Paintbrush for Mac – the best free alternative to MS Paint
Paintbrush is a lightweight image editor for macOS that feels like Microsoft Paint. It’s made for anyone who needs a quick, simple tool to draw, paint, or make small edits—without investing in advanced software like Photoshop.
Features and user experience – our test of Paintbrush on Mac
When we installed Paintbrush on a MacBook Air running macOS Sonoma, it took less than a minute from download to launch. It almost felt like getting a small slice of classic Windows Paint back—just in a Mac version.
The interface is ultra-simple. All the essentials sit in a vertical toolbar on the right: brush, eraser, color picker, fill tool, lines, rectangles, circles, and a small text box. We started freehand drawing with the brush and could quickly switch colors via the palette at the bottom. When we made mistakes, the eraser was precise, and the Undo button (Cmd+Z) responded instantly.
One thing we noticed is how fast the app opens. While Photoshop and GIMP can take several seconds to start, Paintbrush is ready in under a second. That makes a big difference when you just need to sketch something quickly or note an idea visually.
We also tried inserting images in PNG and JPEG. Import was smooth, and we could draw on top of the images with no lag. However, it became clear the app doesn’t support layers—everything you do sits directly on the image. If you draw something wrong, you’ll need to use Undo or the eraser.
During a longer test session of about half an hour, we experienced a single crash and lost our drawing because we hadn’t saved. It’s a reminder to save regularly, since Paintbrush doesn’t have an autosave feature. On the plus side, the app uses so few resources that even an older Mac mini ran it without issues.
All in all, Paintbrush feels like the obvious tool for small, quick tasks. We used it to draw a simple diagram, sketch a website layout, and mark up a screenshot. It took under five minutes, and we could export to PNG and send it off without opening a heavy image editor.
Limitations
Paintbrush, like Windows Paint, is very simple. It does not support layers, transparency, or advanced filters, so it isn’t suitable for professional image editing. In our testing, we also saw occasional crashes when working for a long time without saving—a good reminder to hit Cmd+S once in a while.
Who is Paintbrush for?
If you’re used to Paint on Windows and miss it on Mac, Paintbrush is the best free alternative. It’s great for:
- Students who need quick diagrams
- Users who want to draw small illustrations
- Anyone who wants a simple, distraction-free drawing tool
FAQ about Paintbrush for Mac
Yes, Paintbrush is completely free and open source. You can download it with no license or subscription fees.
No. Paintbrush is a very simple app without layers or advanced tools. It’s best for quick sketches and small tasks, not professional editing.
Yes, it works on most recent macOS versions, including macOS Sonoma. It’s always a good idea to download the latest build from the official site.
Paintbrush can save to popular formats like PNG, JPEG, GIF, and BMP, making it easy to use your files elsewhere.
Yes—so long as you download it from the official source, Paintbrush is safe to use. It includes no bundled adware or spyware.
