You can make a difference in the Apple Support Community!

When you sign up with your Apple Account, you can provide valuable feedback to other community members by upvoting helpful replies and User Tips.

Looks like no one’s replied in a while. To start the conversation again, simply ask a new question.

Any equivalent to MS Paint in Mac?

Hello to all,


I come from a windows background and am very familiar with the simple 'paint' application; I am searching for an equivalent app for my Mac. I have downloaded [free] 'paintbrush for Mac' from the internet but find that it does not have the tools which MS Paint has, and more importantly, I can work only with 2 colors...white an black. Can anyone point out to me any free download that allows me to work in color too?


FYI I do have Adobe photoshop but feel uncomfortable in trying to learn it! A personal 'irrational' dislike!

iMac, Mac OS X (10.7.4), garage band, FCPX:10.0.5 version

Posted on Oct 16, 2012 4:33 AM

Reply
Question marked as Top-ranking reply

Posted on Oct 17, 2012 6:16 PM

Hello Ian,


I have been trying out this app which is called SketchBook Express. It is also a free download from the Apple store. It seems to be lacking text input. Let me show my showpiece, my first piece of art with this app. I guess it looks very awful, but will have this noble quality: it will make every other artwork made by any person on earth a better one! Care to view it?



User uploaded file


BTW, I had saved this work as TIFF format and it failed to upload. Subsequently I saved it as PNG and lo and behold, it uploaded! Don't know what these formats mean but I am enjoying this every bit!

69 replies

Oct 21, 2012 10:23 PM in response to somanna

Hello to all,


I have been impressed with Seashore and guess it would be the solution to my quest. One particular feature which I am unable to get going with this app is this: the ability to draw a straight line with the pencil tool. Shift>dragging does not seem to be working! Any help given on this problem will be appreciated.


Also waiting fro you to send me the link you said you would Matt. Feel Gimp would also be able to meet my need.

Oct 22, 2012 1:24 AM in response to somanna

Hey somanna,


Sorry for the long delay in replying.


I remember having a few problems locating a doanload for the latest edition of Gimp, the link on their site was broken and so was a few other sites that I attempted to obtain it from. I have however sucessfuly located a working link to the version that I am using now.


http://gimp.en.softonic.com/mac/download


To make sure that the link is ok, I have downloaded the application and ran it to make sure that it will work for you. Just download the .dmg file, open it and copy the application to your Applications folder and you should be good to go. 🙂


Let me know if you have any other problems.

Oct 22, 2012 2:12 AM in response to -=Matt=-

Thanks Matt. I guessed you were having a gala weekend, free from all these video related activities. I had in the meanwhile being looking into Seashore which I have downloaded. If you or anyone can suggest how one can draw a straight line in this app, I would be delighted! Very funny it looks to me...having such a great app and not knowing how to do this elemenary thing!


I shall download the Gimp from your given link and let you know. Thanks for taking so much of your time, including the time spent in cross-checking the app. My, I am overwhelmed with this intense level of helpfulness. May you be blessed above all persons on earth!

Oct 22, 2012 2:50 AM in response to somanna

somanna wrote:


If you or anyone can suggest how one can draw a straight line in this app, I would be delighted!


You are more than welcome somanna, and to draw a straight line you need to hold 'Shift' and then click where you want your line to start and then (while still holding shift) click where you want to line to end... This will create a line between these two points.


Hope this helps 🙂

Aug 6, 2013 3:13 AM in response to somanna

Found a great replacement for MS Paint called Paint X Lite. This is the free version. It has most of the same tools as what we are use to. It has the beloved eye dropper and tons of brushes which give you a lot of effects. Has lots of shapes which you can introduce as an outline or filled. It has a large color palette. You can work with 2 colors at once plus the background which really makes it 3 with the use of different brushes. It has a text tool, spray paint, paint can and free drawing. It is really mimics how you would paint.


I had an extremely large canvas which I was able to downsize easily. I found it very intuitive and it gave superior results. This is what I will be using from here on out.😍 I am excited to see what else I can do.

Aug 6, 2013 3:26 AM in response to Eme

I tried sketchbook express; it was okay but not MS Paint like. I found a free program called Paint X Lite which seems to have all the same tools as MS Paint. It has most of the same tools that MS Paint users are use to: text tool, spray paint, paint can and free drawing. It has the beloved eye dropper and tons of brushes which give you a lot of effects. It seems better than MS Paint. You can work with 2 colors at once plus the background which really makes it 3 when using different brushes techniques. It is really mimics how you would paint (although I got a D in art)😮.

Sketchbook express has layers and I did not notice that feature in the Paint X lite. It could possibly be in the paid version but I don't know. I think you will be pleasantly surprised.

Aug 6, 2013 4:34 AM in response to arionly

Thanks for joining this thread Arionly. I just tried out your suggestion and find that this Paint X Lite seems to be the closest cousin of MS paint. I would be more happy with it were it to have this feature of showing the co-ordinates...when moving the cursor in MS Paint, you can read the value of the X and Y co-ordinates. Such a feature will help in having a correct placement of lines deployed in drawing plans of buildings, road safety related diagrams etc. However, it does have a grid view feature and this will certainly be a lot of help in getting an accurate drawing out. This said, I can say that this app certainly is the closest cousin to MS Paint. I may be not wrong in saying that were it to sport the co-ordinate locating feature that MS Paint has, these two would not be cousins but clones!


Regards and have great day.

May 10, 2014 5:56 PM in response to somanna

Dear Dr. Somanna,


Glad to help. I am sorry but I have not had a chance to play around with it. I found this via youtube and then I recalled your thread and wanted to post something to help you.


I am actually considering transitioning to a Mac and so I am looking into to finding mac alternatives for compatible Windows programs. How was your transition been thus far-- minus the paint ordeal?

May 16, 2014 8:47 PM in response to Chris Harwood

It is really kind of you to re-suggest this app Chris.The problem is that this is a paid app. I do have photoshop on my Mac and I guess I will be better off in trying to familiarize myself with this app!


Regards and have a great day.


Dr. Somanna


PS. I had bid goodbye to this thread long ago but it has been recently re-kindled by oracleoflight301!

May 29, 2015 2:12 PM in response to somanna

Actually there is a much easier answer. All you will need is a blank white JPG (you can easily get a blank canvas of any kind online with google image search). Open this in Apple Preview, and click the toolbox icon. You will get a variety of tools similar to MS Paint, including a line tool to draw straight lines easily.


Hope this helps!

CH

Any equivalent to MS Paint in Mac?

Welcome to Apple Support Community
A forum where Apple customers help each other with their products. Get started with your Apple Account.