layers/channels/masks/filters/gradients/typography

About

A new macOS image editor with familiar key bindings and a somewhat retro aesthetic. Keeping the dream of the '90s alive!

No AI tools here – plenty of other apps do that. We focus on deterministic and mathematical mutations rather than stochastically generated slop.

Built for Apple Silicon. Requires macOS 15 Sequoia.


This free download offers a 14-day trial period, after which it's a $9.99 one-time purchase to buy a perpetual license.

Blog

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Features

Drop shadow layer style demo
Bevel & Emboss layer style demo
Grain gradient demo
Guides and snapping demo
Crystallize filter
Conic gradient
Halftone Pattern

What can you do with Mojave Paint?

Design a flyer!

Design App Store screenshots!

Draw an icon!

Re-color specific areas of a photograph!

Video gallery

Here's a feature video I've been running lately as an ad on the Meta platforms. Just a rapid-fire demo of some of the fun interactions in Mojave Paint.
A quick demo of the new Layer Styles applied to a type layer.
Recreating the WWDC26 logo in Mojave Paint.
Changing my Smart Car from red to green using Hue selection and the Hue/Saturation adjustment.

Recent releases

August 29, 2026

Changed
  • Added Command+G keyboard shortcut to group layers
  • Improved dark mode colors. Now even darker!
  • When you first open a document it fits the viewport instead of snapping to a discrete zoom level. Get back to this view at any time with Command+0.
  • Improved usability with the "click to select all" input boxes. Now subsequent clicks place the cursor instead of repeatedly selecting all.
  • The color picker's hex output field now auto-selects when you click it, making it easier to get your color values out.
  • Free transform's numeric inputs now auto-select when you click them, making it easier to replace their values by keyboard.
  • When you update a Free Transform's numeric input value and hit Enter, it now applies it _and_ it commits all pending transforms. To apply and _not_ commit you can tab away or click outside.
  • More tips and tip videos, and gave tips a keyboard shortcut of Command+/ for easier access.
Fixed (2)
  • Pairwise kerning was getting dropped when you duplicated a type layer
  • Free transform got into a bad state when dragging a label while you had keyboard focus in the associated input field

August 25, 2026

New
  • Tips window with helpful tips and tricks you can page through
  • Rounding out the blend modes with 10 more of the classic ones, plus the blend mode menu is arranged in two columns now
Changed (1)
  • Added a zoom slider to the status bar
Fixed (1)
  • After a "Merge down" the layer thumbnail would stop updating

August 14, 2026

New
  • Added all the contrast blend modes: Soft Light, Hard Light, Vivid Light, Linear Light, Pin Light, and Hard Mix
  • Pass Through blend mode for folders
  • High Pass filter
  • There's a shortcut to the most recently used filter at the top of the Filter menu, also accessible with ctrl-cmd-F.
Changed (3)
  • Option-clicking the Layer Mask button creates an inverted layer mask
  • Layer cut/copy/paste now works across documents
  • You can cmd-click recent documents to select multiple for opening
Fixed (3)
  • Magic wand and paint bucket tools weren't extending out to the full document edge when a pixel layer has transparent margins. Related: Paint bucket tool wasn't working at all on a fully transparent layer.
  • Magic wand tool now works correctly on a Type layer. Previously it silently fell back to "Sample all layers" mode.
  • Improved memory usage in the undo/redo stack. Now small brush strokes and filters applied to small selected areas use far less memory.

Interactive roadmap

What missing features are your biggest pain points in Mojave Paint right now?

Shape layers

Such as square (with adjustable corner radius), circle, other primitive shapes. Ability to set fill and stroke and stroke width.

Smart objects

Ability to set a bitmap as immutable, such that transforming it leaves the original copy non-destructively in tact. This makes sizing up and down not lose detail.

Dodge and burn tools

Brush that lightens and darkens.

Warp tool

Warp on a grid, or fancier options like Liquify.

Camera Raw features

This has nothing to do with raw files, it means photo retouching controls such as sliders for exposure, color balance, shadows, highlights, etc.

PSD import and export

And layered TIFF while we're at it. Pixel layers and type layers (with styles) should come across in high fidelity, other features will have to be lossy.

Pattern fill

Repeating patterns you can use as a fill anywhere you'd otherwise use solid color or gradient fills.

Brush support

We currently just have circle and square. This would let you use arbitrary bitmaps as brushes, and import Photoshop ABR brushes.

Character and paragraph styles

Character style would include kerning and tracking. Paragraph style would include alignment and leading.

Snap to guides

Dragged element snapping to guides. Affects the move tool and the rectangle marquee and crop tool regions, among possibly other things.

Layer styles

Color and gradient overlay, drop shadow, outline, outer glow, etc.

Dark mode

Configurable in settings to be "Light", "Dark", or "System (OS)"