Paint Programs Free
Is it time to bid farewell to Microsoft Paint, a Windows staple since all the way back in version 1.0? According to a Microsoft page listing all the features to be removed from the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update, Paint is indeed going bye-bye.
Of course, this has yet to be officially confirmed by Microsoft, and there's always the possibility you'll be able to download the program separately.
If not, no worries: There are plenty of free alternatives to Paint, and most of them offer a lot more features. Let's take a look at some of the options.
Artweaver
- Publisher's Description. Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software. It features an intuitive and innovative user interface with support for layers, unlimited undo, special effects, and a wide variety of useful and powerful tools. An active and growing online community provides friendly help, tutorials, and plug-ins.
- Paint.NET is free image and photo editing software for computers that run Windows.
If you liked doing actual painting with Microsoft Paint, you'll love Artweaver. This touchscreen-friendly Windows program serves up a wealth of realistic brushes, pens, papers and more, all designed to unlock your inner artist.
Although the free version is quite capable, you'll need to invest in Artweaver Plus (about $40, or £30/AU$50) if you need technical support or want to use the program for commercial purposes. Just doodling, though? You'll find Artweaver a fine tool.
GIMP
The old-standby, old-favorite open-source image editor, GIMP hews much closer to Photoshop than it does to Paint, and as such the learning curve is much steeper. If you're willing to learn, this is definitely a major upgrade.
On the other hand, it's probably overkill for users just looking to draw cat pictures. Thankfully, the developers have created a handful of tutorials designed to walk you through various functions. And, hey, you can't have a conversation about free image-manipulation tools without mentioning GIMP. While I'm at it, Paint.NET is usually mentioned in the same breath; it's similarly sophisticated, similarly challenging for novices.
IrfanView
Do you use Paint mostly for simple image-editing? Consider switching to IrfanView, a fast and compact utility that's great for quick edits. With it you can rotate, flip and resize images; convert to grayscale, sharpen, fill backgrounds; and apply a variety of effects.
ArtRage, stylish and easy to use painting software. Get creative with digital art tools that feel just like the real thing. Create natural art. 9 Free Virtual House Paint Visualizer Options (Exterior & Interior Rooms) 1. Home Stratosphere’s Paint Visualizer Software. Benjamin Moore’s Personal Color Viewer. I love Benjamin Moore’s paint color software. Sherwin-Williams ColorSnap ® Visualizer for Web Software. Cloverdale Paint.
It's been my go-to app for years; I use it to tweak most of the images I share here on CNET. And it does have basic paint and text tools as well, so you can accomplish nearly everything here that you can in Paint -- and then some.
Krita
Built with illustrators and comics/manga artists in mind, Krita is an open-source paint program offering perks like a brush-stabilizer (to compensate for shaky hands), a wrap-around mode to produce seamless textures and patterns and a pop-up palette to keep useful tools close at hand.
Like a lot of the more advanced software in this roundup, Krita comes with a learning curve. Newbies will definitely want to check out the online documentation.
Pixlr Editor
Why bother downloading and installing software when you can work on the web? (Oh, right: working offline.) Assuming you're connected, check out Pixlr Editor, a browser-based image editor offering tools -- layers, filters, effects, etc. -- that rival both GIMP and Paint.NET.
Just one problem: The tools aren't labeled; you don't even get pop-up descriptors when you mouse over them. So unless you can identify, say, the smudge tool just by its icon, you may find Pixlr a little complicated.
VLC for Windows VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files as well as DVDs, Audio CDs, VCDs, and various streaming protocols. VLC is a free and open source cross-platform multimedia player and framework that plays most multimedia files, and various streaming protocols. 
Have you found a free Paint substitute you like better than any/all of these? Name it in the comments!
Update (7/25/16): I called it! Microsoft has announced plans to release MS Paint as a standalone app, one you'll be able to get free via the Windows Store.
Microsoft Paint is the first painting application to be introduced on a computer and its been around right from the early versions of Windows. It is a classic painting utility known for its simplicity, and it is surely the first application program that we will have ever used But sadly, it is no longer in active development, and they might be removed in future releases. In recent versions of Windows 10, most of the features and functionalities were officially removed and deprecated in Windows10. Microsoft Paint is one among the listed features that were deprecated.
However, Microsoft has officially declared that the Microsoft Paint will remain available through the Windows Store for free. Currently, Microsoft is focusing on the new Paint 3D, and Microsoft Paint will be integrated into the new Paint 3D. Paint 3D is the obvious replacement to Microsoft Paint and if you want to try out some new functionality, you have to use Paint 3D that features new 2D and 3D tools.
While it is great news that Microsoft Paint is going nowhere, we should still keep some alternative ready that would offer similar features to MS Paint. Here is a lost of some free Microsoft Paint alternatives that you may want o take a look at.
Free Microsoft Paint alternative software
In this article, we round some of the best alternatives to Microsoft Paint that are available for free. So let’s get started.
Free Paint Program Online
1. Paint.NET
Paint.net is a powerful image and photo editing software that runs on Windows 10. It is an obvious replacement to MS Paint and supports a variety of useful tools. It offers a super easy user interface just like MS Paint and is available for free download. It supports all the basic features like coloring, editing images, special effects,photoshop-esque layers, etc. Additionally, you can get the benefit of advanced features like contrast, unlimited undo and redos, an array of drawing tools, color correction, a variety of plugins, sharpen tools and blur tool with the user interface almost similar to Microsoft Paint.
2. Krita
Krita is an open source painting utility program offering a variety of drawing tools. This tool is a great option for professional artists which provides a lot of artistic tools for free which was absent in MS Paint. Krita is excellent for producing concept art, illustrations, and comics. It is also a great tool option for budding texture and matte painters.
3. Artweaver
Artweaver is a full-featured painting utility offering a vast range of predefined realistic brushes. It is suitable for both beginners as well as advanced artists to create stunning art. It has a different brush configuration to optimize the workflow, provides easy to use user interface, and it allows you to work with multiple artists on the same document over the internet. Additionally, it is powered by a powerful core that utilizes the hardware to the maximum and in fact increases the functionality by supporting additional tools.
4. GIMP
GIMP is an open source photo editing software available for Linux and Windows. It offers various art tools to create unique artwork creations for illustrator, painters, photographer, graphic designers, science and other beginner level artists. Unlike MS Paint it offers high-quality tools for high-quality photo manipulation and can be used for producing graphic design elements, creating art and icons.
5. IrfanView
IrfanView is a simple graphics viewer program that supports Windows 10. The software is compact and is very similar to MS paint. It is a great tool to edit images and perform basic operations like cut, crop, rotate, flip, sharpen and resize the images. It does all the basic job done in MS paint and is designed to be fast and powerful. Get the software here.
6. Pinta
Pinta is an open source image and photo editing software available for Linux, Mac and Windows. It offers basic art tools to create images, supports 35 adjustments and effects to manipulate images. It also supports advanced features and allows users to use multiple layers for easy editing and track complete history of your work.
7. Vectr
Vectr is a powerful image and photo editing software for creating exclusive graphic designs. It allows you to create vector graphics easily with the help of its vast art tools. The free tool is compatible with Linux, Mac, and Windows. Vectr users can also engage in a real-time collaboration that would allow you to send a Vectr document URL to colleagues without a hassle. Vectr is used to make crisp and clear presentations, invitations, greeting cards, websites, logos, icons, and other artwork. You can download it here.
Which one is your favorite?
Free Paint Programs 2019
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