Krita is a painting program, not a vector editor, and that is exactly what makes its vector tools worth knowing about. If you have ever needed a speech bubble, a comic panel border, or a crisp logo shape sitting on top of a painted illustration, you know the usual annoyance: finish the artwork in one app, open a second app to build three shapes, export, re-import. Krita collapses that. It has real vector layers and real vector tools built in, and since version 4.0 they are good enough to use on actual work rather than as a novelty you click once.
This page covers what those tools actually do, where they hold up, where they genuinely do not, and the workflow most people miss: handing vectors back and forth between Krita and Inkscape.
A raster program with real vector inside it
Krita's vector system was rebuilt from the ground up in version 4.0. That release also moved Krita's native vector storage from ODG to SVG, which matters more than it sounds, because SVG is the format the rest of the world already uses. Vectors you make in Krita are SVG underneath, not a private format you have to export out of.
The distinction to hold on to is that Krita treats vectors as a complement to painting, not as a replacement for a vector suite. That is a design choice, and it explains both what the tools do well and what they will not do for you.
The vector tools you actually get
Start by adding a vector layer rather than a paint layer. From there:
- Path and Polyline tools. The workhorses. These make freeform shapes with full node control.
- Ellipse and Rectangle tools. Draw special shapes that stay parametric, so you can turn an ellipse into a pie or a rectangle into a rounded rectangle after the fact.
- Calligraphy tool. Produces variable-width strokes as vector objects rather than pixels, which is how you get tapered linework that stays sharp at any size.
- Text tool. Creates a text object you can go back and edit later. It is a text object, not a baked-in bitmap.
- Vector Image tool. Drop in shapes defined in an SVG file as symbols. These carry their own fill and stroke, so they behave independently of the layer's colours.
- Select Shapes tool. Select, group, ungroup, reorder, quick transforms, and boolean operations to combine or subtract shapes from one another.
- Edit Shapes tool. Node-level editing. Double-click any shape and Krita jumps you to the correct tool for it, which for text means the Text tool instead of the node editor.
- Arrange docker. Vector layers have their own shape hierarchy, the same way the image has a layer hierarchy. This is where you reorder, align to centre, or space shapes evenly.
Fill and stroke both accept solid colour, gradient or pattern. Strokes additionally take dashes and markers. You can also set exact coordinates in the tool options, which is the difference between nudging a shape until it looks right and placing it where it belongs.
Where Krita's vector tools genuinely shine: comics
This is the honest answer to what the vector feature is for. Comics and manga.
Krita's vector library ships with speech bubble templates you drag straight onto the canvas, and because a bubble is a vector, resizing it or moving anchor points to reshape it costs you nothing in quality. Panel borders work the same way. Clean lineart can sit on vector layers while your colouring stays on paint layers beneath it, which is a workflow that is genuinely awkward to assemble in a single-purpose tool.
That combination, painted art plus vector panels and bubbles in one file, is the real selling point. It is also why Krita's own features page leads its vector section with comic panels rather than with illustration.
The workflow worth knowing: Krita and Inkscape together
You can copy and paste vectors directly between Krita and Inkscape, in both directions. No file export step, because both programs are working in SVG.
The caveat is SVG 1.1. That covers the overwhelming majority of what you would draw by hand, but anything newer, mesh gradients being the usual example, will not survive the trip. If you build something in Inkscape that leans on a feature Krita does not implement, expect it to flatten or drop when it arrives.
The practical division of labour: build complex vector artwork in Inkscape where the tools go deeper, then paste it into Krita to sit alongside your painting. Or sketch shapes in Krita first, paste out for precision work, and bring them back. Either direction works, and knowing that changes how you plan a mixed-media piece.
Where Krita's vector tools fall short
Being straight about this saves you an afternoon:
- Krita is primarily a raster program. That is Krita's own description, and the vector tools are a second-class citizen by design rather than by oversight.
- No print production pipeline. There is nothing here equivalent to Illustrator's CMYK handling, colour separation, Pantone support or PDF/X export. If your vector work is headed to a printer, this is the wrong tool and no amount of practice will change that.
- Typography is basic. Text objects are editable and perfectly good for labels and captions. This is not a typesetting environment, and complex typography is where the gap is widest.
- SVG 1.1 only. As above, so no mesh gradients and nothing newer than that standard.
- For pure vector illustration, Inkscape is simply better, and it is also free. Krita's vector tools exist to support painting, not to replace a vector suite.
Should you use Krita for vector work?
Use it if you are painting, drawing comics or illustrating, and you want vector shapes available without leaving your art app. The convenience is the product.
Do not use it if you are producing logos, icons or print-ready vector artwork. Inkscape does that properly at the same price of free, and if you need the fuller picture of what free tools cover vector work, browse the vector graphics and design category. If you want Krita mainly for the painting side and need a raster editor that handles the mixed media you already work in, GIMP takes a similar raster-first, vectors-as-a-bonus approach.
Download and requirements
Krita 5.3.4 was released on 15 September 2026.
- Runs on Windows 8.1 or newer, macOS 10.15 or newer, and Linux
- 4 GB RAM is the stated minimum, 16 GB recommended
- OpenGL 3.0 or Direct3D 11 for graphics
- Any drawing tablet that works with your operating system
It is free and open source, built by artists under the KDE umbrella. Paid builds also exist on the Microsoft Store, Steam, the Epic Games Store and the Mac App Store, and after the store's cut those purchases fund development. iPads and iPhones are not supported.
