
First Krita Beta for Android and ChromeOS in Play Store - reddotX
https://krita.org/en/item/first-krita-beta-for-android-and-chromeos-in-play-store/
======
Youden
I'm not an artist myself but I follow David Revoy, who [0] uses Krita and
other open-source software extensively for his Pepper & Carrot comic [1]. His
blog [0] is full of posts about how he does his work using open-source tools.

There are plenty of fantastic artists who use Krita but I find him interesting
because of how dedicated he is to using open-source software for all his work.

[0]: [https://www.davidrevoy.com/](https://www.davidrevoy.com/)

[1]: [https://www.peppercarrot.com/](https://www.peppercarrot.com/)

------
boudewijnrempt
I'm surprised, speaking as the maintainer of Krita, to have a first video
review already:
[https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7oFUmVfiww](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D7oFUmVfiww)
:-)

~~~
HMH
The review mentions that the screen is a bit small for all of Krita and
suggests that using something like a big iPad probably provides a better
experience.

As this is only about Android I thought of promoting my take on this problem.
In fact I released a small program I use to take handwritten notes via iPad on
my Linux system just a few weeks ago. It works on both Android and iOS and
basically turns these devices into graphic tablets. You can take a look at:
[https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus](https://github.com/H-M-H/Weylus)

------
illuminated
Congrats for the release!

I love Krita. Actually, my kids love it so much. I've had a Wacom tablet for
years and thanks to Krita my kids are expanding their artistic skills rapidly.
I wish the people behind it all the best!

~~~
Mirioron
I wish more parents bought their kids drawing tablets. Kids try out all kinds
of things, but it's hard to try out something that you don't have the
equipment for. Sure, drawing on paper is a possibility, but it's not quite the
same thing as digital art that tends to be much easier to share and get
feedback on.

~~~
mbeex
The leading brand is quite expensive (at least here in Germany), especially
when it comes to reasonable sizes (A4/letter). I've been putting this off for
years.

Finally - a few months ago - I aquired something remarkable cheaper, a chinese
Gaomon M106K. It turned out, it is not cheap at all in the other sense of the
word. Good quality and support at least for my use case (a bit different,
handwritten formulas and sometimes some sketched diagrams). But my youngest
kids use it for painting with Krita too.

~~~
omnimus
Nobody wants A4 tablet trust me its not worth it. Ive seen so many pros
replace them with A5 or even A6 because its better and more convinient.

On the other hand any other brand than the leading brand is truly terrible.

~~~
weego
Actual pros replace them with cintiq or similar and are always larger than A4.
I've never seen a full time designer move down size, because you lose fidelity
at the same zoom level and are constantly fiddling with zoom which is a source
of major frustration

~~~
omnimus
Of course you want cintiq as big as possible but not tablet. With A4 you get
to a point where you have to move a lot around the table with hand in front of
you while you are looking straight at your screen its just akward. You dont
have space for keyboard etc.

~~~
mattkevan
An illustrator friend bought an A3 Wacom years ago. It was so big that if you
put legs on it it’d be a reasonable sized desk by itself.

He ended up changing the mapping to only use a small portion near the front as
he could barely reach the back.

~~~
mbeex
I'm doing this for my A4-sized tablet too. At times. I still have the option
(and I'm using it) for the full tablet area. I don't have this for the
postcard-sized scribblers.

------
haunter
>Unlike the Windows and Steam store, we don’t ask for money for Krita in the
store, since it’s the only way people can install Krita on those devices, but
you can buy a supporter badge from within Krita to support development.

I wish more free software projects would do that. You can download Krita for
free but if you want to support the project you can buy it from Steam or
Windows Store.

~~~
LegitShady
If you know about the project you can donate the money to them directly to
avoid Steam/Windows taking a cut, but for lots of people who dont want to
worry about updating their software it gives you something in return for the
donation.

------
toastal
People really should give Krita a go if they want escape the Adobe bubble. I
was really impressed with it for drawing over GIMP.

