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Best Productivity ResourcesBy Shushant LakhyaniVerified creator

Desktop App

MyPaint

A nimble, distraction-free, open-source painting app.

Visit MyPaint4.1

  • Rating

    4.1 / 5

  • Pricing

    Free

  • Difficulty

    Beginner

  • Works on

    Windows, macOS, Linux

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What is MyPaint?

MyPaint is an easy, nimble and distraction-free tool for painting and sketching from scratch, with a configurable brush engine and a near-endless canvas. It is open source under the GPL and community-led, with the latest stable release, 2.0.1, from 2020 and ongoing development on GitHub. It runs on Linux, Windows and macOS.

Pros: what MyPaint does well

  • Free and open source (GPL)
  • Distraction-free canvas
  • Excellent brush engine

Cons: where it falls short

  • Last stable release was in 2020
  • Few tools beyond painting

Who MyPaint is for

Artists who want a minimal, focused painting app on desktop.

Who can skip it

People who need layers-heavy illustration or comics tools.

MyPaint alternatives

Not sold on MyPaint? These do a similar job, and each card says what it has in common.

All Personal Productivity resources

Krita

Focus: illustration, animation and photoshop alternative. Shares digital painting and open source with MyPaint. Adds Android. Rated 4.7 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.7Visit

Navidrome

Focus: music, streaming and self-hosted. Shares open source with MyPaint. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.7 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Web AppFreeWeb, macOS
4.7Visit

LeechBlock NG

Focus: website blocker, browser extension and focus. Shares open source with MyPaint. A browser extension, not a desktop app. Adds Chrome and Firefox. Rated 4.5 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Browser ExtensionFreeChrome, Firefox
4.5Visit

optimizerDuck

Focus: windows, optimization and performance. Shares open source with MyPaint. A Windows app, not a desktop app. Rated 4.4 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Windows AppFreeWindows
4.4Visit

MediBang Paint

Focus: manga and comics. Shares digital painting and fresco alternative with MyPaint. Freemium (MyPaint: Free). Adds iOS and Android. Rated 4.3 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFree planWindows, iOS
4.3Visit

Free alternatives to MyPaint

Want to spend nothing? These free picks cover similar ground.

Tiny Little Office

Focus: office suite, documents and spreadsheets. Shares open source with MyPaint. A web app, not a desktop app. Adds Web. Rated 4.3 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Web AppFreeWeb
4.3Visit

Mullvad Browser

Focus: private browser, anti-tracking and fingerprinting. Also in Digital Minimalism and Personal Productivity, like MyPaint. Rated 4.5 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFreeWindows, macOS
4.5Visit

Ghostty

Focus: terminal, emulator and gpu. Shares open source with MyPaint. Rated 4.9 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Linux
4.9Visit

fzf

Focus: fuzzy finder, command line and shell. Shares open source with MyPaint. Adds Offline. Rated 4.8 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit

lazygit

Focus: git client, terminal ui and developer tool. Shares open source with MyPaint. Adds Offline. Rated 4.8 (MyPaint: 4.1).

Desktop AppFreemacOS, Windows
4.8Visit
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