7 Best Software for drawing illustrations and manga digitally

 

Hi guys! I write about art resources and tutorials and I think letting more people know about free art programs decreases the barrier to entry in the creative fields, so here is the full text from a round up on free art programs.

Let me know in the comments if you have a favorite you'd like me to add! Hope this helps somebody!

Paid software often is the industry standard and there are many amazing options there too.

Out of the plethora of free digital art software available, these are my favorite picks for free drawing software, including a few open source digital art software projects.

What Is the best digital art program to start with?

The question everyone seems to have an opinion about, but instead of opinions let me give you one well known fact, digital drawing software tends to be super complicated : open up Adobe Photoshop for the first time and you will have no idea what to do because there are just too many choices, most of which are btw completely irrelevant to a digital artist, especially a beginner.

Krita, a commonly recommended starter software that I myself in fact started with, has the same issue and corel painter is certainly no easier. Medibang and firealpaca are also quite bloated with features but not as far gone as these others I've named.

I've tried almost all digital painting software I could find on the internet, so with that said here are my winners for best beginner software, and my logic for recommending them.

I can name some really-well known ones and I'll say my own personal opinion about them.

7 Best Digital Painting and Drawing Software

1. Paint Tool SAI

Works on: Windows Only | Price: $50~

Personal opinion: The most beginner friendly general purpose painting software with a bite stronger than it's bark. Also possibly the most lightweight painting software .

I know it's not exactly dirt cheap (pretty cheap though) but trust me when I say that for a beginner this is a worthwhile investment if only to streamline your learning experience and ease you more gently into the digital drawing experience.

The reason I recommend this as the ultimate software for a beginner digital artist is simplicity, this program is very much straight to the point and doesn't have any features or weird unexpected buttons you won't know what to do with.

the entire program is centered around painting and only painting and doesn't allow itself to get bogged down or overcomplicated by including features that not everyone would use, it has a clean and simple, intuitive user interface, making it easier to learn than all other digital painting software of comparable capabilities.

there are many great artists who use this software professionally so don't be fooled into thinking it's only purpose is to be your training wheels, you could end up loving it for decades .

It also helps that it's cheap with a 1 time payment of $50~ as opposed to say $10 a month for photoshop which would fast accumulate to $120 per year.

This program has a simple, to the point user interface, simple yet solid and fast brush engine, it is tried and tested, has been around and loved by it's users for years, it is lightweight and feature complete, it is the perfect starting point for any first time digital artist.

2. MyPaint

Works on: Linux, Windows and MacOS | Price: Free And Open Source!

Probably the most grounded in simplicity from the first line of code to the last, this program was made with beginners in mind and many advanced artists swear by it as their go to tool for quick painting and sketching purposes.

MyPaint is a bit of an underdog, I've seen a handful of people swear by it and at a glance after you first open it it would seem like it's simpler than the above two... But it has a major flaw, the default UI setup is ridiculous, so unless you have the patience and know-how (e.g. to know that this is what you want) to set it up something like this yourself manually, this is one of those programs where you will just open it up and have no freakin idea what to do not because there are too many buttons, but because there are too few .

I also noticed that the download links can be a bit wonky and you have to manually select the 32 bit or 64 bit installers when you download (if in doubt, select the 64 bit/w64 ).

This program is perhaps the only one that was effectively designed in such a way that you can just open it up and paint, no hassle, from the moment you open it you have an infinite size canvas to work with, in other words you don't have to worry about setting your canvas size, it's already "as big as you need" without getting into any technical details :la: and I find that neat.

It's really not that hard to set up, in fact I'll walk you through it.

Open the "Window" menu at the titlebar

Now click the following in this order:
Preview Panel
Color Adjusters -> HSV Square
Layers Panel
Brush Groups -> Classic
Tool Options Panel
If everything goes well, the first 3 should be on the right side of the screen and the last 2 on the left side and now you have a perfectly solid UI. If however something went wrong, you can drag these panels around by clicking and holding the icon in their upper-left corner .

After setting this up and playing with the classic brushes you can start exploring more of the program and set up things like the "Favorites" Brush Group, creating your own Brush Groups and even creating your own brushes : just make sure you always select the "Freehand Drawing Tool" (aka brush tool) in the top menu bar.

Also be careful not to go too crazy on the zooming out, you'll end up with a humongous file hehe Sweating a little... (takes forever to save, and brushes will get slower if you make them too huge; note that this issue affects all software, not just MyPaint ).

3. Medibang Paint or FireAlpaca

Works on: Linux, Windows and MacOS | Price: Free

While the UI design could be better, these programs are very well rounded general purpose drawing software with a very to-the-point feature kit and a hard to beat $0 pricetag!

MediBang is a relatively recent addition to the free software list, it started out originally as a program called OpenCanvas, MediBang as well as FireAlpaca and Jump Paint (a medibang derivative) are all effectively just 'lite' versions of OpenCanvas.

FireAlpaca has animation support while medibang has some manga-creation features instead and Jump Paint is a customized version of medibang tailored towards mangaka and also has lessons on how to create pro quality manga by JUMP's editorial department : so if that's something you want then yeah, maybe go for Jump Paint instead of MediBang, that's bound to be some valuable data for you .

MediBang and FireAlpaca don't do as good a job of being simple and to the point as my former 3 mentions, I'd say their UIs are rather unintuitive in comparison, but it's certainly simpler than most other alternatives, so there's that.