~~~
illuminated
I completely agree with you on this. I was considering GIMP as the only
relevant substitute for Adobe until I've played a bit with Krita. Really
amazing piece of work.

~~~
mbeex
To be fair, GIMP considers itself also an image processing software, not (or
only partially) a painting program. At least, it emphasizes this aspect and it
shows (yes it mentions also artistic usage).

I'm using it this way as a tool (being a software writer in this industry),
but the tasks belonging to it and those for Krita have a virtually empty
intersection.

~~~
toastal
You're absolutely correct, but you know how these things go: people look up
FOSS Photoshop (or more likely "free photoshop alternative") on a search
engine and GIMP is the first hit and when the tools for drawing aren't as
sophisticated, users will say "GIMP sux" because it doesn't match their
expectations if they're a drawer even if it's a perfectly adequate image
processor.

------
trashburger
Awesome news. This part caught my attention though:

>Unlike the Windows and Steam store, we don’t ask for money for Krita in the
store, since it’s the only way people can install Krita on those devices, but
you can buy a supporter badge from within Krita to support development.

I don't know about the Windows store because I don't use Windows, but doesn't
the Steam store allow you to put up free tools? Godot Engine is available for
free on Steam, IIRC.

~~~
speedgoose
Yes, what they mean is that on windows you can get krita for free outside of
the windows store or steam. While on Android most users are stuck with the
Google Play store because it's very difficult to use another store.

~~~
MikusR
You are thinking of iOS. On Android using a different store or sideload is
easy.

~~~
worble
>On Android using a different store or sideload is easy.

Asking users to use developer mode is not easy, and a huge barrier to entry
that most would just not bother and download something else from the Play
Store instead.

~~~
noisem4ker
Developer mode has never been required on Android. App sources are managed by
regular settings (Android 8+). Before that, there was a single switch for all
non-Play-Store sources.

1\. User downloads an .apk using a browser

2\. User tries to open it

3\. Android prompts the user to allow the browser as a trusted source

4\. User agrees by flipping a switch

5\. Installation resumes

6\. User enjoys the app

[https://developer.android.com/distribute/marketing-
tools/alt...](https://developer.android.com/distribute/marketing-
tools/alternative-distribution)

[https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-
to/android-101-sideload-...](https://android.gadgethacks.com/how-
to/android-101-sideload-apps-by-enabling-unknown-sources-install-unknown-
apps-0161947/)

~~~
jraph
This is not a great substitute for installing through an app store because the
app will not update automatically.

This is, however, a great thing to have.

A better substitute would be using F-Droid. By the way, some free software
apps are not gratis on the Play Store but are on F-Droid.

It can still be confusing to manage two app stores for some people, while
installing an app from a downloaded executable is usual on Windows, so Krita
probably did the right thing.

~~~
noisem4ker
Good question: why is Krita not on F-Droid? Probably a matter of time and
effort, not a technical reason. I guess they sensibly got into the most
visible marketplaces first.

~~~
hellozee
Exactly, it is on our plans, would take a bit of time.

------
ur-whale
Fantastic news.

Just installed this on my Galaxy tab. It still has some rough edges, but it is
miles ahead of all the drawing adware I had used so far.

Oh and, thank you Krita developers: it actually feels like a desktop app (as
in: you can load and save files, and there's an actual "exit" button").

~~~
m4rtink
Thanks a lot as well! Got Galaxy Tab S6 for drawing and the software available
on Android has not really been that good when compared to what is available on
desktop Linux with Krita, Mypaint and others. :)

------
bitwize
Tried it out. Loved it. I have one of those moderately expensive Samsung
Chromebooks with its own pen, and the pressure sensitivity stuff works great.
I can see myself building an art workflow around my Chromebook with Krita.
Previously the only options on Chromebooks or Android were proprietary apps
that had ads, including Autodesk Sketchbook which I used to love but they
added ads, DeviantArt integration, and nerfed the UX.

So getting an open source, full-featured alternative is fantastic for me.

~~~
Ritsuko_akagi
They have ads on autodesk sketchbook? When I had an android phone I paid for
it and they made it free a few months later. Now I am on iphone and even the
free apps have much less ads.

~~~
bitwize
It was years ago and I forgot what change they made. It was either ads or
"sign up for a free account". Whatever it was, it pissed me off -- and enough
others that Autodesk apparently walked it back.

