How to draw and write on a picture on a Mac

Circling something on a screenshot, labelling a photo, or adding a “Paid” stamp to a receipt: drawing on a picture is the thing people miss most from Paint on a Mac. Here’s how to do it in Easy Paint Pro and keep your original untouched.

Step by step

1. Open the picture

   Drag a photo or screenshot onto the Easy Paint Pro window, or use File ▸ Open…. You can open several at once; each gets its own tab.

2. Draw or highlight

   Choose Pencil or Brush for freehand lines. The brush list includes a highlighter, calligraphy pens, crayon and watercolour. Use the bracket keys [ and ] to change the size.

3. Point things out

   Under Shapes you’ll find arrows, speech bubbles and symbols. Rectangle and Ellipse draw boxes and circles around things.

4. Add text

   Choose Text, click where it goes and type. Pick the font, size, colour and style in the options. Press Command–Return to finish.

5. Stamp it

   Stamp adds ready-made stamps such as Approved, Paid and today’s date, or your own wording.

6. Save a copy

   Use File ▸ Export to save a JPEG or PNG, or File ▸ Save a Copy…. Your original file stays as it was.

Change your mind later

Text, shapes, arrows and stamps you place stay editable objects. Choose Select, then click or double-click one to move it, resize it, restyle it or delete it. To keep them editable for next time, save a workspace with Workspace ▸ Save Workspace…; exported JPEG and PNG files are flattened.

The free option

Preview, which comes with your Mac, has a Markup toolbar with a pen, shapes, text and signatures. It’s handy for a quick note. Easy Paint Pro adds real brushes, a highlighter, fills, stamps, layers and tabs when you want more than a quick note.

More guides

• Is there MS Paint for Mac?
• Blur or pixelate part of a screenshot
• Remove the background from a picture
• Make pixel art