Krita

Krita is a free, open-source digital painting app for illustrators that publishers use to paint cover art and children's book illustrations.

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At a glance

Price

Free

Platforms

Windows, Mac, Linux

Outputs KDP-ready files

Not stated

Touches your KDP account

No

Categories

Cover Design & Mockups

Last checked

2026-11-09

Summary

Krita is built for drawing and painting, with brushes, layers and animation tools, and it can work in a CMYK color model natively. It cannot export PDF, which KDP requires for print covers and interiors, so you export TIFF or PNG and assemble the final PDF in another program. It has no book templates or spine calculation.

Best for

• Painting original cover art and picture book illustrations

Pros

• Free and open source, with professional painting tools
• Native CMYK color model for print artwork

Cons

• No PDF export
• Painting-focused; weak for typography and cover layout

Alternatives

• GIMP: GIMP is a free, open-source desktop image editor for Windows, Mac and Linux that publishers use to build and edit book cover artwork.
• Photopea: Photopea is a free browser-based image editor similar to Photoshop that opens PSD files and can export PDF for print covers.
• Inkscape: Inkscape is a free, open-source vector graphics editor for Windows, Mac and Linux that can lay out covers and low-content pages and export PDF.

Sources

Facts on this page come from the vendor and these pages. Prices change; confirm on the vendor site.

• https://krita.org/en/
• https://docs.krita.org/en/_sources/general_concepts/file_formats/file_pdf.rst.txt
• https://docs.krita.org/en/_sources/general_concepts/colors/color_models.rst.txt

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