It only stressed to me the need for an open-source solution -- which Krita on
Android fills nicely.

------
freedomben
I bought a Wacom tablet to use with Krita and have been totally unable to
figure out how to make it work. Every tutorial/video out there is for Windows
and most of the settings that affect Krita are done in a windows setting area.
I use Fedora/Gnome and don't have access to that level of settings (tho there
are some settings available through Gnome via libwacom, which itself is
awesome).

Anyone using Krita with a Wacom tablet under Linux? How do you draw?

~~~
raghukamath
Yes I am using Krita with wacom on Linux. On linux wacom and most other
tablets are just plug and play. They just work. krita is just a click away
from the software center.

~~~
freedomben
How did you configure Krita? I see almost nothing in the "tablet settings"
section besides pressure. When Krita has focus and I draw on the tablet, it
does nothing. Every other app treats the tablet like a mouse.

~~~
mcjiggerlog
Every other app treating the tablet like a mouse is the normal and desired
behaviour. As others said, Wacom tablets on linux should just be plug and
play. I literally just plug it in, open krita and start drawing. Big
difference from the literally hours I spent on macOS trying to find the right
drivers for this older model.

I would add that I did have some issues with the Flatpak version of Krita
where the tablet didn't draw as expected. Replacing it with the standard deb
from apt repositories fixed that though.

------
toxicFork
Aw, it does not work well on mobile phones, because the dialogues are cropped
and unscrollable. I am going to keep an eye on it though, some apps like
sketchbook are somewhat working but they are limited. Having krita equivalent
for the phone would be awesome.

~~~
ngold
I have yet to find something that works better than medibang for all around
doodling on phones and tablets. However, I'm excited to keep an eye on this as
well.

~~~
m4rtink
AFAIK Ibis Paint targets Android smartphones, possibply even as their main
target. They have various helper tools for finger based drawing and even their
tutorial videos are dony by hand on a normal size smartphone (eq. not on an
Android tablet with precize pen support).

------
jononor
Congrats Krita team for Android tablet release!

I bought a pen tablet with screen recently, the Gaimon PD1161. Incredibly
cheap compared to the Wacom Cintiq, and it works great with Krita (on
Windows). My girlfriend uses it all the time now:
[https://www.youtube.com/user/PapillonMarianne/videos](https://www.youtube.com/user/PapillonMarianne/videos)

------
abrookewood
Just reiterating the same point - Krita plus a drawing tablet is a perfect
combination for kids. It handles both drawing and animating really well.

~~~
mkl
The symmetry drawing mode is amazing for kids to play with. Any scribble
becomes instantly pretty.

------
v1k65
In the last 6 to 9 months I have been learning Drawing (Pen/Paper), Digital
paining (Krita) and 3D modeling (Blender) in my free time.

I must say, I had to try very hard to not explore Photoshop and other 3D
tools, It wasn't easy when I see most professionals using Photoshop, 3DS,
Maya, etc. From time to time i get frustrated with low quality Youtube's
tutorials, numerous times I had to remind myself to have patience, and stick
with Krita & Blender.

Now I in love with Blender, and getting used to like Krita with Wacom table.

------
Maha-pudma
I'm interested in starting drawing on my computer. What tablet is best for
Linux?

~~~
boudewijnrempt
Wacom. The very, very best is a second hand Wacom Intuos 3, if you can get a
few spare pens. That's before Wacome started adding all kinds of smart
interpolation curves to the tablet hardware itself. My Intuos 3 is eleven
years old and going strong. We got it back then:
[https://dot.kde.org/2007/11/16/art-tablets-
krita](https://dot.kde.org/2007/11/16/art-tablets-krita)

~~~
chrismorgan
I’m curious: what do these smart interpolation curves do, and why do you
consider them bad?

~~~
boudewijnrempt
They change the inputs to the painting application in a way that the user
cannot influence; the app no longer gets the raw hardware take, but something
that's "improved" and "smoothed out". And that's limiting. We can do our own
smoothing, thank you very much, and leave the amount to our user's discretion.

------
barrenko
Been using Krita for a few weeks, UI looks quite similar to Adobe stuff, it's
better than GIMP for out of box drawing if you're a beginner.

I also got a Huion H1060P which works better than I expected.

It's actually got me craving for drawing on paper again too, and it's great
because of psychological drawing barriers because this way I can hide all my
mistakes on my hard drives. And it's a steep curve, like learning to program.

------
mkl
Unfortunately this crashes immediately on my Galaxy Note 12.2.