MediBang or FireAlpaca would be a good starting points but their learning curve is steeper than of the above programs , and not due to how many more features it has but more due to poor design choices.

however on an Android Tablet PC MediBang may possibly be the best choice you have, the only other option I know of would be (Corel) Painter Mobile (which is free but you need to pay a little for their brush engines, which is kinda retarded since it's the main part of the program but it was pretty cheap so meh, I really really liked painter mobile's sketch brush engine ) but MediBang is still a very sold program.

So is FireAlpaca and I assume so is Jump Paint but the full experience is only available in OpenCanvas .what a confusing series of programs.

4. Krita

Works on: Linux, Windows and MacOS | Price: Free And Open Source!

The current king of free painting software, it is by far the most feature rich free painting software, it's open source, and does it's best to compete not only with photoshop but also corel painter, it sadly does not fully beat either of them at their own game, but instead it beats both by offering features that corel painter doesn't and offering brush engines of superior versatility to Photoshop's.

This program has room to grow and there's no telling if in a few years it'll be the next digital painting behemoth, or the next digital painting vaporware. It could afford to be more noob friendly though and lacks the capabilities to do clean rendering .

I used Krita because as a painter I preferred it over photoshop : but ultimately found some problems in how it handles soft brushes and blending with them .

Krita will again be a solid alternative for me, and even without this, for rough painted looking styles Krita is rock solid, and no program besides photoshop that I'm aware of can beat Krita in post processing and image manipulation tasks. so Krita is undoubtedly one of Photoshop's by far strongest competitors.

if none of the previously mentioned programs sounded like a very good fit, either you need to look at vector illustration software or this is probably the right fit for you. It has many cool brush engines but overall I'd say nothing that really stands out (it's sketching brush engine is sublime tho) compared to formerly mentioned software.

Krita also has animation support and some minimal vector drawing capabilities as well as some manga/comic illustration features, besides photoshop it's basically the only "all-in-one" package software, and... it's free!

It's loaded to the brim with awesome features but it is definitely not noob friendly, so unless you have a background in Photoshop or GIMP, there is going to be some degree of learning curve here.

5. Adobe Photoshop CC

Price: $10+ per month/$120+ per year | Works on: Windows and MacOS

There are two quite heavily disputed champions leading the industry of digital artwork, those are Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop. In my personal opinion the only one of the two that deserves to be called a champion of anything when it comes to digital art is Corel Painter, but nontheless I can't argue with the general consensus too much about photoshop's less disputed dominance over the market.

The best image editor, photomanipulation and post-processing software but with lackluster painting capabilities for it's price (it's brush engine while pretty nicely optimized, has too few customization options in my opinion).

Probably the most widely recommended digital painting capable software on the entire internet, used by professionals all around the world, personally I preferred Krita as while Photoshop's brush engine may be better optimized it's also less feature rich.

But photoshop has reigned supreme since the 90s for a reason, even if that reason may only be because it reigned supreme in the 90s, it is however the completely undisputed champion of photo editing and manipulation . and many photomanipulation and post-processing techniques that are often more easily achievable in photoshop than rivaling applications are indeed potentially useful for many of the more advanced digital artists, which is why a lot of artists end up working with 2 programs, i.e. their favorite painting application (commonly this is corel painter) and after finishing up there they copy the image to photoshop for post-processing and final refinement .

but there's no denying that this program is quite expensive in the long run. However there's also no denying that this is the most tried and tested program and most professionals by far use it, so you can't go wrong with this program as an intermediate-advanced digital artist, that's for sure.

6. Corel Painter

Price: Over $430 + $200 yearly for updates (Has Free Trial)| Works on: Windows and MacOS

The most expensive digital painting program there is, also quite possibly the best program ever for digital painting, with multiple super advanced brush engines, you can usually find a way to make the brushes behave exactly how you want in this program which is the key to any digital painter's ultimate success.

Is it just me or is that price so stuck in 2001 that no sane person that's not already a regular customer would EVER buy it in the modern market?

Even Adobe upgraded their pricing strategy, but here corel sits stuck with it's head up it's ass thinking it's still the only program in the world competing for the "professional digital painter" title, which given the large list of programs both above and below this line is obviously not the case Disbelief .

But there's a reason for this price because even if this may no longer be the case, ever since the freaking 90s up until the mid 2000s this was indeed the one and only program professional grade software targeting digital artists in the whole god damn world . the only digital painting program besides photoshop (and maybe the now pretty much dead GIMP) worth taking seriously.

But unlike photoshop they weren't having any of that "image manipulation" bullshit, no their goal was to create a real, lifelike painting experience in the digital space and they got pretty damn close, with probably the best collection of brush engines the world has ever seen . this digital painting software is an industry standard for a good damn reason.

this may very well be the best digital painter's software on the market, But Corel needs to get with the times or get lost in my opinion.

7. Clip Studio Paint

Works on: Windows and MacOS | Price: $50/$220

Simple and elegant, quite likely the best software for manga and comic book creation, and painting in simple/cel shaded styles.

Previously known as manga studio, this little gem woulda probably made my top beginner friendly software list if it wasn't for it's manga drawing specialization.This software is as I just implied quite simple and elegant at first glance, instead of having one main general purpose brush engine like most, it has 7 different brush engines for different brush types (from watercolor and airbrush to pencil and special effects) all in the same simplicity tier as SAI.

this oftware seems to be more strongly marketed in Japan is the only truly professional class manga illustration software, it does that job and it does it really, really, really well, so if that is your thing, this is quite possibly THE best software for you .

and as it is really simple, you can also happily use it as your first software. my main reason for not putting it up at the top are it's plethora of manga/comic book creation features, it's animation support, and confusing pricing strategy.

