Inkist Lite
Inkist Lite is a free, lightweight raster graphics painting and sketching application for macOS. It offers essential digital art tools including customizable brushes, layer support with blending modes, selection and shape tools, color adjustments, and dodge/burn effects. The app prioritises a clean, uncluttered interface designed to get out of the way and let artists work quickly. It supports pressure-sensitive graphics tablets and can export to PSD, JPEG, PNG and TIFF formats, as well as Inkist's native ISImage format. Inkist Lite serves as a free trial version of the full Inkist app, limited to three layers.
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1 suggestionThe last confirmed version of Inkist Lite is 1.4, released in August 2012 with minor updates through 2023. The developer has not shipped any new releases for several years, indicating the project is effectively abandoned. Crucially, there is no evidence of a native Apple Silicon build. The Intel-only version continues to run under Rosetta 2 today, but Apple is removing Rosetta 2 from macOS 28 (late 2027), at which point Inkist Lite will stop launching entirely. For active digital painting and sketching, consider moving to Krita, a free and open-source alternative that runs natively on Apple Silicon, offers more advanced tools including vector capabilities, and receives regular updates. Affinity Photo 2 is a paid professional option with native Apple Silicon support if you prefer a commercial product. Before abandoning your work in Inkist Lite, export any important files to a portable format such as TIFF or PNG to preserve your art.
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