Essential drawing app for Mac
Create and edit your brushes with Tayasui Sketches
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Macs have always been known as creative machines for creative people. It’s likely the reason you actually bought one! So naturally Macs offer a wide variety of opportunities for you to express yourself, whether that’s building apps, writing prose, or drawing.
Having a good drawing app for Mac is priceless. Retina screens, accurate touchpads, and native support for a variety of inputs make sketching on Mac a pleasure. But with so many drawing programs to choose from, how do you pick the right one? Welcome to the no-sweat guide to the best free drawing software for Mac!
Jun 07, 2017 Mobile Apps Derek Walter is a freelance technology writer based in Northern California. He is the author of Learning MIT App Inventor, a hands-on guide to building your own Android apps. Jun 20, 2020 iPad has bought a big revolution in recent days regarding web designing and digital art. It redefines the way you draw something. Thanks to the great touch response of its display. Also, being a 120hz refresh rate display, it tends you to provide an ultra-smooth buttery experience while sketching and drawing. Now, if you see, Read More »10 Most-Popular Sketching Apps for iPad in 2020.
Best drawing, design, and editing apps
With Setapp, you don’t have to choose only one — get a large choice of the best drawing software to support your creativity flow.
The Best Drawing Programs On Mac Today
It’s not easy to pinpoint the best drawing app for Mac. Is it one of the free drawing programs? Is it made for simple drawings or lets you paint on Mac beautifully? The level of skill has to be considered as well.
The collection of drawing apps below features something that appeals to everyone, from the Mac equivalent of Paint you can find on Windows to a simple drawing pad for Mac to the likes of Sketch software that can be used by professional designers too.
Communicate with the markup feature in Preview
If you just want to do a rough sketch for Mac or a few simple drawings, you don’t necessarily need to go about downloading lots of drawing apps, you can just use a drawing app for Mac you’ve already got — Preview.
While most of us think of Preview as an image or PDF viewer, it’s also packs a basic toolset for annotating, drawing, and sketching. To see what you can do with Preview:
- Open an image, document, or just a white sheet in Preview
- Click Show Markup Toolbar in its top menu
- From here you can choose tools, shapes, colors, thickness, type, and more to make necessary adjustments or create something completely new
- Save and share your image
For those who don’t intend to draw complicated scenes, Preview might just might be enough. For everyone else, there are, of course, more powerful third-party apps.
Get nostalgic with Paintbrush
Lots of us remember the simplicity and versatility of Microsoft Paint. Macs used to have a similar app too called MacPaint (that’s been discontinued). Well, good news is some enthusiastic developers took the matter into their own hands and essentially recreated a Paint app for Mac — Paintbrush.
This Mac equivalent of Paint will strike you as a complete duplicate of that old software you used to love. It features all the same tools, including rectangular and oval shapes, paint bucket, pencil, spray, lines, etc. You can also easily switch and add colors to your palette as you go.
Make professional mockups with Sketch
If you’ve already outgrown simple drawings you can do with Preview and Paintbrush, and want to move higher — try Sketch.
Sketch took the world by storm just a few years ago, when they essentially introduced a viable alternative to complex apps like Adobe Illustrator and targeted it specifically to digital design professionals.
Everything you do in the Sketch program is done in vector, which means all shapes are infinitely resizable, in contrast to the raster graphics of Paintbrush. With Sketch for Mac, you can design high-fidelity mockups for your website, prototype your iOS app, or just create complex illustrations.
You can download and try the Sketch software for free, but after a month, you'll be required to pay the annual license fee, which is a big downside if you don’t plan to use the app regularly. In addition, Sketch for Mac is not the most accessible app for beginners and it’s not exactly a drawing app for Mac due to its vector nature.
Create digital art with MediBang Paint Pro
Perhaps an equivalent of Sketch, but in raster graphics, is MediBang Paint Pro. This drawing software for Mac allows you to execute your dreams beautifully with over 50 custom brushes as well as its extensive support for layers and fonts.
Originally developed for comic creators, MediBang Paint Pro got quickly adopted by everyone looking for a versatile drawing pad for Mac and is hailed by many as the best free drawing software around. However, since it was built for the purpose of creating comics, you might face a few problems adapting it to your needs — it’s definitely one quirky drawing app for Mac. Another issue is the app’s slow update release cycle. For example, macOS Catalina users aren’t able to launch the app in the fall of 2019 due to lack of security updates from the developers.
