Well, may be, there is no open source or freeware Photoshop
alternatives, since the software is filled with complicated and sophisticated build-in
features and external plugins. But, may be you do not need all these gimmicks,
requiring long and detailed training and learning curve? May be, the simpler substitute
will work fine, based on your exact needs and applications.
If you are looking for that, look at Krita – free creative
sketching and painting application based on Calligra technology. Whether you
want to create art paintings, cartoons, concept art or textures, Krita supports
most graphics tablets out of the box. Krita’s vision statement is: Krita is a KDE program for sketching and
painting, offering an end–to–end solution for creating digital painting files
from scratch by masters.
Fields of painting that Krita explicitly supports are
concept art, creation of comics and textures for rendering. Modelled on
existing real-world painting materials and workflows, Krita supports creative
working by getting out of the way and with snappy response.
Main features:
Interface and
Workspace
Krita has a user-friendly interface. In the settings menu,
you can choose the color theme, which toolbars and dockers you want to use, and
edit keyboard shortcuts. Save a given set of dockers as a workspace and switch
between them. The canvas can be easily rotated and mirrored. The OpenGL canvas
supports high-bit depth monitors. There is a large set of options available to
create a no-distractions canvas-only painting mode.
Wrap-Around Mode
It is easy to create seamless textures and patterns now.
Press the ‘W’ key while painting to toggle wrap-around mode. The image will
make references of itself along the x and y axis. Continue painting and watch
all of the references update instantly. No more clunky offsetting to see how
your image repeats itself. You can even paint off the edge and it will
automatically start painting on the top.
Multiple Brush Engines
and Blending Modes
A brush engine is more than just a typical brush pattern
with settings changed. Each brush engine has its own logic and behavior. The
included engines are pixel, smudge, duplicate, filter, hairy, hatching,
texture, chalk, color smudge, curve, deform, dyna, experiment (Alchemy), grid,
particle, sketch, and spray brushes. Brush settings can be saved as presets and
shared. There are a staggering amount of blending modes available. The blending
modes are arranged by category and have your favorites stored at the top of the
list.
Advanced Selection and
Masking Tools
Krita comes with many methods of selecting parts of your
canvas in order to edit them. You can select with shapes such as rectangles and
circle, paint your selection, polgon selection, select by color, select by
Bezier. You can add, remove, or intersect to your selection. You can also make
selection by layer contents by context clicking the layer and clicking “select
opaque”. You can create a transparency layer by itself, or add one to an existing
layer. This is great tool for non-destructive changes.
Symmetry Tools and
Drawing Aids
Symmetry tools that go much further than basic mirroring.
Take full control by being able to determine how many axis you need. Modify the
origin center, angle, and smoothing parameters. Easy to toggle x and y mirror
buttons in the top toolbar. Drawing aids such as perspective grids and shapes
that have magnetic settings.
Filters and Effects
Filters can be used directly on a layer, or as filter masks
or layers. The effect of a filter is previewed on the image itself. There are
special effects like wave, oil paint, and emboss. Adjustments such as levels,
brightness/contrast, and HSV are also included. Additional tools that can be
useful for making selections like color to alpha and color transfer.
Layer and Color
Management
Krita has raster, vector, filter, programmatic, group, and
file-backed layers. Each layer has settings for visibility, edit lock,
transparency lock, and alpha locking. Layers can be dragged and dropped to and
from other applications. Vector layers support text, vector shapes and filters
on vector shapes. Krita supports the following color models for creating and
editing images: RGBA, Gray, CMYKA, Lab, YCbCr, XYZ in 8 bits integer, 16 bits
integer, 16 bits floating point, 32 bits floating point. Krita always uses
color management.
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