What it does
AzPainter is a GPL-licensed painting application with pressure input, editable text and several layer colour types. It supports Linux and FreeBSD, plus macOS through XQuartz. Its image formats include APD, PSD and common raster files.
Layer types let you use full RGBA, greyscale or alpha-only data. Greyscale and one-bit alpha layers support tone display for comic artwork. Editable text includes vertical Japanese lettering and ruby annotations.
Keep application versions aligned when sharing native projects: AzPainter 3.x writes APD version 4, which older releases cannot open. macOS use requires XQuartz.
Strengths
- Editable text supports Japanese comic lettering
- Layer colour types can reduce memory use
Watch out for
- Older releases cannot read the newer APD format
- macOS requires XQuartz
Best for
- Comic artwork with Japanese dialogue
Sources
- AzPainter developer features, formats, platforms and licence (Oct 27, 2026)