Adobe Fresco vs Infinite Painter

Price

Adobe Fresco is free with every tool included, while Infinite Painter is free to download with paid upgrades.

Adobe Fresco is free, with thousands of brushes, unlimited layers and animation tools included. An optional subscription bundles it with Photoshop on iPad for $7.99 a month on the US App Store.

Infinite Painter is free to download. The free version includes every built-in brush, brush editing and up to 5 layers, and a 7-day trial unlocks everything. The Pro upgrade is a one-time $9.99 purchase on the US App Store, with no subscription.

Platforms

Both run on iPad and iPhone. Only Adobe Fresco runs on Windows. Only Infinite Painter runs on Mac, Android and Chromebook.

Fresco is one app for iPad and iPhone, and there is also a Windows version. Adobe's system requirements list no Mac or Android version. You can start drawing without signing in, but exporting and cloud saving need an Adobe account.

Infinite Painter is one app across iPad and iPhone, also runs on Apple silicon Macs, and has an Android version for phones, tablets and Chromebooks. Pro is bought separately through the App Store or Google Play.

Brushes

Fresco includes thousands of free brushes: blendable raster brushes, vector brushes that stay sharp at any size, and Live Brushes that simulate watercolor and oil paint. It also imports Photoshop brushes.

Infinite Painter has hundreds of built-in brushes with more than 100 settings each. It imports and exports its own brushes and sets, can sample lower layers when blending, and applies live color adjustments and filters to any brush.

Comics and manga

Adobe Fresco does not advertise comic tools such as panel layouts or screentones, though its text, shapes and vector brushes help with lettering and clean line art.

Infinite Painter includes screentone brushes, editable shapes and text layers, but it does not advertise comic panel layouts.

Layers and editing

Adobe Fresco: Layers are unlimited, with masks, clipping and Photoshop-style adjustment layers for brightness, hue/saturation and color balance. Liquify, free transform and a magic wand are included, and documents open directly in Photoshop and Illustrator.

Infinite Painter: In Pro it offers live adjustment and filter layers with more than 40 filters, masks on layers, adjustments and groups, and 30 blend modes, so you can change an effect later without repainting. The free version stops at 5 layers.

Drawing tools and extras

Adobe Fresco: Drawing aids include Snap to Shape, rotational and reflective symmetry, rulers, and perspective grids you can build from a photo. Fresco also has frame-by-frame animation with motion paths, GIF and MP4 export, Adobe Fonts for text, and timelapse export.

Infinite Painter: Drawing aids include five perspective guides, a hatching guide, radial and kaleidoscope symmetry, smart shape detection, a gradient fill tool and editable text layers. It also has seamless pattern projects and CMYK print presets. It does not advertise animation.