It is also all around quite feature rich compared to my first 3 recommended for beginner programs, but makes up for it by having a very elegant UI design making it a solid 5th place for most beginner friendly software. This program does everything it claims to do exceptionally well and is best for manga and comic book creation and works super well for cel-shaded (simple) drawing styles.

The clip studio paint EX version has some unique features including Animation, 2D to 3D conversion, multi-page management and multi-page files. It also costs like one kidney, but the pro version is quite affordable.

The Others

ArtRage (A program that like corel painter tries to emulate the feel of painting with rl brushes, omitted due to the imo slightly unreasonable asking price of $80).

Autodesk Sketchbook Pro (Costs $30 per year which is fairly affordable, I tried it but was ultimately unmipressed due to the programs complete lack of capability for working at high/custom resolutions. It is very simple, but as the name implies, it's decent as a sketching program and nothing more, I would have liked to expect more from a company like Autodesk. While some artists have managed to make quite impressive looking work in it, it seems ultimately unable to produce production quality work.).

GIMP (free, omitted because krita basically does everything GIMP does better than GIMP does it, Krita started out as a rework of the gimp but grew fast into it's own separate, and superior program).

Conclusion

And that's it for digital painting software may you test everything and choose wisely. If I forgot your favorite program make sure to tell me which one that is in the comments .

If you want to work with photoshop / Corel Painter etc. I'd recommend the XP-Pen Innovator 16 Best Drawing Tablet With Screen 15.6inch , however you will need a pc/laptop with good specs.

I just got the xp-pen drawing tablet monitor a few days ago. I can already tell I am going to love it! I kept going back and forth between getting it or not, but I am glad I finally decided to just invest in it.

In my opinion: Quick and easy to use. Like a digital sketchbook. You can draw on screen. The pen-pressure is awesome. You can draw in incredible details.

Both the XP-Pen Artist Pro Series and Innovator 16 are within my price range, and although I am not a professional artist and have no plans to make any money off my art, I'm concerned that I may feel that the XP-Pen Drawing Display is a downgrade.

And that's it for digital painting software may you test everything and choose wisely. If I forgot your favorite program make sure to tell me which one that is in the comments .

Hope that helps!

XP-PEN Star G430S Review: Affordable Graphics Tablet for Digital Writing and Drawing

Graphic tablets have become an essential tool among creative professionals and hobbyists alike, even more so now that working from home has become the norm for months—or years to come.

There is also no shortage of brands from cheap points of entry that offer satisfactory performance, to industry-grade staples like Wacom that everybody knows.

Wacom is a quality brand, but also at a price that for many is not viable, especially without having a very cheap entry range, with which new companies have been entering with cheaper alternatives.

From what I've read, XP-Pen is one of the leading makers of graphics tablet and that is why I chose to buy their Star G430S tablet.

This does not mean it's the best and it also doesn't mean that it's suitable for every task. It simply means that when we take into consideration price and features, this graphics tablet offers the best deal currently available.

This tablet is available on official store for $29.99 . So for around 30 bucks, you get a very good tablet that's very comparable to much more expensive tablets like the Wacom intuos.

Although this device is not necessarily innovative, the fact that it costs so little makes it an obvious choice for those who are still testing the waters before deciding on whether they should invest any money on a more expensive graphics tablet.

This is precisely why the Star G430S sells so much. The price is so incredibly low that anyone who buys it can rest assured that even if they don't love the product, they don't have much to love.

XP-Pen Star G430S Unboxing & Review : Small But Useful

I just bought the XP-Pen Star G430S recently. When I got I was amazed at the great packaging. I opened the box and unpacked all of the contents.

The XP-Pen G430S tablet comes with a USB cable, 10 pen nibs, one pen clip and a quick guide. Although XP-Pen pen nibs don't tend to wear out easily, it's great to have some extra ones.

Specifications :

Active area: 4 x 3 inches
Pressure sensitivity: 8192 levels
Resolution : 5080 lpi
Multitouch : No
Reading Height: 10mm
Report Rate: 266 PPS
Supply Voltage: DC5V
Interface Support: USB
USB Cable Length: 1.5M
Compatibility: Windows 10/8/7 , Mac OS 10.10 above
XP-Pen Star G430S official site: https://www.xp-pen.com/product/52.html

Design

The drawing board has an all-black design. It's made of lightweight plastic , only 2mm thick.

This drawing pad is slim and compact. You can easily put it on your laps while painting, or use it on limited desk space, take it on a trip, etc.

The Star G430S tablet has no bezels, but not all the area is usable. The active area takes only 4 x 3 inches meaning that you will have to use zooming a lot.

This is most noticeable on higher resolution screens. If you have a high resolution screen it is quite difficult to avoid having a shaking hand because of how small the tablet drawing space is.

Due to the rather small size of the active drawing area, this tablet is known as a “signature device”, meaning that its main function is to allow the user to sign on the board and transfer the signature to the computer in order to use it with digital documents, mostly in PDF format.

In addition, this model does not have quick action keys, since the Deco mini4 / Deco Fun S ( both come with 4 x 3 inches active drawing area ) model will cost us a little more if we want three action buttons on our drawing tablet.

Stylus

XP-Pen Star G430S offers a magical pen that will eradicate all the difficulties while drawing on the tablet . and it's important to note that the digital pen is not battery powered at all . The pen does not require recharge, so it is always ready to go.

The pen that comes with the XP-Pen G430S tablet is pressure-sensitive, allowing you to make fine lines or bold strokes by varying how hard you press.

