Getting your art out there has never been easier than it is today. Just a few decades ago, people needed sophisticated tools and other expensive methods to show others their creative talent. Digital platforms have revolutionized this landscape and a lot of artists are getting recognized every day. However, if you’re looking for drawing apps for Mac, you can find a ton of options and it can be a little overwhelming.
In this article, we are going to streamline that list so that you can choose the best drawing app for you. Let’s jump into it.
The Five Best Free Drawing Apps for Mac August 2020 Arch Read more August 14, 2020 While it’s certainly never been easier to create digital art, premium professional tools still cost an arm and a leg. Best Free Drawing Software Online Creating an artistic piece from scratch is never easy, especially when the platform you choose is the computer. However, there is a huge list of amazing art programs available for PCs which can make the job very easy.
Contents
- 1 Top 10 Best Drawing Apps for Mac:
Top 10 Best Drawing Apps for Mac:
We have compiled a list of 8 best drawing apps for Mac that you can get today. The list is ranked based on which app we think is the best, but you can choose whichever app suits your art style.
1. Adobe Photoshop
What can I say about Adobe Photoshop that hasn’t been said already? Photoshop has been around for a long time and it gets new updates every year. It’s one of the most sophisticated drawing apps for Mac and will be a lot of help for a creator. You can create your own image and also edit other images to your liking. This software has a lot of love and support all over the world and it’s easy to understand why. There are a lot of videos online that’s going to help you learn Photoshop and there’s a large online community who’d be happy to help you. The newest version, Photoshop 2020, has an AI called Adobe Sensei that will help you get better selections.
Photoshop is great, but it is expensive. You will have to pay a subscription fee of $20.99/month if billed annually and you can do so here. So if you’re new to the creator scene, then I’d recommend checking out other entries.
2. Autodesk Sketchbook
If you want a professional drawing app with a lot of bells and whistles and if you want it for free, then Autodesk Sketchbook is for you. This app is so versatile and feature-rich that it will appeal to a lot of people. It has a minimalistic design and is preferred by a lot of content creators. There are over 140 brushes and you can even import brushes created by other artists. You can also get custom perspective guides among other things.
You can check out more features and download the app by clicking on this link.
3. Corel Painter
Corel Painter is an app that’s designed by creators for creators. It has a wide variety of tools you can use to propel your art to the next level. With over 900 brushes, this app is loved by many artists. Corel Painter also supports GPU acceleration so that you can get your work done much faster. Their website has hundreds of videos that will help you perform better.
Corel Painter costs $339.99 and there’s no subscription. You can download the app here.
4. Rebelle 3
If you are into realistic painting, then you will find Rebelle 3 appealing. It’s a unique app that uses realistic watercolor, acrylic paint simulations. The resulting image will look like it was made on paper with real colors and if this suits your art style, then you should definitely go for it. It makes the colors seem extremely realistic and you can even get simulated watercolor drops. This app was supposed to be an experimental software designed by Peter Blaškovič and it is popular among watercolor painters and CG artists.
You can check out Rebelle 3 and its features on its website. You can get Rebelle 3 for $89.99.
5. FireAlpaca
If you are new to digital drawing or if you have older Macs, then FireAlpaca should be a nice fit for you. It doesn’t have as many features as the earlier entries on the list, but that’s why it’s recommended to beginners. You won’t find the options overwhelming and you can worry about getting a more powerful Mac later on. It’s a small app that’s simple, easy and free to use.
You can check out the feature list of FireAlpaca on their website.
6. Preview
Preview comes pre-installed on a Mac and it can do much more than sign PDFs. If you want a simple drawing app for random doodles, the Preview should be good enough. You can open up any image on Preview and click on the Markup icon (pictured above) to access a lot more menus. It can help you doodle, make notes and even select shapes with the lasso tool. Since this is an in-built app, you don’t have to download anything.
7. Clip Studio Paint
If your dream is to become the best mangaka on Za Warudo!(means “the world” for all of my readers who are not JoJo fans), then you deserve a great manga illustrator. Clip Studio Paint is highly recommended if you draw a lot of manga panels. You can decide panel layouts and customize the tools for your art style pretty quickly. This drawing app for Mac also works great if you want to draw comics.
Clip Studio Paint is available for the free trial and you can get the standard version for $49.99. You can get the full-featured version for $219.99.
8. MediBang Paint
MediBang Paint, just like Clip Studio Paint is aimed at anime and comic-book artists. It has over 50 brushes and a large number of backgrounds that you can choose from. They have tons of tutorials for you on their website and you can snap grids and arrange the panels easily. This app is also available on iPhones and iPads. Medibang Paint is available for free and you can download it here.
9. Inkscape
Inkscape is an app that will appeal to a wide variety of creative people. It can help you create anything from sketches to website designs. It’s a versatile app that’s open-source and free to use. Inkscape also has a very helpful community that will help you use the app.
You can download Inkscape for free by clicking on this link.
10. Patina
Patina is another simple app that lets you create sketches to your heart’s content and simply moves everything else out of the way. It has a simple layout and it’s extremely simple to use. you can use it to make a lot of sketches and doodles on other images too. Patina has a lot of essential features but misses out on stuff like multiple layers. This app is, however, perfect for beginner artists.
Patina is a free app available on the App Store and you can download here.
List of 19 Drawing Software For Macbook
Here is the total list of top Drawing tools and Apps for your Macbook.
- Adobe Photoshop
- Autodesk Sketchbook
- Corel Painter
- Rebelle 3
- FireAlpaca
- Preview
- Clip Studio Paint
- MediBang Paint
- Inkscape
- Patina
- Adobe Illustrator
- Leonardo
- Affinity Designer
- Krita
- Tayasui Sketches
- Paintbrush
- Tayasui Sketches
- Sketch
- Sip
Final Take
These are some of the best drawing apps for Mac. I hope that this article was helpful to you. If you have any doubts or if we missed your favorite app, then please let us know in the comments section down below and we will get back to you as soon as we can.
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
Best Free Painting Software For Mac Os X
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.
Best Freeware For Mac
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.
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