paint on mac

There's nothing better than a good doodle sometimes and there are some great free Mac paint apps that for all ages. If you've got kids, paint applications are a cleaner alternative to having them get their hands dirty without stifling their creativity. Plus you can use far more tools and brushes than you'd normally have available in real life. Here are three of the best free paint applications I've used on the Mac:

Scribbles My personal favourite because it's so easy to use yet allows you to be really creative. Scribbles is so easy that anyone can use it, especially young kids. On startup, you're presented with a blank canvas and a round dot which is your paintbrush. You can spray in a variety of different styles such as a simple spraycan, an elegant calligraphy font or messy "goo".

Paintbrush One of Softonic's top Mac downloads, Paintbrush is a clone of MSPaint and is suitable for all those that need a little bit more control and features than Scribbles. Again, Paintbrush is extremely simple. You have a floating toolbox which allows you to change your painting tool, erase sketches, change color and more. Paintbrush is aimed at those that want to sketch something more serious than dodgy smiley faces and houses.


Helios Paint A cross platform Java based paint app which is probably the most complex of the three but also allows you to create the most technical images. It's aimed more at those that want accurately measure out lines, plot axis and generally produce more exacting images. The fact that it's based on Java though means that it can run rather sluggishly at times.


Mac is really greatful, but it miss the most useful function--- painting, and there are some free tools can help you do that with ease.
Download Tuxpaint. This is a kiddish program, good if you want to learn how to use use the mouse and draw lines and stuff but a bit bad for pro's. Tux Paint for Mac OS X comes as two disk image (.dmg) files. One contains main program (Tux Paint) and a configuration program (Tux Paint Config.) for parents and teachers. Copy them to your hard drive's Applications folder. The other contains an application that installs the optional 'stamps' collection.



Download Artrage. This program may not be as useful as some, but is fun to play around with. ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition gives you 8 painting tools and lets you create, save, and print as many pictures as you like and doesn't limit their size. ArtRage 2.5 Full Edition contains four new paint tools, the ability to paint on multiple layers, metallic paint, stencils and rulers, and a long list of additional features.




Download Seashore. This is a Mac version of another paint program called Gimp. It is very functional and useful once you learn how to work it. (Read the instructions!)





Download Pixen. This is another functional and useful program. It seems a bit harder to operate, but slicker. Pixen is an innovative graphics editor for the Mac. It's designed from top to bottom for pixel artists—people who make low-resolution raster art like the sprites you see in old video games. But it's great for artists of all arenas: Pixen is like a very powerful MSPaint or a simpler, more agile Photoshop. And best of all, it's Free!





Download Paintbrush. This is the program that attempts to mimic Microsoft Paint. Paintbrush is a simple paint program for Mac OS X, reminiscent of Microsoft Paint and Apple’s own now-defunct MacPaint. It provides users with a means to make simple images quickly, something which has been noticeably absent from the Mac for years.




Download Appleworks. This is actually a full suite of office programs but it contains a drawing program as well.




Download Beautiful Dorena. Admittedly more interesting than useful, the amazing graphic options and crazy sound effects will keep you entertained for hours on end. Beautiful Dorena is an experiment. More accurately, it is a bunch of experiments.