Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,680
4,111
New Zealand
I want to do some simple drawing. In Windows, I'd just open up Paint, but I can't find anything similar in OS X. Does OS X come with a "Paint" application, and if not, what's a decent free one?
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
What kind of drawing? Do you want to do painting too? Image touch-up?

My Mac came with OmniGraffle for drawing, PixelNhance for color touchup, and GraphicConverter for image conversion.

iPhoto can do image touch-up.

If you didn't get AppleWorks with your Mac, it's cheap to buy, especially for a student. Its drawing module has limited features but has a nice design. I prefer it to MS Word drawing. The AppleWorks painting module is bare bones.

Preview can display almost any type of image file and it lets you crop, flip, and rotate.

Bottom line: There is nothing equivalent to Windows Paint, but you have a few choices depending on what you have in mind. There are freeware and shareware choices too.
 

AMDMACMAN

macrumors newbie
Jan 5, 2004
15
0
I dont know if this might work for you. I used to use a much earlier version of this software in elementary school. If my memory serves me KidPix was a great painting/drawing tool. I dont think it was very powerful but it always got the job done. From what i remember it was better that MS paint is now. (but that may just be nostalgia from my younger days).

Take a look!

Kid Pix
 

Doctor Q

Administrator
Staff member
Sep 19, 2002
39,858
7,725
Los Angeles
I like Kid Pix too, but I try not to let adults catch me using it. They'll find out I like having fun while I paint!

The original black-and-white version of Kid Pix was written by Craig Hickman in 1989. Unlike the color Broderbund version, it is free. Read about it here and download it here.
 

Nermal

Moderator
Original poster
Staff member
Dec 7, 2002
20,680
4,111
New Zealand
Oh yeah, I remember Kid Pix from when I was at school :)

I just want to do simple stuff, I basically just need the "pencil" tool, you know, really basic :) I'll take a look at all those suggestions and see what I can find.

BTW, I don't have AppleWorks. I had it on my old iBook, but not on my current Power Mac.
 

robbieduncan

Moderator emeritus
Jul 24, 2002
25,611
893
Harrogate
Originally posted by Doctor Q
You might as well read this thread from last year too.

As noted in the thread linked above The Gimp is free and pretty good. It can be used for simple drawing all the way up towards Photoshop type manipulation. There is a new version out soon that will include CMYK colour spaces as well which should finally make it a viable alternative for most people. Give it a try!
 
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.