The pen provides a resolution of 5080 LPI and 8192 pressure levels that allows you to draw better on the tablet surface. Besides, the report rate of the pen is 266 RPS and is exceptionally lightweight to give you pleasure in whatever task you perform.

With this magical pen, you easily sign any documents, sketch like you sketching on a piece of paper, draw, write and a lot more.

There are two buttons on the pen which are essentially the same as right-click and middle-click on a mouse. You "left-click" by touching the surface of the tablet. And if you browse over the internet by using the digital pen, you can do so by just pressing the button of the pen.

Install and Setup

The setup was quick and easy; connect the tablet via the USB cable, install the drivers, and start having fun! Just line up your screen area with the tablet. I was easily found the driver on XP-Pen's website ( https://www.xp-pen.com ). The updated driver even had more features!

The options are minimal, such as changing the sensitivity, the functions of the pen buttons, choosing the screen on which we act, testing the pressure of the pen, and advanced settings, which allow us to change the area of ​​the screen that we handle. with the tablet, the ratio and turn the actions if we are left-handed.

The tablet functions quite well. Not only that, but it was compatible with every OS (Windows ,Mac ) I tried it on. There is Linux ,Windows , and Mac OS driver offered for Star G430S on their official page.

The XP-Pen drivers will make it work with any drawing program. It compatible with a lot of programs like CorelDraw, Corel Painter, Adobe Illustrator, Adobe Photoshop, Paint tool SAI,Clip Studio Paint, Gimp,Krita, Inkscape, Zbrush , 3D Max, and a lot more. This cheap tablet ultimately helps you achieve your set goals and take the next move in the art world.

Use Experience

Fantastic tablet for osu!

This tablet is comfortable for osu , Really low latency using hovering or drag method. Software for the XP-Pen is not the best but it gets the job done.

This XP-Pen G430S OSU Tablet can both hover and drag , this is my personal opinion but I recommend you to drag ,it really give you a better aim ,at least in my case it did . you can't lift too high.

You'll get used to it fast especially if you were a high-sens mouse player (wrist-mainly), it's not like restarting osu! at all.

Of course you need to adapt from mouse to tablet but it's not that hard ,it only needs a few hours, and for me it made me instantly better ,like I destroyed all of my previous top scores the same day I got the tablet.

Overall love the product and they supplied so many extra pen tips. If you're using this for osu! it's definitely awesome and helped me jump from 4 stars to 5 star beatmaps!

Suitable for digital signature

Oh, and the tablet was good for creating a signature to use in adobe reader to sign documents. As far as a signing pad, it is fantastic. The small size makes it portable and it doesn't take up much room on my desk at all.

It works as advertised on Adobe Acrobat, Excel, MS Word and PowerPoint, though the pressure sensitivity is pretty much wasted on these things. For example, signing in Acrobat doesn't show any regard for pressure sensitivity. All the lines are equally as dark and thick no matter how you press.

Best writing solution for online teching

I use it when teaching online and it helps me illustrate concepts. I downloaded the microsoft whiteboard + onenote note taking app and my life is so much easier.

I use it to make my math videos mostly, but it has also been useful in drawing summary pictures for reading, underlining information in articles during video meets, and other things.

If you won't be using it for digital art, you are paying for features that you won't use or need.

Perfect for Photo Retouching & Editing

For working with photographs, the precision and ease of a pen beats a mouse any day. The pressure sensitivity allows me to alter the brush size or opacity just by pressing harder or lighter on the tablet as I draw.

Combined with the natural feel of the pen, this allows me to make photograph alterations involving hand-drawn layer masks and dodging/burning with ease. Actions that would have required multiple brush size changes, opacity changes, and tons of clicks of a mouse can literally be done in a single stroke with a tablet. I highly recommend getting a tablet if your mouse makes you frustrated while editing photographs.

Great for Graphic Design and Drawing

The XP-Pen Star G430S tablet is, of course, perfect for those doing graphic design and drawing. Also, the tablet is light and portable which may be important to students, outdoorsmen, artists, and those doing business presentations. It may also provide a great alternative input device for those with mobility issues.

The G430S is great for Illustrator and Photoshop. The sketch part works great. I can't believe how realistic it is. I couldn't believe I wasn't using a real pen.

Using the pen is just like writing with a pencil and paper. It feels very comfortable and very normal. The work surface is slightly textured so it feels much like pencil or pen on paper. The most unusual thing is that the pen movement is detected well before the pen touches the tablet. So you can actually control the movement before the pen and tablet touch.

In some cases, it makes you feel like you are using a magic wand. The response to the pen movements is quick and accurate. It even records levels of pressure sensitivity very accurately.

the hardware and software used in these devices were exactly the same being used in much more expensive drawing tablets, the only difference between them was the fact that the expensive ones had larger drawing areas. If you draw frequently, I suggest around a 10x6 inches for decent drawing space - XP-Pen Deco 01 V2 .

Good for 2D Animation

I found this tablet very useful when I use my 2d animaion software. It's good for touching up minor breaks in the lines so they can be filled easily and for painting them. Also for adding details that were lost by the scanner or adding simple background animation. In other words it's great for animators who can't afford the better ones. The mouse is pretty useless, I just use it as a paper weight but it doesn't hurt anything.

The mouse also comes in handy if you're using 3D programs like Maya (in which a mouse has benefits over a pen).

If you are going to need a tablet for a career in professional graphics/animation, I would recommend a professional model or display drawing tablets such as wacom cintiq or xp-pen artist , but would still recommend this product for travel/personal use.

Conclusion

Great XP-PEN product - a must have for artists and digital photographers to create/edit your work that's easy and fun.

