Dev Tools

Spoiler: the best inpainting workflow in 2026 isn't in Photoshop. It's a free plugin called Krita AI Diffusion by Acly, running on a free painting app, generating with free models. Adobe is going to have a bad year.

The Setup

Krita AI Diffusion bundles a ComfyUI backend, downloads the models for you, and exposes inpainting, outpainting, ControlNet, and live generation through a clean docker panel. My Aidxn Design portfolio retouching usually starts in Affinity Designer for layout, but anything that needs a generative pass moves to Krita for an hour and back out.

# 1. install Krita (free)
brew install --cask krita    # macOS, my M4 daily driver

# 2. install the plugin from the Krita AI Diffusion releases page
#    Settings > Manage Resources > Import > krita_ai_diffusion.zip

# 3. let the plugin auto-install ComfyUI + SD models on first run

The Money Pattern

Krita has a Python scripting API. You can batch process every file in a folder through the same generative pipeline you wired up in the UI. For client work where I need to outpaint 40 product shots to the same aspect ratio, this is the entire weekend saved.

# run inside Krita's Scripter (Tools > Scripts > Scripter)
from krita import Krita
from pathlib import Path

app = Krita.instance()
for p in Path("~/Desktop/product_shots").expanduser().glob("*.png"):
    doc = app.openDocument(str(p))
    app.setActiveDocument(doc)
    # trigger the AI Diffusion plugin action (registered by Acly's plugin)
    app.action("ai_diffusion_outpaint_16_9").trigger()
    doc.saveAs(str(p.with_suffix(".outpainted.png")))
    doc.close()

The Catch

Krita's UI has its own quirks if you're coming from Photoshop or Affinity. The brush engine is fantastic, the layer panel is fine, but expect a week of muscle-memory recalibration. The plugin's model downloader also pulls 20+ GB on first run — don't start the install on hotel wifi.

The Verdict

Local, free, and genuinely better than Firefly for anything beyond basic generative fill. If you do any image work that lives or dies on inpainting and outpainting, install Krita and Acly's plugin tonight. You'll cancel your Adobe subscription by the end of the week. Don't @ me.