Why do you use Krita (poll)

General Forums
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I was reading some discussions about some other FOSS program and there was some interesting parts regarding various ways people view that program. Some wanted just the free stuff, some believed it was a good program and that’s why they were using it, some were arguing for “open source values” which apparently got betrayed simply because the company that makes that program accepted some donations (which has nothing to do with GPL license, after all).

So, I wonder how many people here are using Krita because they are passionate about open source, how many because it’s free and easily available, and how many because it’s a superior software to rule 'em all :stuck_out_tongue: Note: I made the voting private, after some thinking, but you can choose to share your reasons in the comments below. But please remember everyone, since Krita is based on freedom, there is no invalid reason to use it. Monetary reasons, ideological reasons, practical reasons, all of them are valid, and I don’t want to see any arguing about it here. I just want to see what share every one of them have in the userbase (or rather, just in the forum).

Why do you use Krita? (you can select multiple options)
  • Because there are features that don’t exist or are better than in other software, or because it’s more convenient to use, etc. (reasons regarding the quality of the program itself, not who makes it or how to get it)
  • Because it’s free as free beer (financial reasons) or because I don’t have means to buy another software (no credit card etc.) and similar reasons
  • Because it’s free (libre) and open source, understood in a political way (so it’s not only GPL but also not doing user-hostile stuff - those who know the political side of FLOSS will know what I mean)
  • Because it’s free and open source - as in, GPL licensed, which means the source code is open (maybe you can make plugins or add your own features and that’s why you like it, etc.)
  • Because I’m on Linux (or in other situation) and other software don’t work, so I’m forced to use Krita or even simpler/less functional applications, and Krita is the least terrible
  • I dunno, I just got used to or I haven’t looked for other software. No particular reason for Krita.
  • Other reason(s) (please write in the comment!)

0 voters

Let me know if I should change or add some options. Note: I made the distinction GPL/political FLOSS on purpose, though I wonder how many outside people would understand the difference… I hope it’s not too confusing.

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I like the quality of it, the brushes show some nice textures like real media!

It’s rather powerful, and it’s freeee! (I can’t afford to buy/subscribe to the expensive programs – besides, I hate subscriptions – what happens to your work after the $$$ runs out and all you can afford to pay for is food, [cheap] clothing, and shelter?)

Also, the devs are nice and responsive. (Big plus in my book!)

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Exactly! The whole community here has a very pleasant vibe. Very friendly, helpful and competent - feels like home. :slightly_smiling_face:

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Damn! I knew I must’ve forgot at least one reason for the poll… however I don’t know if I can add it without cancelling all the current results… I know that at least sometimes they get reset to 0 on some changes of the poll.

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my other reason is because Photoshop my previous app that I used, treated people like they are stupid and groomed people to be it, considering how they handle saved files and brush files. All apps that are open source programs are open on how they handle things while PS is super closed. I swapped to Gimp but then changed into Krita later.

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The reason why I decided to stick with Krita is because I’m having way more fun with it than other programs, I also got used to it pretty fast - it’s easy to understand and use ! ^^ When I used other programs it felt refreshing at first but as little time passed, I felt drained. I do not feel this with Krita, it’s so flexible it helps me deal with art-blocks and bad mood

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It feels a bit contradictory that I picked the first option and also the “I’m on Linux and forced” option.

I am on Linux, so yeah, less options available, but it’s more that I feel lucky that one of the options available happens to be a program I like, and I don’t feel I’m missing out or anything. Would I have picked a different program if I wasn’t on Linux and didn’t care about Open Source? Maybe, but then probably mostly because other programs are better known and I got used to using whatever I would be using.

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I’m left-handed. Krita allows mapping any key to any feature. So basically I have all my shortcuts at the tip of my right-hand fingers.
Compare this to the photoshop binding which is horribly rigid and only thought for right-handed people and there is no turning back.

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I am a professional illustrator and also restless to find the best balanced painting app for me. I thought that to be CSP, but Krita appears to have an edge in certain areas. Though I mostly do not rely on drawing guides, when I need them Krita’s way is so much more convenient and fast (perspective, straight lines with pressure and such).

Among the brushes are some incredibly useful for my work, and also some that I haven’t seen anywhere else.

I am not sure if the nightly alpha builds are already optimised for Apples M1, but they sure run fine on the MBA I use for work.

Right now I am switching from CSP to Krita and back, depending on projects and level of my confidence. But I just spent some hours on easy sketching and some concept art within Krita, and it felt good.

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I like everything about Krita minus the few drawbacks(quite a lot of bugs/issues, some lacking features to push a bit its graphic design potential, need of optimizations, ui could be more appealing…). I also like its painting assistants, its quality and potential in the professional field, especially starting from version 4.4.0. Since then, Krita truly has become a dependable tool for my works.
Although it’s lighter than Photoshop or CSP, it has all the essential elements for digital painting.
There’s also the fact that it’s backed by a community as base and the developers are effectively taking feedback they receive into account as much as they can.
Lastly, one reason I use it is because it generally runs faster than Photoshop in terms of frames rate per second. I’m convinced that, in 10 years from now, it will become a killer software for digital art. Killer because it would be free yet very powerful. Seriously.

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First, because I try all software that seems interesting to me, as long as it is free, and that’s how I discovered Krita for myself.

Second, because I like and respect the ideals behind FLOSS.

Third, because I can use Krita on all the operating systems I use.

Fourth, because it can do things that other software I use can’t do, or can’t do as well as Krita can. However, I have not worked with any comparable software as intensively as Krita.

Fifth, because of my digital background, my socialization, in the late seventies early eighties we gave away or traded our software in the schoolyard, we showed everyone everything and supported each other, although it was always a competition to be the better coder, but whoever asked for money was considered an asshole!