As you can see from the information given in this XP-Pen Star G430S review, this model is simple but suitable for many types of work. You can use it for writing, signing, and working with documents, editing photos, drawing, sketching, and painting.

However, the drawing area is pretty small for some serious drawing projects. It seems like you are drawing on a small piece of paper. The unit is also extremely easy to install and is compatible with the most important programs.

Once I got the hang of using this tablet I was hooked. At first, finding where I was on the screen in relation to the tablet was a little difficult and frustrating. Given some time to practice and learn everything just fell into place.

When it comes to post processing this tablet really improves the speed and accuracy of processing and allows a true "feel" of the work. The whole process of editing seems more natural and the pressure sensitivity really adds a new dimension to the work.

I would definitely recommend the Star G430S to those who want to get a tablet and are just getting into the field of digital art or photo manipulation. Buy One!!!!!!!!!!!! They're Awesome! I sound like a sales person! YAY!

Buy Here:

You can Get it from United States official Store: https://www.storexppen.com/buy/star-g430s.html , If you live in other regions you can select from official site “Stores” List.

15 Best Free & Paid photo editors for beginners and professionals

 

Every moment in life is special, So we all want to capture those beautiful moments. “You not just click the moment we create a long-lasting memory”.

Either you are clicking the shot by mobile camera phone or a DSLR, everyone needs a few changes in look so, if you really care how your photos look, you need to import them into your PC to organize them and then go through all the click and select the best and perfect them with Photo Editing Software. Do changes for professional or personal use.

If you're a photographer looking for the best photo editing software for pc, you're not the only one.

After all, taking pictures is only half the battle – whether you're shooting on your phone or the latest mirrorless camera, we all need to edit our photos to make them look amazing.

In the right hands, the best photo editing software can take a dull image to something that can amaze your friends, or even win an award.

Editing software is essential for getting the most out of your image. Capturing the scene is only one step towards a perfect image. You'll want to tweak the exposure, contrast and/or other areas.

As a city photographer and architectural photographer, by post-processing, you'll be able to edit a number of exposures in parentheses, highlighting the sunshine or shade particulars you need as properly.

Commercial photographers select a formidable approach to vary the black and white layer into smooth gentle.

An artistic merged have a look at the picture is feasible by picture modifying. By altering the layer of curves to brightness, photographers have an effect on the distinction and saturation of the picture, for a greater mixing impact.

Almost all photographers shoot in RAW, however it can't be printed till it has been edited. By altering the color, lightening / darkening a picture, it may be printed.

With photo editing apps, photographers can change the distinction, coloration, hue, saturation, coloration, coloration, and extra. You can in truth take away the blur elements, undesirable objects from the scene; the shifting objects may be rectified to create an ideal click on.

Adobe products shine when it comes to editing photos. But, it's not the only credible photo editing software out there. In fact, there are plenty of photo editing software available on the market to explore and choose from.

Whether you need something simple for basic edits or you're someone that requires advanced features to edit your images like a pro, there's a free or paid photo editor for you.

This is our concise list of the 15 best photo editing software for photographers of all levels. We have done a full review of the photo apps & picked the top ones.

Each of these programs can perform the basic tasks of enhancing your photos to make them look amazing and some of these include advanced features similar to Photoshop that should satisfy your image creating and editing needs.

Top Photo Editing Software for PC and Mac from Beginners to Pro

1. Adobe Photoshop CC

Platforms: Windows,MacOS | Price: Paid

At the very top end of image editing is Photoshop, which has no real rival. It is one of the most popular photo editing software tools on the market. Photoshop is the primary tool for its legions of fans across the world, including designers, artists, and illustrators.

Its layering, masking and retouching tools still set the standard by which others are judged, while the power of its layer-based editing system can handle the most complex of creative projects.

Anyone who knows anything about photo editing and graphic design will have used one of the various Adobe Photoshop versions.

Photoshop offers similar tools to any other software in this realm, but to the nth degree – there are often several ways for performing the same function in Photoshop, be it changing a background colour, cloning elements, frequency separation, or any of the myriad other photo editing tasks.

Then there are the special effects and healing tools that only Photoshop can accomplish – AI-assisted tools like content-aware scale and fill . Being able to recreate a scene that doesn't already digitally exist is a powerful feature for photographers .

This latest version increasingly relies on Sensei, Adobe's highly touted artificial intelligence engine, to facilitate a host of impressive features. The most high-profile of these include Sky Replacement, new Refine Edge selections. Plus, Neural Filters help simplify complex workflows.

Even though Photoshop can be difficult to master, it's not necessarily difficult to learn. It's pre-made workspaces, in-app tools descriptions and clear tools icons help make learning the program more manageable. Don't try to dive in all at once! A piece-by-piece approach to Photoshop will likely be the more successful route.

Adobe Photoshop CC is available only as a subscription service .For $10 per month, you get the Photography plan, which offers Photoshop, Lightroom and Lightroom CC for the desktop and 20GB of online storage. For $20 per month you get the same Photography Plan with 1TB of online storage.

If you're wondering why Adobe has two lots of photo-editing software on the market, it's because they do different things. Lightroom is mainly a RAW developer and photo organising tool, while Photoshop is the software that you will need for more complex adjustments, working on layers, masks and channels.

There are no image browsing or cataloguing tools in Photoshop itself, but since Lightroom is included in the same Photography Plans as Photoshop, that's not an issue. On its own, Photoshop is powerful but limited; with Adobe Lightroom it's half of the world's most popular image editing double-act.

