Krita, to process images, draw and paint
Krita is free, open source, free and unlimited license digital image processing, illustration, cartoon, sketching and painting software.
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| Krita, to process images, draw and paint |
Krita, which comes from the Creativity Tools of the Calligra suite, was initially only available on GNU / Linux. Its multiplatform availability opens up new perspectives of use, in particular in teaching and learning. Krita is to Manga Studio what Blender is to Maya: a solid alternative to an illustration tenor.
Krita is frequently updated software (every two months or so), bringing a lot of newfeatures and bug fixes. Developers are not only active, but also responsive. You can go to their forum to contact them.
You can download the software(in English) on this page and find my getting started guide at this address, in the section dedicated to Krita. In this article, written especially in French for Logilibre, the Adte blog, we will explore the amazing features that Krita has to offer.
A flexible and user-friendly interface
Krita’s interface is built around removable and customizable panels. You can arrange, hide, and resize them to suit your current needs. It is also possible to save and load work areas.
Multiple brush engines
One of the strengths of the software is the variety of brushes you can create. There are several engines that can produce different effects. One of them, for example, allows you to mix colors on the canvas, much like you would with oil paint. An engine added in the latest version even allows painting of normal maps, images intended to create an illusion of volume when applied to a 3D model.
We can also specify that Krita has a built-in line stabilization function: it can automatically smooth your lines and thus greatly speed up the inking of a drawing, for example.
Extensive mask management
Krita offers different types of masks to modify your design without destroying it. Beyond the classic opacity mask, which allows you to erase part of a painting and then go back, it is possible to create transformation masks, which will allow you to deform a drawing without losing the creation of origin.
The Multibrush tool
The Multibrush tool lets you paint in axial or radial symmetry, as well as draw with several brushes at the same time. Thanks to this tool, you will be able to draw complex patterns, such as rosettes or snowflakes for example.
Rich transformations and deformations
With the free transform tool, you can scale and rotate a layer. It is also possible to rotate your layer in space, a feature unique to Krita. This function is very useful for quickly accentuating the volume of a character or a piece of scenery.
The classic perspective warp is also present, as well as a cage warp tool and the fluidity tool, which allows you to distort its path with a brush. Another special feature of the software is that you can apply any of these transformations to an entire group of layers.
Toolbars, palettes and shortcuts
Beyond these tools, we obviously find all the classics of drawing software. The toolbox not only includes a brush, but a multitude of tools dedicated to drawing shapes. There is also a tool for cropping the image, another for making measurements, a bucket of paint, gradients … the selections are not left out with a magic wand and a color picker.
The software also comes with a color palette manager, as well as a handy br
ush manager. We can associate tags with our drawing tools to arrange them by categories. We can also bookmark certain brushes and then access them with a simple right click on our document. Right-clicking therefore brings up a wheel containing your favorite brushes, a color picker and a history of the last colors used.
Finally, Kritaoffers customizable shortcuts through a dedicated window. Almost any function of the software can be assigned a shortcut of your choice with just a few clicks. A search bar also provides quick access to any function.
In summary Krita offers:
a discrete modular interface, ideal for focusing on painting;
simple yet deep brush editing options;
complete management of masks;
painting in axial and radial symmetry and with multiple simultaneous lines;
the deformation in perspective, by cage, or via a Fluidity tool.
And much more: powerful manager for colorimetry, filter layers for a non-destructive process, layer instances, repeat / wrap-around mode, vector tools, wizards to draw in perspective, rotation of the document to facilitate drawing … with a redesign of part of the interface, in-depth performance work and a toolkit for traditional animation in development. Krita could well dethrone several of its nonfree competitors.
