Use Krita for Digital Illustration

Krita is a professional-grade open-source painting application built specifically for illustration, concept art, and comics. Unlike GIMP—which is optimised for photo editing—Krita was designed from the ground up for digital painters. It ships with hundreds of brush presets, a fully non-destructive layer system, and first-class graphics tablet support. This guide walks through getting Krita running, configuring a drawing tablet, working with brushes and layers, and clarifies when you'd choose Krita over GIMP.

Installing Krita

Debian / Ubuntu

The Flatpak release tracks upstream more closely than the distro packages, which can lag by a release or two. Both options work; pick the one that fits your workflow.

sudo apt update && sudo apt install krita

Or, using Flatpak for the latest stable release:

flatpak install flathub org.kde.krita

Fedora / RHEL family (Rocky, AlmaLinux)

sudo dnf install krita

Arch Linux

sudo pacman -S krita

Verify the installed version. Krita 5.x is the current major branch and is required for everything in this guide.

krita --version

Configuring a Graphics Tablet

Krita reads pressure and tilt data through the Linux kernel's evdev input stack. Most Wacom, Huion, and XP-Pen tablets work out of the box on kernels 5.15 and later. Wayland sessions are fully supported since Krita 5.1 via Qt's native tablet input path—you no longer need to force an X11 session for tablet use.

Check that your tablet is recognised

libinput list-devices | grep -A5 -i tablet

You should see your device listed with capabilities including tablet. If nothing appears, check that the usbhid kernel module is loaded:

lsmod | grep usbhid

Enable tablet pressure inside Krita

1. Open Settings → Configure Krita → Tablet settings.
2. Select Linux native tablet support (WinTab disabled) on Wayland, or WinTab if running under XWayland / X11.
3. Click OK and restart Krita.

To verify pressure is working, open the Brush Pressure Curve test widget under Settings → Configure Krita → Performance → Tablet and press your pen against the screen at varying angles.

Understanding the Canvas and Workspace

When you create a new document (File → New), set your canvas size and resolution before painting—changing these later degrades raster content. For print illustration, 300 DPI at your target print size is standard. For screen work, 72–150 DPI at 1920×1080 or larger is typical.

Krita's interface is docker-based. The most important dockers for illustration are:

• Layers – layer stack management
• Brush Presets – searchable preset library
• Advanced Color Selector – HSV wheel or Painter's wheel
• Tool Options – context-sensitive settings for the active tool

Arrange these via Settings → Dockers. Layouts save per-profile under Settings → Manage Resources → Workspaces.

Working with Brushes

Brush presets are the heart of Krita. Every preset is built on a brush engine—the algorithm that computes how strokes behave. The most useful engines for illustration are:

• Pixel – hard-edged, fast; good for inking and pixel art.
• MyPaint (mypaintbrush engine) – highly responsive; mirrors traditional media well.
• Color Smudge – blends paint like oils or pastels; computationally heavier.
• Shape – stamp-based; ideal for textures and foliage.

Loading and using presets

Press F5 to open the Brush Editor, or click any preset in the Brush Presets docker. The search bar at the top of the docker accepts partial names—type ink to filter inking brushes instantly.

Key brush shortcuts:

• [ / ] – decrease / increase brush size
• Shift + drag – resize brush interactively on canvas
• E – toggle eraser mode for any brush
• K / L – darken / lighten current colour

Customising and saving a preset

Open the Brush Editor (F5), tweak parameters such as opacity, flow, or the pressure curve under Opacity → Pressure, then click Save to Presets at the top. Your custom presets appear in the docker immediately and persist across sessions.

Working with Layers

Krita supports raster layers, vector layers, fill layers, filter layers, and group layers. For illustration, the typical workflow stacks layers from bottom to top:

1. Background / flats – blocked-in base colours
2. Shadows / shading – set to Multiply blend mode
3. Highlights – set to Add or Screen blend mode
4. Line art – usually on top, set to Multiply so the background shows through

Essential layer operations

• Add a new paint layer: Insert key, or the + icon in the Layers docker
• Duplicate a layer: Ctrl + J
• Merge down: Ctrl + E
• Group selected layers: Ctrl + G
• Change blend mode: dropdown at the top-left of the Layers docker
• Lock alpha channel: the checkerboard icon next to the layer—paint stays within existing pixels only

Clipping masks

A clipping mask confines a layer's content to the shape of the layer directly below it—essential for colouring within line art without overpainting. Right-click a layer and choose Create Clipping Mask, or press Ctrl + Alt + G. The layer indents in the stack to show it is clipped.

Krita vs GIMP for Illustration

Both are capable free applications, but they solve different problems.

Feature	Krita	GIMP
Primary use case	Digital painting / illustration	Photo editing / compositing
Brush engine variety	10+ specialised engines	Limited, paint-tool focused
Tablet pressure support	First-class, per-parameter curves	Basic; pressure to opacity only
Layer blend modes	80+	~30
Animation timeline	Built-in frame-by-frame	Not present
Non-destructive filters	Filter layers, masks	Limited (GEGL ops)
CMYK colour space	Supported (soft-proofing)	Not natively
Healing / clone stamp	Basic	Mature, feature-rich
Batch scripting	Python API	Script-Fu / Python-Fu

Choose Krita when your output is original painted or drawn artwork. Choose GIMP when you're retouching photographs, removing backgrounds, or doing layout work that's primarily manipulation of existing images.

Exporting Your Work

Save the working file as .kra (Krita's native format) to preserve layers and metadata. For delivery, use File → Export As:

• PNG – lossless, supports transparency; ideal for web and print submission.
• JPEG – for photos or when file size matters; no transparency.
• PSD – to hand off to collaborators using Photoshop. Krita's PSD export is generally reliable but some layer effects may not translate.
• PDF – for print-ready delivery with colour profile embedded.

Troubleshooting

Brush strokes feel laggy

Open Settings → Configure Krita → Performance and increase the RAM limit. Also disable OpenGL canvas acceleration temporarily to test whether the GPU driver is the bottleneck—some Mesa drivers have regressions that affect Krita's canvas rendering.

No pressure sensitivity under Wayland

Confirm you are running Krita 5.1 or later. Older Flatpak releases may predate the Wayland tablet fixes. If pressure still fails, launch Krita with the environment variable QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb to force XWayland as a diagnostic step:

QT_QPA_PLATFORM=xcb krita

Tablet cursor is offset from the actual drawn line

This almost always means your monitor scaling is set to a fractional value (e.g., 125%) without informing Qt. Set QT_SCALE_FACTOR to match your display scale:

QT_SCALE_FACTOR=1.25 krita

Persist this by adding the variable to a .desktop launcher or your shell profile.