
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.