LazPaint

LazPaint is a free, open-source image editor written in Free Pascal and distributed for Windows, macOS and Linux. Its distinguishing idea is that raster and vector content live in the same document: a single layer list can hold painted pixels, vector shapes, text and images, and vector layers stay editable because the program keeps the shape definitions instead of flattening them on save. The whole application downloads in a few megabytes, starts quickly and installs without a runtime, which makes it a practical choice on older machines, thin clients and locked-down desktops.

What it does

The tool set covers brushes and pencils with pressure and shape dynamics, selection by rectangle, ellipse, polygon, magic wand and colour range, flood fill, gradient fill, clone and colour pickers, text, and vector primitives such as lines, curves, rectangles and ellipses. Each layer has an opacity value and a blend mode, and adjustment commands handle brightness, contrast, saturation, hue, colour balance, levels, posterisation and gamma. Filters include blur, sharpen, emboss, contour, noise, pixelate and a radial blur, and there is a scripting engine that can replay a defined action over a folder of images for batch work.

The workflow

Start a document from a photo, a blank canvas or the clipboard. Keep the background as a raster layer, add vector layers for labels, callouts and frames, and use raster layers for retouching. Make selections before applying adjustments so that changes stay local, and check the layer blend mode before chasing a colour problem with curves. Save in the native format while working so vector layers survive, then export to PNG, JPEG, WebP, TIFF, GIF or ICO for delivery. For repeated jobs, record the steps as a script and run it over a folder.

Practical settings and limits

The editor works with 8-bit channels and has no adjustment layers or history beyond a configurable undo depth, so keep the native file format as the working document and export copies for output. Colour management reads embedded profiles but does not offer soft proofing, and very large canvases consume memory quickly because layer data is held uncompressed. The interface is dense and its terminology differs from the larger editors, so expect a short adjustment period. Exporting to ICO with several sizes at once is a genuinely useful specialty feature.

Who should choose something else

Professional retouchers will miss adjustment layers, 16-bit editing, masks with feathering controls and colour-managed proofing. Users who need advanced vector typography should use a dedicated vector editor, and anyone whose work depends on third-party plugin ecosystems should stay with a mainstream editor. LazPaint is the right tool for quick composite work, icon and sprite production, annotations and editing on modest hardware where a heavyweight editor would be unwelcome.