Painting

logo Paint 3D Paint 3D
logo Autodesk SketchBook Autodesk SketchBook
logo Adobe Photoshop Adobe Photoshop
logo MediBang Paint MediBang Paint
logo Adobe Illustrator Adobe Illustrator
logo Paint.NET Paint.NET
logo Corel Painter Corel Painter
logo Adobe Creative Cloud Adobe Creative Cloud

Every beginner and experienced artist or designer has thought about functional and advanced programs for drawing on the computer. Graphic editors are designed to work with images. In addition to drawing logos, icons, web graphics, and vector graphics, the applications' workspace is designed to create digital paintings, paintings, comics, and frame-by-frame animations and work with photos. The programs are fun and easy to work with. Built-in tools allow you to create images in different styles. It's easy to customize to your own preferences and skills. Any missing features are customizable with plugins and additional extensions. Therefore, they will suit both the beginner and the advanced user for private and commercial tasks. Many programs have video tutorials on digital graphics. This is a good opportunity for the novice user to understand the basic concepts and learn how the software works on his own. These are indispensable applications for the design industry and for those areas that work with visual communication.

Graphic editors for drawing have the following features:

  • creating digital paintings, vector and raster drawings of varying complexity;
  • managing colors and textures;
  • photo retouching;
  • creating images from scratch;
  • converting one graphic format to another;
  • working with fonts;
  • object scaling;
  • modifying graphics in layers;
  • image cropping;
  • available various filters and effects (blurring, enhancement, automatic color correction, brightness, flare, and much more).

Among the presented software, there are both commercial options and programs distributed free of charge.

All Painting in rating

The Paint 3D program is a multidisciplinary tool for creating graphic objects and their further editing. It is a modernized software of the standard graphics editor for the Windows operating system, which uses a familiar user interface and is complemented by new tools for creating three-dimensional images. To install the program you need a minimum amount of system resources, which allows maximum access to it for all users of the operating system Windows.

Pros

    • Support for printing on a 3D printer
    • The interface is stylish, yet easy to use
    • Simple and intuitive main menu controls
    • Adapted for tablets
    • Wide range of offered two-dimensional figures, there are three-dimensional models
    • Working with three-dimensional figures is much more convenient and easier as compared with analogues
    • The standard package of the software toolkit was considerably reorganized
    • For more convenience in use the program is fully translated into Russian
    • To save the finished work a wide range of the most popular formats is available: .bmp, .jpeg, .png, .gif, .fbx, .3fm, etc.

Cons

    • Limited choice of textures

Autodesk SketchBook was originally conceived as a program for drawing and editing images on tablets. However, the application can work not only on it. A rather simple but impressive application, both amateur and professional graphic designers will be able to use it successfully. Autodesk SketchBook has become a successful alternative to the familiar Paint.

Pros

    • A professional drawing app
    • Optimized specifically for tablet devices
    • Simulate drawing on paper function
    • Built-in layer editor
    • Safely annotate and upload comments
    • PNG, PSD, TIFF, BMP, JPG
    • Customize brushes, transparency size, rounding, and thickness
    • Rectangle, triangle, circle, ellipse selection tools
    • Motion detection feature

Adobe Photoshop is fully suitable for working on a Windows operating system, it is a professional image editing program. It has an impressive number of functions and allows you to solve a wide variety of tasks. The main purpose is to work with digital graphics, using it to form a design, change the details and colors of images, realize modeling and other operations. At the moment the program belongs to the most popular, it is used by professionals. It is also used by beginners, because it gives all the possibilities of changing photos and pictures. New versions are more simple, even beginners can master them, the creators of the program are constantly working on improving the existing features and the development of new functions.

Pros

    • Proprietary 3D editor that supports UV-chart overlay
    • You can add your own variants of patterns, textures, brushes, etc.
    • Create GIF animations, allows you to edit tiff, svg, png, gif, etc.
    • The new version of Photoshop is highly optimized with Windows 8.1 and Windows 10
    • Designed for processing vector and raster images
    • There is a PS Touch application optimized for tablets and other mobile devices
    • No serious alternatives with a similar level of functionality and tools
    • Improved work with HDR in the new versions of the editor
    • Extended integration with the cloud service

Cons

    • Get Photoshop free for a trial period of 30 days
    • The system requirements for weak PCs may not be suitable
    • New users may have difficulty understanding the principles of this graphics editor

MediBang Paint is a very good and versatile drawing program. It is more suitable for children's creativity. But some adult artists also use this platform to transfer their ideas to a digital sheet. This applies to artists, advertising designers.

Pros

    • Adapted for different devices and operating systems: Windows / Mac / iPad / iPhone / Android
    • Convenient cloud service to store your artwork
    • Over 800 tones/backgrounds, over 50 brushes, and 20 fonts available for free.
    • Cloud-based collaboration with writers, graphic artists and colorists - a team project
    • MediBang Paint Gallery - it stores collections of artwork created in MediBang Paint
    • Compact program for creating comics and drawing
    • Comic panels can be easily created by cutting a page within its borders

Cons

    • Advertisement

The Krita program is optimally designed for creative people who prefer to use modern graphic editors. This application includes an extended set of tools for creating drawings, ornaments and patterns, and interaction with graphic tablets is also available, which allows you to create even professional works.

