Here we list top 3 MS Paint alternative drawing programs for Ubuntu, Linux.
For a quick drawing, editing images – MS Paint type applications are essential. Here are three of them which are similar and can be used for quick drawing/editing in Linux and Ubuntu systems. These 3 MS Paint alternative drawing programs are best fit for general users and as well as professionals who need a quick and fast edit on images or create drawings.
Drawing
Drawing is a free and open-source image editing program for Linux desktops, primarily targeted to GNOME desktops, also compatible with Cinnamon/elementary OS. This simple and free app designed for basic image editing, adding texts, shapes in images, and many more. It is not in-par on GIMP or any advanced editor for which it is not built for.

Image Tools available in Drawing
Here’s are the tools available in Drawing:
- Pencil
- Rectangle
- Circle & oval
- Polygon
- Free shape
- Line & arrow
- Arc
- Insert text
- Selection (rectangle, free, or by color)
- Color picker
- Paint
- Crop
- Flip
- Scale
- Rotate
- Saturate
Download and Install
Drawing is available as a standalone Flatpak executable with all dependencies. You can download the Flatpak executable from the below link after making sure that your Linux distribution is setup for Flatpak packages.
Pinta
Pinta – as the tagline says it makes painting simple. Available for Linux, Windows, and Mac – Pinta is free to download and use and armed with some basics and advanced features. You can draw shapes, edit images, add texts, add effects and adjustments to the images, and many more.

Features of Pinta at a glance
- Easy drawing tools for drawing freehand, lines, rectangles, ellipses, and more.
- Includes over 35 adjustments and effects for your image
- Multilingual
- Full Undo history – so you can’t make mistakes
- Multiple layer support
- Docked and floating window support.
Download and Install
For Ubuntu, Linux Mint and its derivatives, you can install Pinta via PPA as below:
sudo add-apt-repository ppa:pinta-maintainers/pinta-stable sudo apt update sudo apt install pinta
For other download options including Windows – visit this page.
Pencil2D
Pencil2D is a free and open-source project for easily drawing and primarily dedicated to hand drawing animations. It is available for both Windows and Linux. If you are an artist or designing quick comics/animations – Pencil2D is a perfect fit for you.

Here are some of its features:
Features of Pencil2D
- Lightweight and easy to use so you can focus on animating and not what button to hit next.
- Seamlessly switch between raster and vector workflows, allowing you to sketch, ink & paint on the go.
- Pencil2D is cross-platform and runs on Windows, macOS, Linux & FreeBSD.
- Pencil2D is completely open-source and free to use, even commercially!
Download and Install
The Good news is Pencil2D is available for Windows (almost all versions 7, XP, Vista, and 10), Linux, and Mac. Head over to the below link for download for your operating system.
Links
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