0 Comments Art Review: Krita

Program - Krita (KDE)
Tested version - v4.0.0

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux
Official website - https://krita.org/en/

Raster or Vector - Primarily raster; however, various things can be done in editable vector format too.

Ease Of Use - Can be a bit daunting as things are so different compared to other programs, take a look at the navigation guide. There is a great online manual, for finding answers/help, and official forum as well.

All software is subjective to hardware installed, so with that in mind here is my current workhorse PC (A updated HP Z200 Workstation) specs I used for testing with all updated drivers...

CPU - Intel Core i5 CPU 660 @ 3.33GHz (2 Cores, 4 Threads)
Memory - 12 GB DDR3 total
Graphics - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti SC (Superclocked GM107) 1 GB (DDR5 memory)
Space - 2.5 TB hard drive disk space
System - Windows 8.1 Pro

Program Speed - Quick with little to no lag for most tasks. However, in the menu Settings -> Configure Krita, select Display tab and change Renderer (needs restart) to Direct3D instead of OpenGL helped speed things up.

Noticeable Lag - When working on tabloid sized artwork (11"x17" at 300 ppi or higher) it does have some lag with the more texture heavy brushes, and fill depending on the size. Using the brush smoothing option at all causes lag, but using the Stabilizer - really lags even on the smallest of images.

Page Options - Maximum size is 10001.00" x 10001.00", with maximum resolution of 9999 ppi... that however requires 37252902 GB of memory! Realistically the 11" x 17" tabloid size does good, much larger and it starts to cause excessive lag for me.

There are no page crop or bleed options, there is however one of the more complete color options available anywhere. Color model options include CMYK, Grayscale, L*a*b, RGB, XYZ, and YCbCr. Depth offers 8-bit integer, 16-bit float, 16-bit integer, and 32-bit float. Colorspace profiles can be selected from the included defaults, or load your own.

The second tab Content, allows the image Name, Layers (amount), Image background color, Image background opacity, Background (As first layer/As canvas color), and Description to be set for the new image as well.

Templates are also available, but without a preview, just the template name to make your selection. You can also create new templates, which is done after creating a image. Access the option from File -> Create template from image and it loads a new window (as seen in the last image above).

File Formats - A massive amount to be sure, but the common EPS (Encapsulated PostScript) format that some printers prefer is missing.

• Open - KRA (Krita), ORA (OpenRaster), NEF /CR2 /SR2 /CRW /PEF /X3F /KDC /MRW /DCR /ORF /RAW /RAF /SRF (Camera Raw), EXR (EXR image), GIF, XCF (GIMP), GBR /VBR (GIMP Brush), GIH (GIMP Hose brush), JPG /JPEG /JPE (JPG), KPP (Krita Brush preset), EXR (OpenEXR image), PBM (Portable Bitmap), PDF (Portable Document Format), PBM (PNM image), PNG, PPM (PNM image), PSB (Photoshop Large Document), PSD (Photoshop Document), R16 (R16 Heightmap), R32 (R32 Heightmap), R8 (R8 Heightmap), SVG (SVG image), TGA /ICB /TPIC /VDA /VST (TarGA),TIF /TIFF (TIFF), WEBP (WebP image), BMP /DIB (Windows Bitmap), ICO (Microsoft Windows icon), XBM (X BitMap image), XPM (X PixMap), * (VND.Adobe.Photoshop)
• Save/Export - KRA (Krita), ORA (OpenRaster), CSV (CSV document), EXR (EXR image), GIF, XCF (GIMP), GBR /VBR (GIMP Brush), GIH (GIMP Hose brush), JPG /JPEG /JPE (JPG), KPP (Krita Brush preset), EXR (OpenEXR image), PBM (Portable Bitmap), PGM (PNM image), PNG, PPM (PNM image), PSD (Photoshop Document), QML /QMLTYPES /QMLPROJECT (Qt Markup Language), R16 (R16 Heightmap), R32 (R32 Heightmap), R8 (R8 Heightmap), SCML (Spriter SCML), TGA /ICB /TPIC /VDA /VST (TarGA),TIF /TIFF (TIFF), WEBP (WebP image), BMP /DIB (Windows Bitmap), ICO (Microsoft Windows icon), XBM (X BitMap image), XPM (X PixMap), * (VND.Adobe.Photoshop)

Plug-in Support - Yes, at least DLL plug-ins in early Krita versions.

Customizable Shortcuts/Menus/Icons - Yes keyboard shortcuts, toolbar items, and Dockers (dockable windows which are moveable/combinable too) are all fully customized.

Layer Options - 60 plus Blending modes (first image) in category groups, Filter layers, Opacity amount, Visibility, Layer lock, Inherit Alpha, Alpha/transparency lock, Add new layer (7 layer types /4 mask types), Duplicate layer or mask, Move layer or mask Down / Up, Layer properties (for more options, see far right image above), and Delete. More options are also available by right-clicking a layer.

Color Selection - Varies on what is shown depending on the Workspace (I used Big_Paint with the Palette docker turned on).

Color wheels, sliders, palettes (can create new custom ones), numerical input, and more. In the first image, if the little white window icon (near top-left) is clicked it brings up the color window allowing settings to be changed (including between 9 various color wheels).

Brush Options - More brush presets than any other software I've seen. The first image is just some brushes from one group, and there are 9 groups total (not counting the All or Favorites groups - variations of the others). If however that isn't enough more brushes can be imported, and of course you can make your own as well.