2. Adobe Lightroom

Platforms: Windows,MacOS | Price: Paid

Adobe Lightroom is another powerful editing software by Adobe. Ideally, it is perfect for photographers who want a more straightforward yet capable tool to edit their images.

Lightroom is an all-in-one image cataloguing, raw-processing and editing program and the perfect partner for Photoshop. If your main work is photo enhancement rather than manipulation, you might not need Photoshop at all.

Unlike Photoshop's complicated and intimidating user interface, both Lightroom Classic and CC offer a more intuitive and user-friendly interface for image editing.

Some of its excellent features include: customizable sliders, gradient and brush adjustments, presets, blurring tools and other professional filters. Plus, you can use it with multiple devices and to help you keep your photos organized it uses face detection. All things considered, with this wide range of functional features and its easy-to-use interface, you can create just as remarkable photos with Lightroom.

Lightroom have a library of pre-made editing solutions called presets. These presets make it easier than ever to achieve a specific look in your photos. Simply find a preset package you like via Lightroom's preset marketplace or online, then apply it to one or more of your images for a flawless edit.

Of course, presets work wonderfully for batch editing your photos at a break-neck pace. And, you can even design your own custom presets. With Lightroom's presets, you have the opportunity to continually expand the software's editing capabilities.

Not to mention, many third-party plugins and applications have integrated with Lightroom to make using the program even easier. Envira Gallery, for example, includes Adobe Lightroom to WordPress integration that allows you to easily sync your Lightroom photo galleries with your photography website.

Another great thing about Adobe Lightroom, that many people praise it for, is the organizing capability it offers – you can add tags and sort your photos in your own style.

Unlike Photoshop, Lightroom is built to handle entire photo collections at once. You can import, sort, and edit your files all within the same simple interface.

Lightroom is the fact that it supports nearly all formats of RAW files, no matter the camera you're using, so this can be a factor to consider when choosing one of these tools.

Lightroom is one of the best photo editing software for pc that allows you to retouch full resolution images. This tool allows you to view, download, or add photos on the web. It offers a wide range of layouts.

3. Corel PaintShop Pro

Platforms: Windows | Price: Paid

Corel PaintShop Pro is a capable and one of the most inexpensive photo editing software tools out there. Some photographers call it an Adobe Photoshop alternative, but it lacks Photoshop's most advanced flagship features, including Camera Shake Reduction, 3D modeling, Faces Liquefy, detailed typography, among others.

Photographers who value simplicity will really like Corel PaintShop Pro . That being said, do not let its simple approach to photo editing fool you as it does not make its editing capability any less effective.

This software boasts everything you require to enhance your pics from AI enhanced presets to graphic design templates to options such as blur and fix. Plus, if the wide range of brushes, color palettes , textures and backgrounds do not float your boat, do not dismiss the software just yet as brand new features are being added continuously.

Now boasting numerous powerful AI-Powered tools that go well beyond free Photoshop alternatives, PsP has become a fully-featured graphics manipulation tool that provides excellent value for money.

In many ways, Corel PaintShop Pro is a powerful program, and It's easy for novices to grasp, and has some additional tools, such as 360-degree photo editing. It's also touch-screen compatible and has a new streamlined workspace. Corel has even made the tool icons large and distinct so that they're easy to select on a touch device.

You can preview, organise, and streamline your photo editing workflow in the Manage workspace, which also allows you to add keyword tags to your photos, create catalogues, make batch edits to multiple images at once, and review metadata and file information.

If you need to extend its capabilities, Paintshop Pro supports various 64-bit plugins from Adobe, Topaz Labs, Nik Collection by DXO and many more. You can even import and export PSD files to work across platforms.

PaintShop Pro is a fantastic option that represents a unique amalgamation of Lightroom and Photoshop in one. Like some other software, it requires a one-time fee, which starts at around $60 to get a life-time license. For that price, you gain access to dozens of textures, backgrounds, and brushes to choose from. And, app updates add new features all the time.

This software is comprehensive and powerful enough to help you with any tasks, but remember the fact that you'll have to pay for most of the features offered. They have multiple payment plans, and with those come more and more options you can use – so this can be a little tricky. Other than that, there's only one more thing that can be a major drawback for some: it is only Windows supported. Think it through before making a choice.

4. Affinity Photo

Platforms: Windows,MacOS | Price: Paid

If you're looking for a pro photo editor like Photoshop, Affinity Photo is an excellent choice. Affinity Photo is sold at a budget price point, but it has the tools and the features and the power to compete with Photoshop head-on.

Serif has focused particularly heavily on the retouching market, with cloning, healing and retouching tools, an Inpainting tool for automatic object removal and a dedicated Liquify persona (workspace) for localized image distortion effects.

That being said, Affinity Photo's primary focus is photography, so it lacks a few of Photoshop's extra features (like 3D editing).

Other than this, Affinity Pro's main difference with Photoshop is how the tools are organised. It uses “personas” instead of workspaces and that might take a little getting used to for folks used to Photoshop.

It comes with layers, masks, smart objects, colour management, and both CMYK and RGB editing, as well as decent Raw file conversion. its filter effects can be applied ‘live' and its HDR tone mapping and workspace tools are excellent.

From focus stacking and panorama stitching to HDR merging and digital painting, it has just about everything you could want in a photo editor.

Like Photoshop, though, it's focused solely on in-depth, technical image manipulation. It doesn't have its own browsing and cataloguing tools and it doesn't do instant preset effects. Affinity Photo will bring the tools, but you have to bring the vision.

For just $50—or cheaper if there's a sale—Affinity gives users a surprisingly complete set of Photoshop-like features. but subscription-free, via a single extra-low payment.

