Paintbrush review
A free macOS painting tool for basic edits, annotations, and casual drawings.
Reviewed by iTechGuides Editors · Editorial team · Updated Oct 2026
Paintbrush is a lightweight, macOS-native raster image editor for simple images, quick annotations, basic photo edits, and casual drawings. It is aimed at Mac users who want a straightforward painting workspace rather than an advanced illustration suite. The app supports color selection, painting tools, text insertion, transparent selection, image pasting from common Mac applications, cropping, and resizing. Native Apple Silicon support is available in version 2.6.
Paintbrush is free and open source, so its pricing model suits users who want a basic editor without a paid tier structure. File support covers BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF, while PNG and GIF transparency is supported through alpha channels. JPEG quality settings are available when saving. These capabilities make it practical for quick visual edits, simple annotations, and small drawings, especially when working with common image files or content copied from Microsoft Office and Apple iWork.
The trade-off is a narrow painting feature set. Paintbrush does not provide verified layers, pressure sensitivity, brush customization, or advanced painting features, placing it near the simple-tool end of the category. Its macOS-only availability also limits platform fit, although its native focus and Apple Silicon support are useful for Mac users. Choose Paintbrush for basic painting, cropping, resizing, transparency, and text; choose an alternative if layered artwork, pressure-aware drawing, customized brushes, or a broader platform footprint matters.
Paintbrush pros and cons
- Where it wins
- Free, open-source macOS app with native Apple Silicon support
- Supports BMP, PNG, JPEG, TIFF, and GIF files
- Includes transparency, cropping, resizing, text, and color tools
- Where it doesn't
- Limited to macOS
- No verified layers, pressure sensitivity, or brush customization
- Basic feature set is not suited to advanced painting
Paintbrush fact sheet, pricing and score →
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