Set your imagination free with Tayasui Sketches
Talking about the best drawing programs, it’s simply impossible to avoid Tayasui Sketches. This intuitive sketch program is universally loved by painters, designers, illustrators, and art aficionados alike.
Ultimate drawing app for Mac
Draw on your Mac’s screen like on canvas with Tayasui Sketches. Mix colors and experiment with limitless layers!
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Tayasui Sketches makes it easy to bring what you have in mind to reality with its support for unlimited layers, infinite undos, smart rules, and a wide variety of drawing tools. If you want to paint on Mac, nothing else comes close to representing the physical experience of applying colors to paper than this drawing software for Mac.
To start your drawing pad for Mac with Tayasui Sketches:
- Open a new document
- Try out all the different tools from the sidebar, from a fine pen to an airbrush
- Use supporting menus to modify your currently selected tool and mix just the right color
With just a bit of practice, you’ll see why Tayasui Sketches beats all the free drawing programs out there. Time for your digital painting skills to skyrocket!
Save all the cool colors with Sip
Regardless of the drawing software for Mac you choose to use in the end, one of the most difficult things to do is going to be finding the right colors out there. Sometimes, you might come across a beautiful color you might use in the future, but where do you save it? Sip.
Sip is the most intuitive, handy, and non-intrusive palette organizer available for Mac. This little utility lives in your Mac’s menu bar, where it saves all the colors you like and simultaneously features a tiny color picker on the side of your screen, which makes Sip instantly available in any sketch program for Mac, like Tayasui Sketches, for example.
By now, you should be well-equipped to start on your Mac drawing journey, using the selection of the drawing software for Mac listed above, whether it’s a simple annotation or a large-scale digital painting.
Best of all, you can try Tayasui Sketches and Sip for free by signing up for a free seven-day trial on Setapp, a platform for more than 160 unique creative Mac apps that literally help you bring your dreams to reality. Why wait, check it out now!
iPad has bought a big revolution in recent days regarding web designing and digital art. It redefines the way you draw something. Thanks to the great touch response of its display. Also, being a 120hz refresh rate display, it tends you to provide an ultra-smooth buttery experience while sketching and drawing.
Now, if you see, the iPad is not even half of its purpose without a pencil from an artistic point of view. That’s the point where Apple pencil comes into the figure. When you combine the iPad with an Apple pencil and see. The first statement that will come to your mind is “Let’s sketch something”.
Even those who are not an artist, I don’t think will resist the urge to draw as soon as they get an apple pencil and an iPad in their hand. They would certainly say, “What wrong in trying something?”.
All you need to do is to download the best sketching app for an iPad, and you are ready to make your tablet dance on the music of an art. The Apple pencil will keep company with you for sure with its magical pixel-perfect precision. Now, let the magic happen.
If you want to put an all-new imagination of your mind on the board, you must start from sketching. And for sketching, you will certainly need an artboard where you can put your ideas.
Best Sketching and Drawing Apps for iPad
1. Affinity Photo
Affinity Photo is a great application for sketching and drawing. It’s a little high on price but certainly one of the most selling iPad software in last few years. Affinity lacks nothing in terms of drawing if compared to Adobe products.
It can also edit photos which is a plus point over what you get. It gives you the freedom to work on multiple layers. It also lets you work with vector illustrations and image layers. You can also merge a previous image with your current layers.
This feature is helpful for bringing down your 4 days art into 4 hours pieces. With this software, you can create pixel-perfect shapes and drawings. Also, there is support for PSD photoshop files and 360 image editing. This is probably one of the greatest apps for beginners as well as professionals.
Features of Affinity Photo For Artists:
- It’s also a photo editing app means, you can edit while you draw.
- Affinity photo is trusted by professionals.
- It features PSD editing.
- Zoom in and zoom out at 60FPS, a buttery experience.
Pricing: Affinity Photo bears a $19.99 price tag right now on App Store.
2. Linea Sketch
If you are looking for a user-friendly and a less featured software, only and only for sketching and drawing, then, Linea sketch is made for you. It boasts nothing like image editing or merging, rather tends to deliver you the best experience of the stylus.