Sixth, because I can have contact with developers as with other users, and because I can participate in a support forum at Krita, as I once did at eMule. And this is an enrichment for my life. I am not in a position to donate to Krita, but maybe I can help others here. (And hopefully not make a big mess).

Seventh, because of my attitude to life, not to pay for anything that I can legally have for free.

this gets a bit personal, if you don't like such things skip it

Lastly, as a nursing case, I can’t afford to buy software today.

Michelist

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This is Google Translate.
In addition to the ones I voted for, there are…

  1. The improvement speed of krita is very fast.
  2. Great community.
  3. Excellent cross-platform, even Android.
  4. Kiki is very cute.
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Honestly, I use it because I think the developers and everybody involved in the project did a great job. Krita is in my opinion a fantastic application. The UI is very well thought and intuitive for my taste and I think that’s great. This is very important for me. I am also very glad that Krita comes from KDE. I love the KDE desktop and I use it since KDE 2. The free and libre open source ideology is very important for me. If there was no Linux and no open source, I’d probably stop using a PC at home. The Krita community is also great.

Edit: and because it works so well. I’d say it is very stable. I don’t run into realy big issues or bugs so far. I have hardly experienced any crashes on it. In comparison: I still have Windows OS and I also have a few proprietary non-free image editing and painting apps. I also have the Affinity Suite and these programms are very buggy. They crash about on every session at least once. But I am use them fewer and fewer. The better I know Krita (plus a few other FOSS apps) the more I realise that I can easily avoid proprietary software. I have a strong intention to become independent from Windows and get rid of it. I accomplished my goal almost.

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Chose FLOSS and not user-hostile, but the next one, code able to be seen fully, would cover very similar ground too.

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Had to select almost all of them tbh. Had no money, no other option when I changed to Linux, I politically endorse and like only free software (very very important to me), I’m a dev and techy person so I like fiddling into my programs, and also when I tried Krita for the first time I never looked back. Krita is such an amazing program that feels so right for drawing, it’s incredible. It hurts a bit when using it as an editing program coming from Photoshop but I’ve come to be accustomed to that pretty well I think

Krita is one of those programs that has it all and it not being there would mean the drawing landscape on linux being doomed

Also yeah kiki is so cute, omg, I love Tyson Tan’s style

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  1. I like KRITA because it’s a free and very professional software which provides huge options to explore the field of digital painting,illustration,comics and traditional animation .
  2. KRITA shows true commitment when it comes to maintain a very friendly community platform, continuous developement of tutorials,resources like brush,plug in etc and siginificant new features and developement with each new version.
  3. Most importantly KRITA listens and try to understand from creative point of view also and always try to create something new to help the overall creative experience.
    I have only one request.
    I feel just like animation ,comics also needs a special set up/UI inside KRITA.
    Obviously there are enough options inside KRITA to create a comics sucessfully,but these options are quite scattered.
    If those options like rulers(for perspective), colorize mask(for flatting) can be used and accessed via small icons inside a Comics based UI , Probably making comics inside krita will become more popular !
    Specially as motion tween option is coming to stay, KRITA can become a very important tool for making MOTION COMICS in near future :smiley: !
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I have a laptop and a graphics tablet, but never use them to paint because I found it was more convenient and fun to paint on a mobile device. When it was announced that CSP would be coming to android I was super excited, but once it finally arrived it turned out to be subscription based and not a reasonable amount which was very disappointing. In my disappointment I just randomly typed “Krita” in google play and I was shocked to find it just sitting there, waiting for me, of course I downloaded it. While It’s still early access and has issues, it’s by far a better alternative to all the other digital painting apps on android. Android has been severely lacking in decent creative applications, this was a big deal.

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When i first switched from SAI & Photoshop to Krita back in 2015 It had a lot of features that other software did not have. For exemple Photoshop and SAI did not have real time symmetry (wich i used a LOT back in the day) and PS autosave feature straight up did not work, wich wasnt the case with Krita. Fun fact, the very first drawing I made on krita, it crashed :joy: but I managed to find the autosave and this was when i decided this was the software for me.
Krita was the fusion between SAI & PS’s best features. The brushes of SAI and all the advanced features of PS. And also it was free which was very interesting for highschool me.

Now the competition is more severe with CSP, but I dont want to switch. Krita is still the best software imo for my work and it also has very useful features that CSP still does not have (such as CMYK support). And even if CSP implemented those features, Krita has a superior brush engine :wink:

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I have only use adobe, corel, gimp and krita. And…

I feel photoshop has become a mutant monster over the years, adding more and more layers of complexity to your workflow. And I feel they believe more complex means more professional. But for me is quite the opposite. The more professional a tool is, the more easy, fast and efficient to use it gets. That’s what Krita does.

That’s why when I tried digital painting with photoshop I was annoyed and stopped trying, and when I discovered krita, I fell in love. Also, photoshop started to ask me for money. (I had a pre installed adove suite on my laptop when I bought it)

What in photoshop and other programs takes several steps and always some research and tutorials, you can do it in Krita with one key or a couple of clicks. And if you don’t know how to do something, it’s quite easy to figure that out or go to the documentation page. In the ultimate case, contact the comunity or the developers, which respond very fast. That’s why I belive Krita is the best.

I use Krita because for me is the best, makes my workflow… flow. And allows me to concentrate in painting, not technicalities. And yes, because it’s free. I can’t afford photoshop or any other software. I really appreciate that is free.

I could say a lot more but don’t like to extend to much. Looking forward to Krita 5 with a lot of excitement.

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The first time I used Krita was in Windows, after about 10 minutes into the program Krita crashed at the time I thought it was Windows causing the error. To cut a very long story as short as I can, in that first 10 minutes of using Krita I could see that this was an amazing piece of software .I really love the Krita clan,thank you

1 Like