KolourPaint vs MS Paint: is it a good Linux alternative?

KolourPaint as a Linux alternative to MS Paint

Updated October 24, 2026

Our verdict

KolourPaint is a solid replacement for MS Paint for users who need a lightweight, cross‑platform raster editor. It covers most everyday tasks—drawing, shape insertion, text, cropping, resizing, and basic color editing—making it suitable for casual users, students, and quick image touch‑ups. Power users who rely on advanced features like layer management or complex filters will find it lacking, but for the typical Paint workflow it works well.

Feature parity85%

License: BSD-2-Clause and LGPL-2.0+ and GFDL-1.2
Price: Free
Latest version: 26.04.3 (July 2, 2026)
Rating: —

Install KolourPaint Website ↗

Painting in KolourPaint

What works the same

Both support BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF formats
Both provide basic drawing tools (brush, pencil, shapes)
Both allow text insertion and simple cropping/resizing
Both include a color picker for sampling
Both are free and bundled with the OS or available via standard repositories

What is different

KolourPaint offers rotation and monochrome effects, which MS Paint does not
KolourPaint supports more advanced selection tools (polygon, lasso)
KolourPaint lacks a true two‑color mode and limited brush customization compared to Paint
KolourPaint does not have a built‑in file format conversion wizard like Paint’s “Save As” dialog
KolourPaint’s UI is KDE‑centric and may feel unfamiliar to Windows users

Opening your MS Paint files

KolourPaint can open and save BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF files, matching the formats MS Paint uses. It does not support the proprietary .bmp variants with embedded Windows icon data, but for standard images it works fine. Exporting to .bmp, .jpg, .png, .gif, or .tiff will preserve the image content. No special conversion steps are required.

Switching from MS Paint to KolourPaint, step by step

Install KolourPaint via your distro’s package manager or Flathub

Key features of KolourPaint

Drawing shapes: lines, rectangles, ovals, polygons
Curve and freehand line tools
Text insertion and editing
Color picker for precise sampling
Selection tools for moving and editing parts of an image
Rotation and monochrome effects
Support for standard raster image formats

How to install KolourPaint on Linux

Flatpak (Flathub)flatpak install flathub org.kde.kolourpaint

Ubuntu / Mintsudo apt install kolourpaint

Debiansudo apt install kolourpaint

Fedorasudo dnf install kolourpaint

Arch / Manjarosudo pacman -S kolourpaint

openSUSEsudo zypper install kolourpaint

Frequently asked questions

Does KolourPaint support the same file formats as MS Paint?

Yes, it opens and saves BMP, JPEG, GIF, PNG, and TIFF files, which are the same formats used by MS Paint.

Can I use KolourPaint on Windows?

KolourPaint is a native Linux application; it does not run on Windows without a compatibility layer like WSL or a virtual machine.

Will I lose any functionality by switching?

You will lose the very simple two‑color mode and the minimal brush options that MS Paint offers, but you gain rotation, monochrome effects, and more flexible selection tools.