Artweaver puts a wealth of virtual    brushes into artists' hands.  
    Is it time to     bid farewell to Microsoft Paint, a Windows staple    since all the way back in version 1.0? According to a Microsoft    page listing all the features    to be removed from the Windows 10 Fall Creators Update,    Paint is indeed going bye-bye.  
    Of course, this has yet to be officially confirmed by    Microsoft, and there's always the possibility you'll be able to    download the program separately.  
    If not, no worries: There are plenty of free alternatives to    Paint, and most of them offer a lot more features. Let's take a    look at some of the options.  
    If you liked doing actual painting with Microsoft Paint, you'll    love Artweaver. This touchscreen-friendly Windows program    serves up a wealth of realistic brushes, pens, papers and more,    all designed to unlock your inner artist.  
    Although the free version is quite capable, you'll need to    invest in Artweaver Plus (about $40, or 30/AU$50) if you need    technical support or want to use the program for commercial    purposes. Just doodling, though? You'll find Artweaver a fine    tool.  
    GIMP supports layers -- a killer feature    if you need them, and something Paint users never dreamed    of.  
    The old-standby, old-favorite open-source image editor, GIMP    hews much closer to Photoshop than it does to Paint, and as    such the learning curve is much steeper. If you're willing to    learn, this is definitely a major upgrade.  
    On the other hand, it's probably overkill for users just    looking to draw cat pictures. Thankfully, the developers have    created a handful of    tutorials designed to walk you through various functions.    And, hey, you can't have a conversation about free    image-manipulation tools without mentioning GIMP. While I'm at    it, Paint.NET    is usually mentioned in the same breath; it's similarly    sophisticated, similarly challenging for novices.  
    Do you use Paint mostly for simple image-editing? Consider    switching to IrfanView, a fast and compact utility that's great    for quick edits. With it you can rotate, flip and resize    images; convert to grayscale, sharpen, fill backgrounds; and    apply a variety of effects.  
    It's been my go-to app for years; I use it to tweak most of the    images I share here on CNET. And it does have basic paint and    text tools as well, so you can accomplish nearly everything    here that you can in Paint -- and then some.  
    Built with illustrators and comics/manga artists in mind, Krita    is an open-source paint program offering perks like a    brush-stabilizer (to compensate for shaky hands), a wrap-around    mode to produce seamless textures and patterns and a pop-up    palette to keep useful tools close at hand.  
    Like a lot of the more advanced software in this roundup, Krita    comes with a learning curve. Newbies will definitely want to    check out the online    documentation.  
    Krita gives budding artists and    illustrators a pro-level set of tools.  
    Why bother downloading and installing software when you can    work on the web? (Oh, right: working offline.) Assuming you're    connected, check out Pixlr Editor, a browser-based image editor    offering tools -- layers, filters, effects, etc. -- that rival    both GIMP and Paint.NET.  
    Just one problem: The tools aren't labeled; you don't even get    pop-up descriptors when you mouse over them. So unless you can    identify, say, the smudge tool just by its icon, you may find    Pixlr a little complicated.  
    Have you found a free Paint substitute you like better than    any/all of these? Name it in the comments!  
See the article here:
5 free replacements for MS Paint - CNET