Lena Rivera
Microsoft Paint has been a Windows mainstay for decades, but macOS users have several alternative applications they can use. While there is no direct equivalent to MS Paint on Mac, there are a variety of built-in and third-party applications that offer similar functionality. Some of the most popular options include Preview, Tayasui Sketches, Capto, Paintbrush, Patina, and Seashore. Each of these applications offers a range of features, from basic editing and drawing tools to more advanced painting and image manipulation capabilities.
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What You'll Learn
Preview: Basic editing and drawing tools
Preview is a major app that comes with macOS. It is a useful tool for many common image editing and export tasks. Preview is compatible with a variety of image formats. It also exports items in other image formats.
Preview has two different Markup toolbars: one for working with and editing PDFs, and the other for images. The Markup Toolbar opens a range of tools you can use to edit and export your images. The Selection Tool lets you choose to select an item using a Rectangular or an Elliptical tool. It also provides Lasso and Smart Lasso selection tools. The Instant Alpha tool lets you automatically select the background or other objects within an image.
You can use the pen tool to draw on images and PDFs in Preview. Rough shapes and lines will be converted to smooth and perfect shapes and lines, but you can always choose the freehand drawing option instead. You can move, resize and change the properties of shapes after you draw them. On Macs with a Force Touch touchpad, a second Draw tool appears. This is force-sensitive and lets you draw thicker shapes in reaction to the pressure of your touch.
You can also annotate an image file, providing feedback or pointing out something you want to remember. If the image is on a page in a PDF file and you want to comment on only the image, you can extract the image as a separate image file. If you only want to comment on part of an image, you can select part of it, copy just that part, then create a new file. You can also crop the image to remove areas that you don’t want.
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Tayasui Sketches: Advanced painting features with realistic brushes
Tayasui Sketches is a versatile and user-friendly sketching app available on Mac. It offers a wide range of advanced painting features, including realistic brushes, that cater to artists of all skill levels, from longtime doodlers to serious artists.
The app boasts an impressive toolbox of realistic drawing tools, including various brushes such as watercolour and pastel crayon, that mimic real-life painting instruments. These brushes can be customised using the Brush Editor, allowing users to create, tweak, and explore endless brush styles to achieve their desired effects.
Tayasui Sketches supports the Apple Pencil, capturing pressure, tilt, and stroke width to simulate natural watercolour strokes. This feature enhances the overall painting experience, making it feel more intuitive and authentic. Additionally, the app's minimalist interface stays out of the user's way, allowing them to focus entirely on their creative process without distractions.
The app offers two versions: a freemium version and Sketches Pro. The Pro version includes additional features such as layers, extra tools, and other expert functionalities. Users can also export their work as transparent PNGs or layered PSD files for further refinement in other software.
Tayasui Sketches provides a seamless and intuitive digital painting experience, making it a compelling alternative to MS Paint for Mac users.
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Capto: Combines image editing with screen recording
While there is no direct equivalent to MS Paint on Mac, Capto is a great choice if you need both image editing and screen recording capabilities. Capto combines powerful image editing and screen recording tools, allowing you to easily capture, edit, and annotate your visuals.
Capto is available for a free trial through Setapp, a platform of over 260 useful apps for macOS, iOS, and web. With Capto, you can draw on your Mac and perform advanced image editing. It offers a comprehensive toolset for creative tasks, making it a great alternative to MS Paint for Mac users.
In addition to Capto, there are other alternatives to MS Paint on Mac that offer basic editing and drawing tools, such as Preview, which is already installed on your Mac by default. Preview offers simple edits and annotations, similar to what MS Paint used to handle. However, it does not allow you to create new artwork from scratch as it does not have a blank canvas.
If you are looking for more advanced drawing and painting features, Tayasui Sketches is an excellent option. It offers a natural drawing experience with an extensive selection of beautiful digital brushes and colours. It also provides layer support, allowing for a near-unlimited selection of tools.
For a free native graphics app, Seashore will do what Paint does and more. However, some users have found it buggy and unable to perform basic functions like writing text on an image.
Lastly, Paintbrush is another free alternative that can open and save most major image formats and supports transparency for image formats with an alpha channel. It is a basic, streamlined, and Mac-native image editor, perfect for creating simple images quickly.
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Paintbrush: Simple paint program for macOS
Paintbrush is a simple paint program for macOS, designed to fill the need for a basic, streamlined, and Mac-native image editor. It is not intended to replace Adobe Photoshop or other high-end image editors but instead aims to provide a simple platform for users to quickly create and edit images.
Paintbrush can open and save most major image formats, including BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF. It also offers full support for transparency in image formats that support an alpha channel, such as PNGs and GIFs. Additionally, Paintbrush allows users to paste images copied from common Mac applications, including Microsoft Office and Apple iWork.
One of the advantages of Paintbrush is its ease of use. While it may require some initial practice, it becomes easier with familiarity. Users can select colours from the Paintbrush menu bar by choosing Font and then Show Colours.
Compared to other alternatives, Paintbrush may lack certain features, such as colour options or advanced editing tools. However, for users seeking a straightforward and intuitive platform for basic image editing, Paintbrush can be a suitable choice.
Paintbrush is a good option for Mac users who are familiar with MS Paint on Windows and prefer a similar, uncomplicated interface for their image editing needs.
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Seashore: Native Mac application with an expanded feature set
Seashore is a free, open-source image editor for Mac that offers a range of features for users seeking a simple yet powerful alternative to MS Paint. It is designed to be easy to use, providing non-professionals with the tools they need to create and edit images effectively.
One of Seashore's key features is its support for ""layers", allowing users to work with multiple image components simultaneously, much like in more advanced editors such as Photoshop. This capability, combined with its gradient, texture, and anti-aliasing tools, makes Seashore a versatile graphics editor. It also supports alpha channel editing, enabling users to work with transparency in image formats such as PNGs and GIFs.
Seashore is based on GIMP technology and uses the same native file format. It is considered a lightweight version of GIMP, offering a streamlined interface and enhanced integration with macOS. This integration means that Seashore works seamlessly with the Mac operating system, providing a smooth user experience.
In addition to its image editing capabilities, Seashore also supports text editing. Users can add and edit text within their images, utilising various fonts and alternate characters. This feature makes Seashore a versatile tool for creating visual content that includes textual elements, such as memes, social media graphics, or simple image captions.
Seashore is available for download on the Mac App Store and is compatible with macOS 10.9.0 and later. It is a popular choice for users seeking a straightforward and intuitive image editor without the complexity and cost of high-end software like Adobe Photoshop. With its combination of simplicity and powerful features, Seashore is an excellent alternative to MS Paint on Mac.
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Frequently asked questions
There are several alternatives to MS Paint for Mac, including Preview, Paintbrush, Patina, Seashore, Tayasui Sketches, and Capto.
Preview is a built-in application on Mac that offers basic editing and drawing tools. It is a good alternative to MS Paint, as it provides similar functionality and is easy to use.
Paintbrush is a simple paint program for macOS that allows users to create simple images quickly. It can open and save most major image formats and supports transparency for image formats with an alpha channel.
Tayasui Sketches is an advanced painting application for Mac that offers a wide selection of digital brushes and colours. It is easy to use and does not require lengthy workshops or settings adjustments.