~~~
hellozee
Please open a thread on [https://krita-artists.org/](https://krita-
artists.org/) so that we can help

------
onemoresoop
Great work team Krita!

I wish there was a mode conducive to less control and creativity a la ArtRage.
I am not a professional digital artist and all the control that digital
drawing platforms have encumbers my creative workflow. Any chance we’ll get
this in Krita? In ArtRage for example colors interact more like in real life
and don’t need to separate objects in layers but just paint over the way
layers naturally happen.

------
mbeex
Not a support forum here - but does someone know, if there are ways to resize
UI fonts for the Windows Krita application without touching the Windows
setting for the whole monitor?

The only way still working for me is an arcane - in fact deprecated for a long
time - Qt environment variable (QT_DEVICE_PIXEL_RATIO), that makes a
difference for at least a portable Krita installation.

~~~
LegitShady
This is a big deal. If you use a display drawing tablet, the likelihood of it
having the same resolution as your display monitor are becoming less and less,
and if I can't scale krita on its own the UI becomes a mess.

~~~
boudewijnrempt
We're really dependent on the Qt framework here. And they've been messing
around with hidpi support for ages, and never, ever get it really right. The
current state, in 5.15 is still "fractional scaling, well, deal with one pixel
gaps between decorations in widgets (like lines).

------
varbhat
Congratulations Krita.

But, Play store is showing that "Device is incompatible" to my phone. Is this
restricted to Tablets?

Another suggestion. Can't Mobile compatible UI be created (using MAUIKIT/Qt)
so that Krita can become best image software for phones too ?

~~~
hellozee
Yes only for tablets and chromebooks for now.

It uses Qtwidgets and mauikit qml so it would be a heck of a job to port that
to qml

~~~
edjrage
Why not publish it for phones too? Something to do with UI polishing (widget
arrangement, responsiveness)?

I have a phablet (6+ inches, high resolution and DPI) with pressure-sensitive
stylus and I'd love to see Krita running on it, even if the UI is not
optimized yet.

~~~
ACosmicDust
If your device supports OpenGL ES and is Android 6+ You can get signed APK for
your phablet from here: [https://krita-artists.org/t/making-and-testing-the-
android-b...](https://krita-artists.org/t/making-and-testing-the-android-
build-from-source/436/101)

------
bobajeff
Congratulations, on finally having a tablet version of Krita. I think years
ago they planned to make one for Windows Phone but we all know what happened
there.

Looking forward to the phone version.

------
amelius
What development tools/framework did they use to write it?

~~~
ACosmicDust
Krita is primarily C++/Qt based. Qt does technically support Android. So any
app written in it could work, but nevertheless, it was imperative to tweak Qt
code to get Krita useable on Android. :-)

------
nelaboras
This sounds great for the kids. Does anyone have experience of the combination
Wacom/similar with a (cheap) Chromebook?

~~~
phaedryx
I got my daughter a Huion tablet and a laptop in the Chromebook price range.
It did take a bit of work to get everything working for her in Linux, but it
works great. She loves it and draws a ton.

I also bought a HP Spectre x360 recently. Krita works really well on it too.

------
out_of_protocol
According to screenshots Android version is tablet only. Also, store says
"device incompatible" (Samsung S8+)

~~~
hellozee
Android Tablets and Chromebooks, the ui isn't much usable for smartphones

~~~
illuminated
It's a pity it doesn't work on Samsung Galaxy Note devices. With the "built
in" pen it would be a spot on despite the smaller screen size.

------
maelito
Desktop Android just got better. Now we need a touch monitor with a good pen.

------
thatjeffrin
What are the best Chromebook and tablet to run this on?

~~~
m4rtink
I would say for Android tablets Galaxy Tab S6 is still the best bet for
drawing.

------
z3t4
Many ChromeOS devices do not support Android apps.

------
terrycody
Kudos to your guys!

