How to open .KRA files (Krita paintings) on Android, Windows and Linux

Digital painters save their work in formats that keep every layer and brush stroke, and those are exactly the formats that gallery apps and photo viewers ignore. A friend sends a .kra from Krita, an art class shares an .ora, or a client’s illustrator delivers a .procreate file from an iPad, and nothing on your phone or PC will show it.

Folders shows the picture saved inside each of them, on Android, Windows and Linux. For Krita and OpenRaster files that’s usually the whole flattened painting at full size; for Procreate it’s a smaller thumbnail. Layers and brushes stay the painting app’s business.

What is a .KRA file?

KRA is the native format of Krita, the free and open-source painting program from the KDE community. Krita runs on Windows, Linux and Apple computers, and there’s also a version for Android tablets and Chromebooks. A .kra file is a ZIP archive holding:

• maindoc.xml, which describes the canvas and its layers;
• the pixel data of each layer, stored separately;
• mergedimage.png, the whole painting flattened, normally at full size;
• preview.png, a small thumbnail.

The other two formats work in a similar way:

Extension	What it is	Made by
.kra	Krita document, with layers, masks and settings	Krita
.ora	OpenRaster: an open, layered image format for swapping work between painting apps. A ZIP with a stack.xml layer list, each layer as a PNG, a merged image and a thumbnail	MyPaint (its own format), also Krita and GIMP
.procreate	Procreate artwork: a ZIP with the canvas settings, each layer stored as compressed tiles, a small QuickLook thumbnail, and often the time-lapse recording of the painting	Procreate, on iPad (and Procreate Pocket on iPhone)

The difference that matters here: Krita and OpenRaster files normally include a full-size flattened copy of the picture, so other programs can show the finished artwork. Procreate files include only a thumbnail; the full picture exists only as layer tiles in Procreate’s own format.

How to open a .KRA file with Folders

On Android

1. Download Folders from the download section and install it (Android 7.0 or newer).
2. Tap Allow access when it asks for All files access.
3. Find the artwork, or type .kra, .ora or .procreate into the search box at the top of a folder.
4. Tap it.

Procreate files usually arrive through a cloud drive, email or a chat app. Open them there and choose Open with → Folders.

On Windows and Linux

1. Install Folders on Windows 10 or 11 (64-bit) or Linux.
2. Double-click the file in Folders.
3. On Windows, right-click it in File Explorer and choose Open with → Folders. The installer adds Folders to that menu for KRA, ORA and Procreate files.

What you can do with it in Folders

• See the artwork. For .kra and .ora files, Folders shows the larger of the merged image and the thumbnail, which is usually the full painting at its real size. For .procreate files it shows the thumbnail Procreate saved.
• Details lists the file’s name, size and date, plus what Folders can read from the file, such as the canvas size and the number of layers.
• Share the file with someone who has the painting app.

If there’s no picture inside, you’ll see No preview to show.

There’s also a way to get a normal PNG out of a Krita or OpenRaster file without installing anything. Make a copy, rename it to end in .zip, and open it in Folders’ archive viewer. Select mergedimage.png and choose Extract selected. That PNG opens in Folders’ image viewer, and if you need another format, select it in the file browser and choose Convert to ▸ for a JPEG, WebP or other copy. With a .procreate file the same trick only gets you the small thumbnail.

Folders doesn’t show individual layers, play Procreate’s time-lapse, or edit anything.

Other ways to open .KRA files

• Krita (free): opens .kra and .ora with all their layers, and exports PNG, JPEG or PSD.
• GIMP and MyPaint (both free) open .ora files with their layers.
• Procreate is the only app that opens .procreate files fully, and it runs only on iPad and iPhone. Ask the artist to share the work as PNG, JPEG or PSD instead; Procreate offers all three when sharing.

Problems opening a .KRA file?

• The Procreate picture is small. That’s all a .procreate file holds outside Procreate’s own layer format. Ask for a PNG, or a PSD if you need the layers. Folders shows a PSD’s merged image too: see how to open PSD files.
• There’s a file ending in .kra~. That’s Krita’s backup of the previous save. If the main file is damaged, rename a copy of the backup to .kra and try that.
• A KRA or ORA file shows no preview. The file was probably cut short when it was copied or downloaded, or it was written by a program that left out the merged image. Get a fresh copy, or open it in Krita.
• Huge canvases. Files with many big layers can run to hundreds of megabytes. Copy them over Wi-Fi or a cable rather than through a chat app, which may refuse files that big.

Questions people ask

Can I open a .procreate file on Android or Windows? Not fully: Procreate exists only for iPad and iPhone. Folders shows the thumbnail inside the file; for the real picture, ask for a PNG, JPEG or PSD export.

How do I convert KRA to PNG or JPG? In Krita, use File → Export. Without Krita, pull mergedimage.png out with the rename trick above, then select it in Folders and use Convert to ▸ if you need a JPEG.

What is an ORA file? An OpenRaster image: an open format for layered paintings, so artwork can move between MyPaint, Krita, GIMP and other apps with its layers intact.

KRA vs PSD: which should I use? Keep .kra while you work in Krita, since it saves everything Krita can do. Export PSD when someone using Photoshop needs the layers.

Related guides: how to open Photoshop PSD files and how to open PNG files. Or browse all 382 file types Folders opens.