Drawpile is a collaborative desktop drawing program that lets multiple people draw, sketch, paint and animate on the same canvas simultaneously.
A web browser version is also available.
This is free and open source software.
Key Features
- Supports pressure-sensitive drawing tablets.
- 200 brushes built-in
- Multiple different brush engine and has a brush editor to configure your own brushes.
- Stabilizer to smooth out your strokes.
- Layers and layer groups (also known as layer folders) with various different blend modes.
- Supports alpha preserve, clipping groups, masking and alpha lock for rendering and shading pictures.
- Magic wand tool.
- Create animations, coming with a timeline and onion skins. You can either work together on a single animation or animate something as part of a larger canvas.
- Tools to make lines, curves and other shapes, as well as selections, transforms and flood filling.
- Save your canvas to the OpenRaster (ORA) format, supported by e.g. Krita, MyPaint or GIMP, or to PSD.
- Cross-platform support – runs under Linux, Android, macOS, and Windows.
Website: drawpile.net
Support: GitHub Code Repository
Developer: Drawpile contributors
License: GNU General Public License v3.0
Drawpile is written in C++. Learn C++ with our recommended free books and free tutorials.
Related Software
| Animation Tools | |
|---|---|
| Synfig | Capable of producing feature-film quality animation |
| Blender | 3D creation suite with a huge variety of uses including animation |
| LibreSprite | Create 2D animations for videogames |
| Pencil2D | Easy, intuitive tool to make 2D hand-drawn animations |
| Tahoma2D | Full-featured 2D and Stop Motion animation creation based on Toonz Studio |
| Drawpile | Draw, paint and animate together with others on the same canvas |
| Glaxnimate | Simple and fast vector graphics animation program |
| OpenToonz | Based on Toonz Studio Ghibli Version |
| Friction | Motion graphics software for vector and raster animations |
| Inochi Creator | Tool to create and edit Inochi2D puppets |
| K-3D | 3D modeling and animation software |
| enve | Create vector animations, raster animations, with sound and video files |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
| Painting Tools | |
|---|---|
| Krita | Edit and paint images; part of the KOffice office suite |
| MyPaint | Paint program with dynamic brushes for graphic tablets |
| GIMP | GNU Image Manipulation Program |
| Drawpile | Draw, paint, sketch and animate |
| AzPainter | Full color painting software |
| GrafX2 | Inspired by the Amiga programs Deluxe Paint and Brilliance |
| Pinta | Mimics the usability of Paint.Net |
| Photoflare | Cross-platform image editor |
| LazPaint | Image editor with layers and transparency |
| Tux Paint | Drawing and painting software designed for children |
| KolourPaint | Easy-to-use paint program by KDE |
| CinePaint | Tools for painting, manipulation and image processing |
| Milton | Infinite-canvas paint program |
| VPaint | Experimental prototype based on the Vector Graphics Complex |
| dibuja | Simple to use paint program like Paintbrush for Mac or classic MS Paint |
| Drawing | Basic raster image editor similar to Microsoft Paint |
| Vara | Minimalist digital painting tool |
| Textual Paint | MS Paint in your terminal |
| CorePaint | Paint app for C Suite |
| BlockPaint | Terminal-based painting tool |
| InfiniPaint | Collaborative, infinite space, infinite zoom, canvas note-taking/drawing app |
| Alchemy | Non-orthodox painting tool experimenting with alternative ways of drawing |
Read our verdict in the software roundup.
 Explore our comprehensive directory of recommended free and open source software. Our carefully curated collection spans every major software category.This directory is part of our ongoing series of informative articles for Linux enthusiasts. It features hundreds of detailed reviews, along with open source alternatives to proprietary solutions from major corporations such as Google, Microsoft, Apple, Adobe, IBM, Cisco, Oracle, and Autodesk. You’ll also find interesting projects to try, hardware coverage, free programming books and tutorials, and much more. Discovered a useful open source Linux program that we haven’t covered yet? Let us know by completing this form. |