The Tool Options docker for brushes isn't much (2nd image) but does set Smoothing (None, Basic, Weighted, Stabilizer) and works with graphics tablet or mouse. Smoothing though in this program leads to lag (or sometimes freezing using the Stabilizer). The other option Snap to Assistants needs to be enabled to use Assistant Tools (Rulers, vanishing points, etc).

In the 3rd image are the basic brush settings located at top near the menu area. They include Gradients, Patterns, another Color window, Brush Settings (see the hovering window in the image), Brush presets, the 60 plus grouped Blending options, Eraser mode, Preserve Alpha, Reload original preset, Opacity amount, Size (in pixels), Horizontal mirror tool, and Vertical mirror tool.

The sheer amount of Brush Settings (3rd image bottom) makes this program have some of the most customizable brushes available. View the Krita online manual about the brushes for help.

Common Necessities - Other tools that are primarily tools, and is surprising lacking in some software making it necessary to include them briefly.

Paint Fill - Tool options include Fast mode, Threshold amount, Grow selection amount (1px works great at removing any fill lines in line art), Feathering radius amount, Fill entire selection, Limit to current layer, and Use pattern. Also uses some Brush options covered above.
Eraser - Not a tool itself, but a option making it one of the best erasers in any program. That is you select a Brush and then click the Set eraser mode option - see the Brush presets and options above.
Image Zoom - Onscreen slider, shortcut controls, menu controls, Show canvas only, Fullscreen mode, etc. It includes zoom in/out on the mouse scroll wheel. Zoom range 12.5% to 6400%
View Rotate - No onscreen buttons (but can be added), keyboard shortcut controls, menu controls, and is rotated in 15 degree increments.
Selection Tools - Tools include Rectangular, Elliptical, Polygonal, Outline, Contagious selection (Magic wand type), Similar colors, and Bezier variations. In the Tool Options docker there are many settings for each tool that can be adjusted too.

Text/Font Options - Unlike many raster art programs, the Text tool uses vector text! No worrying about substandard text, or using another program (Adobe Illustrator, Inkscape, etc) after drawing to add text/lettering/captions to artwork (especially for print).

There is however limitations in the program, and a bug that keeps it from being even more amazing. The 1st image I overlaid the text window with the artwork to show the bug. In the window is the default text, however I added the 2nd line of F's and saved it to show it. As you can see the text does not show the F's, and if I close the window the text will no longer be editable, and the SVG code is messed up.

The bug is from making a new line using SHIFT + ENTER, instead of just ENTER. After years of using SHIFT + ENTER in text boxes on forums, emails, blogs, and social media I tend to use it without thinking about it.

The limitations are no text kerning and no tracking, there is thankfully though leading. How much of a limitation this will be depends on the user and the font(s) used.

The default view shows the typical Font selector (including preview), Style (if the font family has any), Size, Color, faux Styles (Bold, Italic, Bold Italic, Underline), Align (Left, Center, Right), and font leading in percentage (space between sentence baselines).

The Rich text tab is just a preview (the text on the image does not change until the Save button is clicked). The SVG source tab is the SVG coding and can be manually edited for more control (perhaps to manually add kerning).

The menu Format gives access to further styles and adjustments Bold, Italic, Underline, Strikethrough, Superscript, Subscript, Weight (Light /Normal /Bold /Black - useful for extended font families), and Align Left / Center / Right. 

The 3rd image above shows the Text Tool options, which can be changed and are the defaults for any newly created text.

Drawing Aids - Assistant tool which makes custom sizes/angled items (select the tool and draw the aid) such as Concentric ellipse, Ellipse, Fish eye point, Infinite ruler, Parallel ruler, Perspective, Ruler, Spline, and Vanishing point - ensure the Brush Tool option Snap to assistants is checked to use. A Vector library with many Word Balloons /Thought Bubbles /etc but the balloon tails are not adjustable, Page ruler and Guides, Grid, and Vector drawing tools (editable with the Edit shapes tool) including Rectangle /Ellipse /Polygon /Polyline /Bezier curve /Freehand path /Dynamic brush /Multibrush, and more.

Extras - Animation tools and options (Timeline, Onion skins, etc), a Comics manger (for organizing the artwork pages and exporting), Recording macros/actions (recording keyboard and mouse actions like Adobe Photoshop Actions), Krita's right-click quick option HUD (see above), and more.

Pros -

• The most feature packed artist free open source package available - more presets and options than most of them even combined
• Docked tools/windows - I really dislike floating tools, and hate multiple windows.
• Stable, no errors or crashing - at least with realistic page sizes.
• Massive amount of file formats supported for both loading and saving.
• Color options include CMYK, Grayscale, L*a*b, RGB, XYZ, and YCbCr.
• Huge set of brush presets, and monstrous amount of advanced brush options that should make any tinker happy.
• Vector text!
• Text tool allows selecting extended font family styles often hidden in other programs (Light, Extra bold, Black, Block, etc.)
• With so many keyboard, menu, tool, windows (docker) options little can not be customized
• Plenty of drawing aids to fit most needs.

Cons -

• So many features, options, and differences from other software makes the learning curve a bit steep, or simply leading to a feeling of being overwhelmed (which can hamper your art).
• Text tool does not offer kerning, or tracking of font text - which can be important with some fonts.
• Hours of tool setting adjustments can leave you with a time crunch on a job/assignment (it is best to spend the time to setup your custom workspace/templates/brushes/etc (and Macro/Actions) beforehand to eliminate most of that).

Recommended Use - For creating raster art for comics, manga, or cartoons - especially with a traditional medium appearance.