We spend so much of our working lives on our computers that it’s easy to forget that they can be an artistic outlet as well. But you don't have to be a master illustrator or shell out hundreds of dollars for drawing software just to enjoy some creative recreation. Setapp offers a range of creative apps that turn your Mac into your own private studio, no brushes required.
- Paint S is an easy-to-use drawing tool and image editor which can help you to draw pictures and edit your existing photos. With it you can sketch and crop, rotate, scale images very easily. At the same time, you can add text onto images as you want. The app also supports layers, so you can re-edit them freely. Paint S is the free version of.
- Microsoft Paint for Mac doesn't exist. Mac users are advised to download Paintbrush, a user-friendly and lightweight paint program for Mac OS. What is MS Paint used for? Microsoft Paint is a simple raster graphics editor. It opens and saves files in Windows bitmap (BMP), JPEG, GIF, PNG, and single-page TIFF formats.
Drawing software for Mac
Patina is an elegant equivalent to Microsoft Paint on Mac which is aimed at those that want something stylish, powerful but simple like MS Paint. For the very modest fee of $2.99, you basically get a better version of MS Paint but with all the same features and more besides.
Get a best creative apps for keeping your Mac in shape. Best drawing tools in one pack, give it a go!
How to draw on a Mac
Whatever your skill level, drawing a little bit every day has clear psychological benefits. And what better way to get into the habit than to start sketching, doodling, and even painting right on your computer?
Step 1: Choose drawing software and tools
Of course, part of the fun of the digital world is that it can make so many colors, textures, and effects available. You’ll want something that gives you access to this wide range of options without being too complicated.
Tayasui Sketches is a great drawing app for the Mac. It packs a ton of functionality into a minimal interface, letting you focus on your creativity, not on the buttons. Plus, the background and brushes all give the sense of drawing on real paper, not a blank digital canvas. You can start drawing using your mouse, or attach any standard tablet for the flexibility that a stylus or Apple Pencil provide.
Basic drawing tools to start
The best drawing app can give you a freedom to express your ideas as digital art. It provides a number of tooltip options for its paintbrush tool that mimic the effect of real paintbrushes. Simply select the brush, pencil, or marker type you’d like to use, choose your color, and start painting.
The tooltips mimic the physical qualities of different media; markers offer a thick, opaque line while watercolors are semi-transparent on the page, bleeding and fading to different intensities for a looser look. As you work with the Tayasui Sketches, you’ll get a sense of each medium’s opacity and learn how to incorporate them into your unique style.
Building up a drawing
Choose the app that allows to create an unlimited number of layers to draw on. This lets you lay down foundation sketches before you come in with a paintbrush or marker. You can also experiment with different washes and overlays on top of your drawing without fear of ruining it. With layers, you can try out various styles and versions of the same painting, or even delete underlying layers for an interesting effect.
Watching your creative in progress
If you’d like to improve your painting and drawing, or show others how to achieve the same effect, you can record your process to review later or share online. Nobody becomes a master overnight, but by referring back to paintings you’re proud of or soliciting advice from other artists on your technique, you’ll know where to focus your effort. Plus, you’ll have the whole record of your improvement in one place.
Step 2: Painting tips to draw faster
Once you’ve gotten comfortable with drawing and painting, you can use a number of apps to push your work to the next level.
Image color picker
How do you select an exact color to match? The fastest way is to use a color picker. It allows to click on the image to get the color of a pixel.
Sip lets you add any color you encounter on the web to a set of endlessly customizable palettes. It seamlessly integrates with paintbrush apps for the Mac, including Tayasui Sketches, so you can use colors you sample in your own work. Color picker lets you zoom in and out to select exactly the right source shade, plus its built-in color editor lets you adjust your selected shades as needed.
Retouching tools
As strong as your painting skills might be, everyone can benefit from a little post-production help. That’s where CameraBag Pro comes in. This robust image editor is set up with beginners in mind. Even if you’re not a PhotoShop pro, you can sharpen, blur, and make small corrections with ease. You might also find that the app’s extensive collection of filters add another layer of complexity to your work.
Step 3: Organize your art
Keeping track of your work can be a challenge, especially when you’re producing variations on the same image. The image managing app Emulsion lets you examine, annotate, and organize pictures in folders and cataloging your image library using multi-level tags from a single window. You’ll be able to set up automatic tags for different projects, zoom in to the pixel level with its loupe function, and export your work in any image format. Plus, this organizer lets you size, crop, and share your art with ease, integrating seamlessly with dropbox and other cloud hosting services.