As far as the learning curve is concerned, much like Photoshop, the tools in Affinity Photo are quite in-depth and will take some time to explore and learn. Luckily the interface is quite logical, and if you've used Photoshop before the tools will make sense.

5. Capture One Pro

Platforms: Windows,MacOS | Price: Paid

Capture One is a RAW image editor made by the camera company, Phase One. If you are a photographer who is mostly interested in enhancing RAW images, then this is a better option than Adobe Lightroom.

Capture One works both as tethered capture and editing tool for studio photographers with a 'sessions' based workflow and as a Lightroom-style image cataloguing, searching and non-destructive editing tool. It works in a single window rather than in Lightroom-style ‘modules' and has a highly customizable set of ‘tool tabs'.

One of the key differences is its layers-based local adjustment system which makes it much easier to see and edit your changes to your work, and this now includes 'parametric' linear and radial gradient masks which you can edit later. Capture One's conversions look smoother and sharper than Lightroom's.

Its raw conversions are sharper and less noisy than Adobe's, but it doesn't support such a wide range of camera raw formats or as large a number of lens correction profiles. It doesn't have Adobe's mobile apps and online synchronization options either, but it does offer professional-grade ‘tethering' tools for studio photographers capturing images via a computer.

Capture One Pro also has a better system for applying local adjustments, using adjustment layers and masks. It's expensive, but very, very good.

This RAW image editor boasts some features that set it apart from the other software solutions available. For starters, if you need to work with big volumes of photos that are more than 20 megapixel RAW files, you will be impressed with its speed. What is more, to help you work more efficiently, the interface boasts some great customizability which means that you can change the keyboard shortcuts and layout to suit your preferences better.

If you often work with layers, you will also love the fact that it does not become slower when you have too many layers. Plus, it lets you make several adjustments per layer.

Some of its other fabulous features that will help you to work more efficiently are its sophisticated color editing and annotations. Its sliders make it much easier to tweak the granularity, while the annotations feature lets you jot down ideas to ensure that you can collaborate smoothly with other photographers and designers.

You do need a relatively powerful computer to run Capture One Pro smoothly. The only real strikes against it are the fact that there's no HDR or panorama options, the steep learning curve, limited plugin support compared to other software, and the price.

The full-fledged version retails at close to $300. There's also a subscription option at $20/month ($15/month if you prepay for a year) – considerably more expensive than Adobe's Creative Cloud Photography Plans.

6. Gimp

Platforms: Windows,MacOS, Linux | Price: Free

GIMP is a free, open-source photo editing software that's easy to download and install on your computer. It has multiple features which help you with retouching photos, photo composition and picture enhancement. It also includes a built-in file manager.

If you're a photographer, graphic designer or illustrator with a limited budget, GIMP offers many powerful features that with other software you'd have to pay to use.

The user-interface takes some getting used to and isn't as refined as Photoshop, but as with any editing software, once you're familiar with it, movements become second nature.

Once you launch the program, you'll find a dedicated window that displays the image. You'll also see two floating docks: One with the toolbox and another for managing layers, paths, brushes, and more.

It's also completely customisable, with dialogues allowed to float anywhere on the screen. You can customize not only the tools available, but also your workspace's color, widgets and widget spacings.

All the essential image editing tools are there: noise reduction, cropping, colour adjustment, gradients, brushes, curves and image enhancements.

For blemishes, there is the clone stamp, healing tools and you can even apply changes to isolated areas.

When using a large display, or two monitors, you'll have an expansive workspace to edit your images. Icons in the toolbox represent specific tools, like Scale, Pencil, Paintbrush, Bucket Fill, Airbrush, Smudge, and more. You can apply numerous filters, too, such as dropping a shadow, adding a neon effect, adding a glass tile, removing devilish red eyes, and so on.

It can handle all the usual file types, including RAW, JPEG, TIFF, PSD, GIF and more.

Because GIMP is open-source, there's a very active community of users who have created plugins to add even more functionality to the program. However, despite a more user-friendly interface than past versions, Gimp offers almost nothing in the way of guidance, which makes it much more difficult to learn than other photo-editing software.

This free professional software for editing photos is another excellent Photoshop alternative for beginners. It boasts a variety of features that can assist novices with digital photo retouching and composition. With the help of features like vignette and corrective mode, you can also take your photos of any file format to the next level.

Gimp is good for starters and professionals with limited requirements. However, it is not an ideal option for pro-level editing work.

7. Paint.Net

Platforms: Windows | Price: Free

Paint.Net is an easy and convenient image editor with a clear and well-ordered interface. It offers you tons of Layers and filters, Plugin support but when compared with the GIMP, It is less powerful than GIMP.

With Paint.Net you can make some basic editing without deep changes and professional retouch. The software will come in handy for Social media marketing Specialists and Photography lovers who need to put pictures in order fast.

Paint.Net has a similar Adobe Photoshop interface. Tools like a magnifier, crop frame, color picker, and brushes are placed on the bar on the left side, history of editing and layers to work on - on the right side in different windows. All image editing functions are available in the Adjustments menu, including tools of Hue / Saturation and Curves.

These tools are usually used by professional photographers and photo retouchers. In this program, you can overlay layers, mix them, for this you need to choose a "Layers" palette tool. You can return to any stage of photo editing.

The name doesn't sound all that fancy. Although it sounds like Microsoft Paint, it is a dedicated photo editor. Albeit a basic one. It is easy for beginners as it has layers, unlimited history, and special effects.

