The best open source alternative to ChemDraw is JChemPaint. If that doesn't suit you, our users have ranked more than 10 alternatives to ChemDraw and seven of them is open source so hopefully you can find a suitable replacement. Other interesting open source alternatives to ChemDraw are XDrawChem, Molsketch, ChemCanvas and BKchem.
JChemPaint (or JCP for short here) is the editor and viewer for 2D chemical structures developed using the Chemistry Development Kit (CDK).
JChemPaint is the most popular Open Source alternative to ChemDraw.
XDrawChem is a free software program for drawing chemical structural formulas, available for Unix and Mac OS. It is distributed under the GNU GPL. In Microsoft Windows this program is called WinDrawChem.
Most users think XDrawChem is a great ChemDraw alternative.
A 2D molecular editing tool for GNU/Linux, Mac OS X and Windows. Its goal is to help you draw molecules quick and easily. Of course your creations can be exported afterwards in high quality in a number of vector and bitmap formats.
BKChem is a free (as in free software :o) chemical drawing program. It was conceived and written by Beda Kosata and is currently maintained by Reinis Danne.
BKchem is an old attempt at replacing some of ChemDraw's functionality. It succeeded partially in providing some of ChemDraw's very core chemical structure drawing features. Unfortunately, BKchem has seen no new development since 2010, leaving it in limbo.
Very usefull software. You can paste images created with BKChem in a text processor or another open source graphical software like InkScape.
Most users think BKchem is a great ChemDraw alternative.
The Gnome Chemistry Utils include six chemistry related programs:
MollyCule is a completely free Open Source Chemistry visualisation program for MacOS, Linux and Windows. MollyCule is designed to be a nice, easy to use program to help ordinary people who want to explore Chemistry.
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More simply for use in class