Pros

    • Well optimized with Windows 10
    • Possible to rotate and mirror the canvas, which can be conditionally infinite
    • Correction layers for efficient image processing
    • Interfaces with various Lab, RGB, CMYK color models
    • Supports both 32-bit and 64-bit Windows systems
    • Open source code
    • Customizable interface language

Cons

    • Possible compatibility issues with IntelHD Graphics video adapters

Adobe Illustrator is a graphic photo editor for working with vector images. It features a wide and sophisticated functionality that allows you to work with images professionally. It combines useful functions for both the artist and the designer, making it indispensable for many.

Pros

    • Provides precision and power with sophisticated drawing tools, expressive natural brushes, and more
    • New Touch Type tool gives you even more control over your font
    • Ability to share work directly from within the app
    • Ability to synchronize settings, colors from Adobe Kuler and fonts from Adobe Typekit
    • Extract cascading style sheets (CSS) - program creates code itself
    • Creative process becomes smooth, intuitive and more connected
    • Using multiple files
    • Convert text from point to area text and vice versa
    • Easy extraction of graphics placed and embedded in the llustrator file

Cons

    • Only the trial version is free

GIMP is a cross-platform image editor available for GNU/Linux, Mac OS, Windows, and other operating systems. It is a free program that ranks among the top open-source software.

Whether you are a graphic designer, photographer, illustrator or scientist, GIMP provides you with many unique tools to get the job done. You can further enhance your productivity with GIMP, thanks to its many customization options and third-party plug-ins.

Pros

    • Includes many brushes, gradients, effects, filters, and other processing tools
    • Integrated support for psd format
    • A wide range of functions for batch processing of images
    • A large number of plugins for free access
    • Adjust the interface to your needs, open the desired item in a separate window or tab
    • A portable version is available
    • Ability to work with graphics tablets
    • Allows you not only work with digital photos, but also create your own logos and designs for websites

Cons

    • Controls are implemented specifically and not everyone will be to their liking

Paint.NET is a program designed to work with bitmap images. Its two main functions are photo processing and drawing. It is characterized by a simple and clear interface, which makes it suitable for beginners. It is compatible with any model of graphics tablet and opens all formats, so it is considered universal.

Pros

    • Intuitive and optimized interface
    • All the tools you need to create beautiful images in a clear and accessible way
    • Easy and fast navigation
    • The fastest image editor available
    • Fast and stable on devices with minimal performance
    • The ability to work with layers in a free program
    • Handy toolbar
    • Variety of Effects

Cons

    • Not enough features and tools for advanced users
    • Text must be created on a separate layer if you want to move it or experiment with it while working
    • No "Retouch", "Shadows" functions

Corel Painter is a computer program that allows you to create simple and complex drawings digitally. It contains many different tools (brushes of different kinds and types, pencils, palette and much more), styles and features, so that the user can draw real pictures and then save them in any graphic format. For novice artists, the program provides tips and tricks.

Pros

    • The unmatched realism of Natural-Media technology
    • Exclusive brushes for digital art
    • Handy photo editing tools
    • Unrivaled compositional possibilities
    • Flexibility and efficiency
    • Support for popular software and hardware
    • Artistic styles powered by artificial intelligence
    • Auto-paint function for photo manipulation
    • Create your own brush and palette

Cons

    • The material base is not oriented to fast and bright retouching or multi-sided correction of the finished image

Creative Cloud gives you access to download software from Adobe. Among them are such products as Photoshop, illustrator, Lightroom, After Effects, and others. It gives you access to the Behance service.

Pros

    • automatic installation of updates for downloaded programs 
    • trial periods
    • license programs
    • possibility to send a link to the files to other users
    • creation of a single portfolio that can be sent to a possible employer or customer

Cons

    • there may be problems with payment for subscriptions

The popular editor Inkscape has all the capabilities to create vector graphics objects, all images are drawn using lines and shapes rather than the usual pixels. Thanks to this, when you change the scale, the quality of the picture does not change. Vector graphics objects are used to create banners, websites (buttons, logos), game illustrations, and technical drawings.

Pros

    • Supports PSTricks macros
    • Opens bitmap images
    • Can work with layers
    • Creating banners and layouts for websites
    • Open source vector editor
    • Handy status bar, customizable size of main window
    • Intuitive multi-language interface (Russian included)
    • Allows the use of various shapes: rectangle, ellipse, star, spiral
    • Inkscape exports PNG, SVG, CSS, ICO, CUR, PCX, PNM, RAS, TGA, WBMP, WMF, WPG, GGR, ANI, DIA, AI, PDF, JPEG, XPM, etc.

Cons

    • High system requirements
    • No SWF export feature
    • Rare crashes while running the software on Windows XP
    • There are some problems with fonts in imported DXF files in Inkscape