Between its flagship drawing and painting tool and its suite of helpful image enhancers and organizers, Setapp can help both beginners and experts get over MS Paint once and for all. Make sure you get the right tool (and the right tooltip) for the job.
Meantime, prepare for all the awesome things you can do with Setapp.
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How to Get PaintShop Pro on a Macbook
Switching from a Windows PC to a Macbook can be a hassle because not all Windows programs have versions for Mac OS. Corel’s PaintShop Pro is one of such programs. If it is your go-to tool for photo editing, you’ll have to either choose and learn to use a Mac alternative or get Windows OS inside your Macbook. There are two main ways to install Windows on a Mac: use BootCamp Assistant to install Windows alongside macOS or use virtualization software to create a Windows virtual machine. Virtual apps for Mac include Parallels Desktop, VMware Fusion and VirtualBox. This article describes pros and cons of installing Windows with the help of Boot Camp, Parallels, VMware and VirtualBox and provides links to step-by-step instructions on installing Windows via those methods.
Option 1: Download Windows 10 and PaintShop Pro on a Mac With BootCamp
Boot Camp comes with your Macbook for free, and it allows you to install Windows alongside macOS, so you can choose which of them to boot on startup. Mac’s Boot Camp Assistant will help you install Windows, partition the startup drive and install necessary drivers.
If you install Windows via Boot Camp, Windows will have all of your Macbook’s resources and can run programs with the maximum possible performance. That’s why dual-booting is ideal for running resource-intensive programs like video-editing software or high-end games.
On the other hand, only one operating system will be able to run at the same time, so you will have to reboot into Windows in order to use PaintShop Pro. Another possible drawback is fact that Windows and macOS use different file systems, and you will not be able to open Mac files on Windows or vice versa unless you install specific third-party drives for it. That is not a problem when using virtual machines.
Option 2: Run Paint Shop Pro on a Macbook Using a Windows 10 Virtual Machine
Virtual machines allow you to install and open Windows 10 in a window on your Mac desktop. Windows will “think” it’s running on a real computer, when it is running inside an app. With virtual machines you run both macOS and Windows at the same time, which is handy if you want to open PaintShop Pro alongside your Mac applications. However, when you run a virtual machine, your computer’s resources are split between the two operating systems, so everything may run slower than usual.
Install Windows 10 and PaintShop Pro on macOS With Parallels Desktop
Paint For Macbook Download
Parallels Desktop is very intuitive and easy-to-use for regular computer users. The app will configure everything for you, even download Windows 10 or utilize the one you already downloaded via Boot Camp. You can open Windows in a separate window (including a full screen mode), or you can turn on Coherence mode. In Coherence mode the virtual machine will run in the background, while Paint Shop Pro or other Windows programs can run alongside your Mac apps. You can even put Windows programs on your macOS desktop or pin them to Dock. Parallels Desktop allows you to copy and paste or drag and drop between Windows and macOS without any problems.
Paint For Macbook Pro
Parallels Desktop prices start at $79.99, however there is a free trial period available.
Get Windows 10 and Paint Shop Pro on Mac OS X With VMware Fusion
VMware Fusion is another popular virtualization software for Macbooks. It is close to Parallels in terms of functionality and pricing, but VMware’s Fusion supports a larger number of operating systems than Parallels. On the other hand, Parallels is easier for beginners, and runs a little smoother. Otherwise, these two programs are approximately on the same level.
VMware Fusion offers a free trial period to its users, same as Parallels, so you may try both for free and decide which one you like better, before committing.
Install Windows 10 and PaintShop Pro on a Mac OS Via VirtualBox
Microsoft Paint For Mac Os
If you don’t plan to spend extra money on virtualization software, there’s always VirtualBox by Oracle. VirtualBox is a pretty decent free alternative to paid software if not slower, less polished and missing some handy functions. If you need to run some resource intensive Windows programs (like PaintShop Pro), VirtualBox might not be the best choice for you. VirtualBox also requires more technical knowledge than, for example, Parallels, as users need to tune some settings themselves when installing it. However, if you are a power user already or don’t mind doing a little more work, VirtualBox may be a good (and free!) alternative.