Linea Sketch is simple, with a persuasive interface, bundled with a variety of powerful tools to let you put down of your desire on the canvas. It lets you sketch perfect shapes for a precise drawing. Why doesnt instagram have a mac app.
It also shows you the best-fitted color over a particular portion according to the contrast and hue, which saves you from screwing your mind over it. Linea Sketch can export your project as PSD, JPG, or PNG file format so that it is easily accessible on other devices.
These features make it a versatile drawing app for iPad, despite the fact that it can’t be used as an editor.
Features of Linea Sketch For Artists:
- It’s a beginner friendly application with steep learning curve.
- It’s a small size application, only 67 MB, and RAM friendly.
- You can quickly transform your layers.
- You can import images for reference with ease.
Go pro app for my mac. Pricing: This app is available for free on the App Store.
3. Autodesk Sketchbook
Autodesk Sketchbook can be served best for the purpose of sketching. It’s a free application at the same time. What else do you need? It’s a great application that features 2D as well as 3D sketching and drawing.
The application is from a trusted company that is known to provide the engineers of the mechanical branch and civil branch, the 3D drawing application to enhance their creativity. With this application, you can go on a distraction-free journey of drawing, thanks to its simplistic UI, rather a clustered workspace.
It has thousands of brushes, among which you can make a quick switch. You can also pick the color instantly to fill the shapes. The application features gesture support for various tools for action. You can also customize the gesture for quick access to your favorite tools and brushes.
Autodesk makes the best use of Apple pencil. Since it’s an application from a study point of view, it may take you some time to get used to it. But, once you learn, it’s pretty easy and convenient.
Features of Autodesk Sketchbook For Artists:
- you can easily blend PSD layers with your art.
- It features predictive strokes which helps in creating very precise diagrams.
- It’s a memory-friendly application.
- It features over 170 highly customizable brushes.
Pricing: This is a free sketching application available on App Store.
4. Adobe Photoshop sketch
Adobe Photoshop sketch is a great option if you are not in vector drawing. There is nothing to express about it because Adobe Photoshop is already a big name in multimedia and drawing field. Rather than vector illustrations, it mainly focuses on traditional way of drawing and sketching. Adobe has a set of 24 build-in brushes, each of them extremely precise and powerful to keep the needs of an artist. These brushes are super optimizable in terms of size, colors and blending capacity, thanks to the boundless photoshop brush engine. The application has print-ready artboard sizes so that you don’t mess up with changing it at last. You can also send these files to Photoshop CC or Illustrator CC. You can also make a time-lapse video of your drawing process.
Features of Adobe Photoshop Sketch For Artists:
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- It gives us the freedom to work on multiple layers.
- Keep your tool in a more organized manner.
- Import and export PSD and Illustrator format.
- Steep learning curve.
Pricing: This app is free to download on the App Store. However for extra 20 GB of creative cloud, you are supposed to invest $1.99.
5. Procreate
Procreate, if we make out the top 5, stands well among them. This application is having the most delightful experience you will ever get with a drawing software.
It is a lot more impressive than its previous featuring a robust UI and smooth sliders to easily adjust the opacity, and size of the pencil. There is a color picker that is handy and can be beautifully driven.
Also, the layer customization, responsive zoom, ultra-efficient blending capacity can add a great impression to your creativity. Procreate recently brought some major updates. The updates included ABR support, animation tool, and much more.
Procreate packs over 130 brushes and each brush having over 50 customizations, with an additional option to import brushes from photoshop. This app is intuitive and elegant in terms of use and is a great option among the best sketching software for iPad in 2020.
I have written article on best procreate alternatives for Windows. Consider reading it too if you are interested.
Features of Procreate For Artists:
Best Sketching Apps For Pc
- It features flawless palm rejection.
- It has great blending ability to enhance your drawing.
- It can import brushes from Photoshop.
- It has ultra-responsive zoom.
Pricing: This app is available to download at $9.99 on the App Store.
6. Paper
Paper is near to a free sketching software for iPad pro. Paper is used for journal designs, note-taking, and even sketching. There are some really great tools offered by them such as diagram tools, which lets you make professional diagrams along with outlining the points and collages.
You also get six basic tools for drawing, sketching, and outlining purposes. On the paper, you can add multiple images, journals, and paper-cuttings by fixing them without messing with layers.
