Krita

Krita

Krita

Krita is a graphics editor that offers great functionality for drawing and processing bitmap images. Advantages over the well-known Photoshop are obvious: the program is free, installed on all known operating systems (in addition to Windows you can download it for Mac and Linux). The interface is much more convenient and user-friendly for beginners.

Installation

You can download Krita on the official website of the developer. You need to click on the blue “Get Krita Now” icon. Several versions are available for Windows: standard installer or portable, as well as for 32 and 64 bit systems.

Interface

The workspace is made minimalistic, but stylish. Nothing superfluous: on the left – a panel with tools, on the right – windows with a palette, brush profiles, information on layers. You can change the design theme in the settings, as shown in the screenshot. The latest version of the program has 8 themes to choose from.

Clicking on the link New File (or the standard key combination Win + N), we see several templates – textures, templates for cameras, the ability to create comics, animation, etc.

Brushes

As in any editor, the principle of brushes – the main tool of the artist – is implemented here. A special panel of brush profiles is located on the right, although the window can be moved to any convenient place.

In addition to the standard pencils and art brushes themselves, there are ready-to-use drawing solutions in the program. Each brush can be customized to fit your current drawing needs.

Layers

Easy management of layers is another advantage of Krita. The editor offers creation of ordinary, group, filter, vector and other layers. Also different maxi (filtering, transparency and so on) are provided.

Resources

A special resource manager allows you to use brushes created by other users of the program. This feature significantly expands the possibilities of drawing and processing images. Additional textures, gradients, etc. are available along with brushes.

Mirroring

You can quickly mirror an image, vertically or horizontally. It is also possible to mirror rotation with the Multibrush tool. Quick mirror function helps to turn the working canvas and look at faults in the construction of the artistic layout.

OpenGL

OpenGL support gives you the ability to zoom and rotate your canvas more quickly. The clarity of the image does not change even with a strong scaling.

PSD

The ability to work with PSD pleases users who use two or more graphics editors at the same time.

Highlights

After the first acquaintance Krita left only positive impression. I don’t know how much professionals will agree with us, but for a beginner, an ordinary user this editor will be useful.

Here are a few more additional features of Krita:

  • alpha channels and masks: the ability to display individual parts of the image, changing the color range without interfering with the image itself;
  • Animation: the possibility to create a frame-by-frame animation by selecting the appropriate workspace;
  • multi-format: the editor can open and work with a large number of formats, including the formats of Photoshop, Corel Draw, GIMP, etc;
  • macros: there is support of recording processing scripts, although many specialists speak of this as a weakness of Krita – it is more convenient in Photoshop;
  • autosave: set up automatic saving of the document not to lose results of the work.

To sum it up, Krita is a free graphics editor with Russian language support and a user-friendly, simple interface. The program is used as an alternative to paid and more cumbersome, more professional editors like Photoshop.