Free Paint program for Mac OS X

Posted by Mathieu Jobin Wed, 04 Oct 2006 00:00:00 GMT

As most of you might already know, I really like Apple products, especially their shiny new computers with Mac OS X. They keep saying its read out-of-the-box and you can do whatever you want from Day one. no other software necessary. its actually true. but there is one software missing that I can't beleive they did not include. Its a Paint program. There is no paint program shipped with Apple. I suppose its because most Apple user used to be designer and all needed Photoshop. but I don't need photoshop, I don't want to pay for it and I don't want to pirate it either.

So here comes, I have taken a screenshot for my desktop (for my next post) onto my clipboard and I need to paste it somewhere. Holding onto my paste I am hunting down Free Paint software for OSX.

I actually found quite a few.

First google result returns TuxPaint, some kind of kiddish paint program. Probably very good for 3-5 years old kid who wants to learn how to use the mouse and draw stuff. but ain't really what I was looking for.

Then I remembered the obvious The Gimp. Being a Linux user for many years, I know The Gimp as the de-facto imaging program under linux. But The Gimp still requires X11 to run, which is not as slick as I would expect and X11 also prevented me from pasting my image contect onto the gimp. BAD. Good news is that it got much faster than it was last year. anyway, lets move on.

ArtRage another totally different alternative. I could not do what I wanted but I discover what many people might like to play with. The paint tool is a pleasure to use. for all the artistic people within you, try this one out. its something to see going.

more seriously there is Seashore which is a port of the Gimp apparently. Mac-ized. Pretty sweet. I've done what I needed pretty quickly. It also got much stabler that last time I tried it, about a year ago. definitely a good pick.

and The one that is gonna stick into my applications folder. Pixen. just like Seashore I've been able to do what I needed. but it just look slicker. ain't a port of something else. worked perfectly. well actually now that I remember correctly, it crashed on the first paste. but I restarted the application and it worked fine.

so conclusion both Pixen and Seashore are good pics. ArtRage deserve a try for his artistic behaviour and if you got a kid you might want to install TuxPaint, just and only for him ;)

Happy painting ;)

Update: apparently PhotoShop Elements is also very good and inexpensive (ie. cheaper than Photoshop ... $150US) but I have not tried it as I was looking for something Free.

Posted in , ,  | Tags , , , , , , , , , , , ,  | 13 comments | no trackbacks

Comments

Leave a response

  1. Claire said 285 days later:

    Well, I'm 38 and have got Tux Paint on my Mac. Its capable of producing some quite startling results if you know how. I also have Artrage (free version, but going to upgrade once I get paid), and I have Seashore.

    I had a look at Pixen, but it still seems too buggy for me.

    Good to know that I'm not the only one looking for freebies!lol

  2. Nathan said 295 days later:

    Thanks for this quick run down. Was just being asked by a friend about a free paint program without having to drop even the $$ needed for Photoshop Elements. Great suggestions!

  3. patmorris@cilfa.plus.com said 326 days later:

    August 2007 South Wales UK. I use windows paint for resizing pixels for my art site and was considering buying a Mac but - because there was no paint prog I have had second thoughts. I use Paint for dozens of jobs -designing gardens, making maps, designing brochures for my self catering business and can't imagine not having it. So thanks for this information.

  4. todd said 369 days later:

    I was just on the apple website looking for the same "paint"-like software. they have something called "paintbrush" for free download. Going to try it right now.

  5. t said 369 days later:

    try paintbrush on apple website.

  6. o said 415 days later:

    lol

  7. dfgdgdhty said 508 days later:

    ,l;jio,yuiuyikhuik

  8. Moving to Florida said 552 days later:

    Thank you for the information. I am transferring from PC to MAC and having a really hard time. When you used to something, it's hard to break old habits. Your post helped me a lot. Now, i am learning the Pixen program.

    Jenna

  9. samantha said 584 days later:

    Thank you so much for this post! I think I'll try Pixen (the name sounds cute!) When I got my mac I really liked all the fun programs but I was so mad that I couldn't just copy and paste pictures! I just wanted to clip photos and things! I'm so glad you put this information out. It's very helpful :)

  10. leon said 600 days later:

    thx for sharing also here is a link for screen capture http://www.techiecorner.com/138/how-to-do-print-screen-in-mac-os-x/

  11. iQuack said 628 days later:

    There's also PAINTBRUSH which is good for some things. Simple and fairly intuitive.

  12. TheRandomHERO said 643 days later:

    thanks alot for this, fulfill'd everything i was looking for.

  13. beginner said 666 days later:

    Thanks very much, I am a beginner, it is more than I need at the moment.

Trackbacks

Use the following link to trackback from your own site:
http://blog.somekool.net/articles/trackback/5261

RSS feed for this post trackback uri

(leave url/email »)

   Comment Markup Help Preview comment