Krita: Open Source Alternative to Adobe Photoshop

What is Krita?

What it is

Krita is a free and open source cross-platform application for digital painting. It lives in the KDE ecosystem and is built on the KDE and Qt frameworks. The project is licensed under the GNU Public License, Version 3, and the GitHub repository is a mirror of the real code repository at https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita.git.

Krita solves the problem of creating digital art files from scratch without relying on proprietary painting software. It is aimed at artists who want to create professional work from start to end, and it positions itself as an open alternative to Adobe Photoshop. The README describes use by comic book artists, illustrators, concept artists, matte and texture painters, and the digital VFX industry.

Key capabilities

Creates digital art files from scratch as an end-to-end painting workflow.
Runs as a cross-platform application built on KDE and Qt frameworks.
Supports professional digital painting work for comics, illustration, concept art, matte painting, texture painting, and digital VFX.
Provides master, stable, and release CI pipelines for ongoing development and testing.
Publishes nightly builds for unstable master and stable krita-5.2 branches.
Provides Linux AppImage and Windows zip artifacts for development testing.
Includes ASAN debug builds with environment variable setup for memory checking.

Who uses it and how

Comic book artists, illustrators, concept artists, matte painters, and texture painters use Krita to create professional digital art files from start to end.
Digital VFX industry users use it for digital painting work.
Contributors build Krita from source using the online build documentation and follow the user manual.
Testers download Linux AppImage or Windows zip artifacts from CI jobs, including linux-debug-weekly, linux-asan-weekly, and windows-asan-weekly.
Windows testers run krita.com after setting ASAN_OPTIONS=new_delete_type_mismatch=0:detect_leaks=0 and changing to the downloaded bin directory.

Getting started

Build Krita from source using https://docs.krita.org/en/untranslatable_pages/building_krita.html, or download Linux AppImage and Windows zip artifacts from https://cdn.kde.org/ci-builds/graphics/krita/master/ or https://cdn.kde.org/ci-builds/graphics/krita/krita-5.2/. Run the Linux AppImage, or run krita.com from the Windows bin directory after setting ASAN_OPTIONS=new_delete_type_mismatch=0:detect_leaks=0 for ASAN builds.

When to use it — and when not to

Use Krita when you need a free and open source digital painting application built on KDE and Qt, and when Adobe Photoshop is not the desired product. Do not use it if you expect the GitHub repository to be the primary development home, because the README states that GitHub is only a mirror and the real code repository is provided by KDE. Do not use it if you need a self-hosted web service, because the README describes desktop builds, nightly artifacts, and source documentation rather than database, storage, or SMTP deployment.

project readme (upstream, from github) — read inline

CI Name	Master	Stable	Release
Pipeline

Note: Nightly builds are not covered by this table atm

Krita is a free and open source digital painting application. It is for artists who want to create professional work from start to end. Krita is used by comic book artists, illustrators, concept artists, matte and texture painters and in the digital VFX industry.

If you are reading this on GitHub, be aware that this is just a mirror. Our real code repository is provided by KDE: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita.git

Repository Status

For branch: master

Freeze type	Status
Feature Freeze	features are allowed
String Freeze	strings are allowed

User Manual

https://docs.krita.org/en/user_manual.html

Development Notes and Build Instructions

Please follow the online documentation.

Other developer guides, notes and wiki:

https://docs.krita.org/en/untranslatable_pages.html

Apidox:

https://api.kde.org/legacy/krita/html/index.html

Bugs and Wishes

https://bugs.kde.org/buglist.cgi?bug_status=UNCONFIRMED&bug_status=CONFIRMED&bug_status=ASSIGNED&bug_status=REOPENED&list_id=1315444&product=krita&query_format=advanced

Discussion Forum

https://krita-artists.org/

IRC channel

Most of the developers hang out here. If you are interested in helping with the project this is a great place to start.

libera.chat, #krita

Project Website

https://www.krita.org

Nightly builds

Unstable

https://cdn.kde.org/ci-builds/graphics/krita/master/

Stable

https://cdn.kde.org/ci-builds/graphics/krita/krita-5.2/

Developers builds

Linux build with debug symbols in Qt and Krita

Go to Jobs section of Krita's CI: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita/-/jobs
Search for the latest linux-debug-weekly job
Enter the job and click on Artifacts->Browse
Download the AppImage

Linux build with ASAN in Qt and Krita

Go to Jobs section of Krita's CI: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita/-/jobs
Search for the latest linux-asan-weekly job
Enter the job and click on Artifacts->Browse
Download the AppImage

Set up environment variable for ASAN:

    export ASAN_OPTIONS=new_delete_type_mismatch=0:detect_leaks=0

Run the AppImage in the modified environment

Windows build with ASAN in Qt and Krita

Go to Jobs section of Krita's CI: https://invent.kde.org/graphics/krita/-/jobs
Search for the latest windows-asan-weekly job
Enter the job and click on Artifacts->Browse
Download the .zip file
Open terminal

Set up environment variable for ASAN:

    set ASAN_OPTIONS=new_delete_type_mismatch=0:detect_leaks=0

Change working directory to c:\path\where\you\downloaded\krita-5.3.0-prealpha-git12345\bin. That is important, otherwise ASAN will not be able to locate llvm-symbolizer.exe and the backtraces generated by ASAN will not contain proper symbols.
```
    cd c:\path\where\you\downloaded\krita-5.3.0-prealpha-git12345\bin
```
Run krita
```
    krita.com
```

License

Krita as a whole is licensed under the GNU Public License, Version 3. Individual files may have a different, but compatible license.

AI Moratorium

Since the Krita developer community cannot currently find consensus on whether the use of AI tools to assist development is acceptable or not, we have decided to put a moratorium on the use of these tools until October 2026.

The reason for pushing this off to October are:

if we'd allow the use of AI in development right now, the backlash from our users and supporters will be furious.
KDE as a whole does not have a policy in place, and if our policy would conflict with KDE's we'd potentially have to revert contributions made with AI
The development of AI itself might change for the better or the worse in the next period. Microsoft is already backtracking from their CoPilot brand. Acceptance of AI can change for better or worse. The environmental impact of AI could lessen.

Until we make a decision, the use of AI when working on Krita is not allowed.

Frequently asked questions

Is Krita free to use?

Krita is open source under the GPL-3.0 licence. There is no licence fee and no seat count — you can self-host it or, where the project offers one, pay a vendor for a managed version instead.

What does Krita do?

Professional digital painting made accessible to everyone

What is Krita written in?

Krita is primarily written in C++. Its source is publicly available at https://github.com/kde/krita, and it has 10,385 GitHub stars.

What is a good open source alternative to Adobe Photoshop?

Krita is one of the open source options listed as an alternative to Adobe Photoshop. Compare licences, stars and activity side by side on the Krita profile.