Krita review: a free open-source video editor with multi-track timelines, color scopes and speech-to-text. See features, pricing and alternatives.
Krita is a free and open-source raster graphics editor purpose-built for digital painting, illustration, and 2D animation. Its roots go back to 1999 as a KDE community project called KImageShop, which was renamed twice for trademark reasons before settling on the name Krita in 2002, with the first public release arriving as part of KOffice 1.4 in 2004.
Since 2012, development has been coordinated by the nonprofit Krita Foundation in Deventer, Netherlands, led by lead developer Dmitry Kazakov. The software is licensed under the GNU General Public License v3, so it is always free to download, use, and modify, with paid copies on stores like Steam functioning as optional donations rather than a separate paid tier.
Krita's core strength is its brush engine system, which includes more than a dozen engines (pixel, smudge, particle, shape, and texture, among others) with full pressure and tilt sensitivity for graphics tablets, plus wide colour-space support including CMYK and HDR that is uncommon among free painting tools. Non-destructive layers, layer groups, masks, and combined vector-and-raster editing round out its core painting toolkit.
Beyond static illustration, Krita ships a complete animation module with a frame-by-frame timeline, onion skinning, and export to GIF, WebM, and image sequences, plus painting assistants like perspective grids for technical and comic art. A built-in Python scripting API allows advanced users to automate workflows and build custom plugins.
Krita is entirely free under the GPL v3 license when downloaded directly from krita.org, with no subscription, trial period, or feature paywall of any kind. The full, identical application can also be purchased on storefronts like Steam, the Microsoft Store, and Google Play for a modest one-time price, historically around $9.99.
These storefront purchases function as an optional way to support the Krita Foundation's development work and receive automatic updates through the store, not as a separate paid edition with extra features.
Yes, Krita is completely free and open source under the GNU General Public License v3; the versions sold on Steam, the Microsoft Store, or Google Play are optional paid copies that fund development, but the identical software is always free at krita.org.
Krita is used for digital painting, illustration, concept art, comics, and 2D frame-by-frame animation.
Yes, Krita runs on Windows, macOS, Linux (via distribution packages or AppImage), and Android/ChromeOS.
Krita is developed by a community of contributors coordinated by the nonprofit Krita Foundation, based in Deventer, Netherlands, with Dmitry Kazakov as lead developer.
Unlike GIMP, which is a general-purpose image editor, Krita is purpose-built for painting and illustration with tablet-focused brush engines and animation tools; unlike Photoshop, it is free, open source, and has no subscription.
Yes, Krita includes a Python scripting API that lets users automate tasks and build custom plugins and dockers.