I have used Krita on Windows before and found its range of professional-grade drawing tools to be what I need to bring my sketches to life. Now, imagine my surprise when I found out the developers had made an Android version of this criminally underrated free and open-source project. I had to check it out to see if the desktop experience would translate well to mobile.
I have tried many drawing apps on Android, including Sketchbook, Infinite Painter, Clip Studio Paint, MediBang Paint, and Concepts. While they're great digital art apps in their own right, they aren't completely free, locking some of the best features behind paywalls. Krita is instantly appealing to people like me who want a completely free, robust drawing app on a platform riddled with freemium options.
Developers actually managed to port Krita to Android It's quite great to use
Krita is a feature-heavy drawing app, and I'd imagine that bringing it to Android was no small feat. That impressed me from the start. The Krita Foundation and the KDE community of international developers worked together to make this happen. You can download it from the Play Store, and it's a direct port of the PC version, so you get access to the same powerful tools and featuresdesktop users enjoy.
Despite ongoing improvements, the Krita Android app is still widely considered to be beta or early access. You might experience occasional bugs and crashes.
The primary audience of Krita for Android is tablet users. It's not available for standard Android phones -- although some people with high-end devices (e.g., the Samsung Galaxy S Ultra series) have been able to download it. That's because the user interface is exactly as you see it on Windows, which is ideal for a tablet since it has a larger screen.
Since my drawings hardly ever get too complex, I have managed to get by with my Samsung Galaxy Tab 6. Krita runs great on it too -- maybe I will see the need to upgrade once I run into significant performance hiccups down the line. So, while there are no official minimum requirements, an Android device with 4GB RAM, a modest processor, and a pressure-sensitive stylus is enough to comfortably use Krita. Some devices might struggle if they have 2GB of RAM or less and a weak CPU.
That said, I find it highly impressive that the Android version offers major desktop features, such as the advanced brush engine, layers, and color management. The touch interface is highly responsive and smooth, allowing for fluid brush movements. The toolbars and panels are also customizable, allowing you to set up the interface to match your drawing workflows. So, overall, Krita for Android has been a great app for creating digital art.
Krita for Android could be the Procreate alternative I have hoped for The true contender
Of all the Procreate alternatives for Android, Krita comes really close. They share the same features -- from layers and brushes to stabilization and drawing assistants -- but Procreate has a more streamlined, user-friendly interface.
One thing I like about Krita for Android is that the developers managed to port over its animation tools. You have your timeline, onion skinning, and keyframe animation (you need the Procreate Dreams companion app to achieve this in Procreate). Furthermore, its animation capabilities seem to be more advanced than Procreate's, allowing you to move beyond simple frame-by-frame animation to an entire animation suite.
Also, Krita has a larger community (mostly because it's free and open source) that contributes to its development and provides thousands of brushes. Procreate, on the other hand, is less community-driven since it's developed and maintained by one company -- Savage Interactive.
Not everything is perfect with the Krita port A few caveats dampen the experience
The fact that the Android version is a direct port of a desktop app means that the interface can be a little unintuitive, since it wasn't designed for mobile screens. This is evident in the cluttered screen, with toolbars and panels taking up a significant portion of the display. Additionally, some of the icons are tiny, making them hard to press, and the panels can easily get buried by others.
That means if you're used to drawing with a mobile-first app, like Ibis Paint or Sketchbook, using Krita on Android can be frustrating. Furthermore, Krita has a steeper learning curve due to its robust feature set -- it's certainly geared more toward professionals. Learning it for the first time on a mobile device might be a challenge, but it's worth it.
Also, it's worth mentioning that if you're transitioning from the Windows app, some advanced desktop-only plugins or AI capabilities (e.g., G'MIC plugins or AI diffusion tools) are generally not included or fully functional on Android as of now.
Another problem I have with the Krita Android app is the lack of support for mobile phones. However, it's understandable because that would make the interface super cramped. There'd be very little space to draw, making it hard to do any precision work. So even if you can get Krita working on a phone, I wouldn't recommend using it on such a device.
So long to paid apps with missing or paywalled features
Compared to other drawing apps currently on the Play Store, Krita does everything they do (e.g., brushes, effects, and animations) and then some. I just hope the UI gets redone to fit tablet screens more efficiently as the development continues. But at the same time, I understand that maintaining this Android version, especially to keep up with its Windows counterpart, is significant work. The Krita Foundation and KDE community might not have the resources for it, but that's okay for now.
Krita
Krita is a free, open-source digital painting and illustration software designed for artists, illustrators, and concept designers. It offers a powerful brush engine, layer management, and animation tools, making it ideal for creating detailed artwork and storyboards.
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