Everything you need to edit images.

KawaPaint brings layers, precise drawing tools, rich effects, repeatable exports, and a familiar desktop workflow to Windows, Linux, and the browser.

Platforms
Windows, Linux, Web
Project format
Paint.NET compatible
License
MIT
KawaPaint workspace showing a layered geometric composition and drawing tools
A focused workspace with the controls you need close at hand.

Built on a shared C# and SkiaSharp engine with a native Avalonia interface.

Fast for everyday edits, flexible for repeatable production work.

Feature list

A complete editing toolkit

From a quick crop to a scripted batch, KawaPaint keeps the entire workflow in one application.

01

Drawing and shapes

  • Pencil and soft paintbrush with adjustable size and hardness
  • Eraser, color picker, clone stamp, and recolor tools
  • Paint bucket with tolerance and global fill modes
  • Linear gradients with foreground and background colors
  • Lines, rectangles, rounded rectangles, ellipses, stars, arrows, and freeform shapes
  • Antialiased outlines and optional filled shapes
  • Text and reusable dynamic text zones
02

Layers and selections

  • Layer visibility, naming, reordering, duplication, import, merge, and flatten
  • Opacity controls and 14 blend modes
  • Rectangle, ellipse, lasso, and magic wand selections
  • Replace, add, subtract, and intersect selection modes
  • Move selected pixels without flattening the document
  • Cut, copy, copy merged, and flexible paste placement
  • Fill, erase, invert, crop, and deselect operations
03

Image adjustments

  • Brightness and contrast, hue and saturation, levels, and curves
  • Automatic levels, black and white, sepia, and color inversion
  • Resize, canvas size, crop, rotate, and flip operations
  • Live previews for parameterized adjustments
  • Gaussian, motion, radial, zoom, surface, and unfocus blurs
  • Sharpen, emboss, edge detect, posterize, and noise controls
04

Effects library

  • Bulge, twist, polar inversion, tile, frosted glass, pixelate, and dents
  • Median, outline, relief, vignette, and noise reduction
  • Clouds, Julia fractal, and Mandelbrot fractal generators
  • Glow, red eye removal, and portrait softening
  • Ink sketch, pencil sketch, and oil painting styles
  • Fragment and other configurable blur treatments
05

Files and export

  • Layered KawaPaint projects compatible with the Paint.NET 3.36 format
  • PNG, JPEG, WebP, ICO, JPEG XL, and JPEG 2000 encoding
  • BMP and GIF import, plus content-based format detection
  • Named export presets for resize, pad, fill and crop, quality, and filenames
  • Caption and alt text sidecar packages
  • CSV mail merge for producing personalized image sets
  • EXIF, IPTC, XMP, GPS, and ICC metadata inspection and removal
06

Automation and safety

  • Record edits as reusable KawaPaint scripts
  • Batch apply scripts to individual files or entire folders
  • Command line export presets and scripted pipelines
  • Record and replay interactive demos at selectable speeds
  • Configurable autosave with crash recovery
  • Memory-aware undo history with disk spill support
  • Optional local Git history for settings and linked projects
07

A workspace that adapts

  • Dock, float, move, or hide Tools, Colors, Color Wheel, Layers, and History
  • Build a custom dock from frequently used controls
  • Save, rename, and restore workspace layouts
  • Editable palettes with import and export
  • Rulers in pixels, inches, centimeters, and millimeters
  • Fit, actual size, and stepped zoom controls
  • Searchable command palette and keyboard shortcuts
08

Open and extensible

  • Native Windows and Linux applications from one shared engine
  • WebAssembly edition for running in a modern browser
  • Plugin API for custom effects and drawing tools
  • Paint.NET classic effect plugin bridge on desktop
  • Plugin manager with discovery, reload, and per-plugin controls
  • Open source C# code under the MIT license

Latest release

Start creating with KawaPaint

Self-contained builds include everything needed to run. No separate .NET installation is required.

0.6.0-betaMIT licensedSource available

Desktop builds are currently unsigned. Your operating system may show an unknown publisher warning.

Expanded KawaPaint screenshot