Adobe has made its specialized drawing and painting application, Adobe Fresco, completely free for all users. With this decision, Adobe aims to attract more artists to its creative software platform and compete with popular alternatives like Procreate, Clip Studio Paint, and Krita. These alternatives are widely favored in the digital art community due to their affordability, ease of use, and iPad support.
Previously, access to Fresco’s premium features — including an expanded set of brushes, a font library, and the ability to import custom brushes — was only available through a $9.99 annual subscription. While this price is relatively low compared to other Adobe subscriptions, it couldn’t compete with the one-time purchase option of Procreate, which costs $12.99. This pricing structure likely influenced limited demand for Adobe Fresco’s paid offering.
Adobe Fresco is designed for touchscreen and stylus-supported devices and is available on iPad, iPhone, and Windows PCs. First launched in 2019, Fresco offers several unique features, including mirror and rotational symmetry tools and quick animation presets with options like “bounce” and “breathe.” It also supports realistic material effects, simulating textures of oil, watercolor, or pencil for creating artwork with lifelike detail. Unlike Procreate, Fresco does not offer AI generation features, but it does have a PC version and supports cloud storage, whereas Procreate files are stored only locally on the device.
The program can be downloaded for Windows and iOS/iPadOS devices on Adobe’s official website.