You can also customize them later on if you have a pro subscription, which comes at $8 for six months and $12 for a year. Since there is a free version, you must give it a try before making out the best suit for you.
Paper is equipped with all the important features which you may need in your sketching app. So, you should consider it for sure.
Features of Paper for Artists:
- Availability of a free version.
- It’s a user-friendly application.
- Great for outline diagrams, handwritten notes, etc.
- It is easy to start with and learn to create things.
Pricing: This app is available to download for free on App Store. For pro subscription you need to spend $8 per six months.
7. Adobe Fresco
Adobe Fresco is another versatile application from Adobe for drawing and sketching purpose. It is new in this field but not less in anyway. Another application from Adobe primarily made to give a tough competition to Procreate, Fresco delivers a whipped creamy experience while drawing.
It features live brushes that can blend things in a very natural manner. There are a variety of tools to enhance your creative ideas such as pastel painting, watercolor, and even chalk. Fresco doesn’t feature animation option which keeps it from shining against Procreate.
I have written another article comparing Adobe Fresco with Procreate. Make sure to read it too.
Features of Adobe Fresco For Artists:
- More than thousands of brushes and pastels.
- The app has Adobe creative cloud support for cloud syncing.
- Here, you have access to Adobe Library.
- It’s a free of cost application.
Pricing: This app is available at $9.99 per month on the App Store.
8. ArtRage
ArtRage is one of best drawing app for iPad. It can handle very precise sketching giving a realistic look to your art. Here, we have bundles of canvas presets, brushes, rollers pastels and crayons etc. you can apply these colors with just a tap if you want.
You also get the option to fill it manually by scrubbing. It’s a great application for water-color painting for it features a dedicated set of watercolor brushes to create some great striking effects. The UI is simplistic but will certainly take time to be familiar with. After that, you can dig deep into its features.
Features of ArtRage For Artists:
- It features wide varieties of brushes, oil pastels and waxy crayons.
- The UI is pretty easy to get familiar with.
- Easy blending and smudging with thick oils and waxy crayons.
- Dedicated water color components.
Pricing: This app is available to download at $4.99 on the App Store.
9. Adobe Illustrator Draw
All Adobe products are highly recommended for artistic purposes. It doesn’t matter, you are sketching or drawing, or creating an illustration or merging the layers. Also, Illustrator draw should not be confused with Illustrator CC, which is entirely different software, although they are similar in features.
Illustrator Draw comes with highly customizable brushes for designing and styling. It also features thousands of shaping tools and stencils to create perfect circles, polygons, curves, and speech bubbles. Illustrator supports up to 8K resolution canvas, which means it can also be used for industrial purposes such as making banners of big shops, etc.
It’s a better choice against Affinity Designer if we keep their respective prices in view. A plus point that makes it more relevant is the availability of Adobe Creative Cloud.
Features of Adobe Illustrator Draw For Artists:
- You can merge or work on multi-layers.
- It has the popular support of Adobe Creative Cloud.
- You can import PSD and Illustrator CC compatible files.
- Simple UI for good understanding.
Pricing: This is a free of cost application on the App Store. However, if you want 20 GB more space, you must purchase subscription at $1.99 per month.
10. Sketch Club
Good Sketching Apps For Mac Computer
It’s a budget friendly application, the price point being $3 only. It’s a good choice for beginners. It provides a lot of feature-rich tools for smudging, brushing, filling, blurring, and selection etc. It also packs text and vector tools for you to make some beautiful vector designs over the canvas. There is a shape tool also, like any other, which helps in creating ratio-based and symmetric shapes.
The canvas has 16K preset and 300 DPI prints. There is a lot of stranger things in this application which makes it quite different from others.
Best Sketching Apps For Mac
As the name suggests, A sketch Club, there is an integrated community, which holds daily challenges, weekly competitions, and monthly events to boost up the confidence of an artist. There are also annual awards in place and great tutorials available for faster learning.
Features of Sketch Club For Artists:
- Integrated community which holds drawing competition.
- It features up to16K canvas preset.
- It’s a budget friendly application.
- Covers a vast tutorial for learning.
Pricing: This app is available to download at $2.99 on the App Store.
Final Words:
I hope this article have helped you to choose the right sketching app for iPad. Make sure to share it with others too.
Also Read: Top 10 Best Calligraphy Apps for iPad