Editing with Paint.Net is very fast and easy, even on older systems, despite the fact that it lacks some advanced tools. It is free, but unfortunately for Mac users, it is exclusive to Windows.

Sometimes it is important to work with a YouTube photo editor that does not include very many complex features. While going with this software, You see it's a quick, easy to work with and help you to create new look images.

8. Photofiltre Studio

Platforms: Windows | Price: Free and Paid

Photofiltre is not a widely known photo retouching program which won't cost you a penny, but it has plenty of features that casual photo editors will find useful.

As its name suggests, PhotoFiltre offers plenty of terrific filters and tools for enhancing images. There are filters for adjusting brightness, contrast, increasing and decreasing saturation as well as sharpening or blurring images.

It has a host of artistic filters, too, including textures, watercolor, pastels, sepia tone, black and white, night and sunlight effects and emboss. It even has a puzzle effect.

The program doesn't offer layers, though it does allow you to put text over an image. Many don't use layers anyway so, for them, the lack of this feature is no loss.

Whatever filter you apply it can be undone. It also can be faded. So if the original effect is too strong, you can reduce the amount via the Edit menu.

PhotoFiltre includes an Image Explorer, which is accessed through the Tools menu. Open any image folder on your hard drive and its contents are shown along the bottom of the window. Simply double click on a photo to open it and begin editing.

You can do automated batch processing of any number of photos. Select the Source and Output folders and file format such as JPEG, GIF and TIFF. Next select the image size and if you want a frame automatically added to the images. The size and color of the frame can be adjusted.

During the batch process, brightness, contrast, saturation and Gamma correcting can be applied to photos. You can apply a few filters such a sharpening and scanlines, and rotate or flip images. The batch process is fast and easy. Since not all photos need the same amount of processing, do a test run to see if the results are to your liking.

An advanced version of PhotoFiltre , called PhotoFiltre Studio, is also available for a nominal fee. Unlike the free version, PhotoFiltre Studio has layering capabilities. It is shareware and can be tried for a 30-day period.

9. PhotoScape X

Platforms: Windows, MacOS | Price: Free and Paid

Photoscape X is an incredible photo software editing program that people from all around the world can use; it's compatible in a number of different languages.

Using Photoscape is ‘easy and fun'. it allows you to easily edit photographs taken from their digital cameras or even mobile phones.

Although the Photoscape editor does not have a lot of advanced editing tools, the app is best used as a quick editor. It contains essential tools that allow you to apply filters, frame, crop, add text, draw, clone and so on.

Photoscape is stuffed with a lot of features while retaining its ease of use. It has just about any tool you might be looking for – white-balance correction, color correction, brightness and contrast, etc.

The app's features include a raw converter, file renamer, batch processor, viewer, color picker, screen capture tool, and print layout tool.

It even has a GIF animation, and will convert your RAW images to JPG. You can also customize your toolbar into the features you use most, combine and split images, and make slideshows.

Original photos can be edited using the one and only Magic Color with Photoscape X. Plus, over 240 features and over 1,000 patterns are easily accessible. It also boasts some really cool Instagram-like filters, frames and vintaging options.

The only real downside to Photoscape is that it runs ads for other “recommended” software – the price you pay for “free.”

PhotoScape is one of my favorite tools for post-processing, mostly because it has a friendly UI and quick editing features. It is one of the better free photo editors out there, and it's well worth checking out.

10. Darktable

Platforms: Windows, MacOS , Linux | Price: Free and Paid

Darktable is an open-source photo-editing application that allows you to enhance raw images. It also happens to be one of the only free image editors that doubles as a space to store and organize your photos. This app enables you to automate repetitive tasks. It also allows you to manage color with no hassle.

You can add tags to images, rate them, organize them into folders, and mark them by color. It also allows you to create and save your own presets, making one-click editing a breeze.

The interface is almost identical to Lightroom's, with the ability to quickly toggle between your photo library and editing tools. The main photo editing workspace is clear and straightforward, with a well-designed and friendly interface for something that doesn't command a price.

You view your files in the ‘lighttable' tab, with editing taking place in the ‘darkroom'. Under ‘other', you have map, print, slideshow and tethering modules, all of which load near-instantly.

There are some very powerful tools to be found. For example, lens and perspective corrections come as standard. also, there are surprising additions such as tethered shooting, selective colour correction, snapshots, multiple moveable masking options, and a completely customisable workspace. You can even add third-party modules.

You are not restricted to jpgs, as Raw files are easily and automatically converted. Darktable also offers non-destructive editing, allowing you to convert back to your original image quickly and easily.

DarkTable tends to fall short in accurate camera profile matching. Still, contributors do a great job in offering support for new cameras and lenses – the automatic lens correction is particularly impressive, and rivals any paid software.

There aren't enough tools for professional photographers, and Darktable can get buggy and crash if files are too large. While the tools offered are similar to those in Lightroom, it does fall short in its ability to handle professional color manipulation.

Although it doesn't offer all of the advanced tools of Photoshop, it does a great job as a free Lightroom alternative. It's a good starting point for beginners. There are no adverts or annoying, locked premium features.

Online Photo Editors List

From adjusting just the basic brightening of the image to the more complex adjustments like taking wrinkles and lines off of our faces and correcting our smiles and our bodies.

We live in a fast paced world of social media today and are in constant need of finding ways to edit our images. It's always convenient if we can find something that is online so we don't really need to download too many apps on our systems.

I have put together a list of web based editors that are easy to use and will help you get your basic image adjustments done to perfection.

11. Pixlr

Platforms: Web browser-based | Price: Free and Paid

Pixlr is a free photo editor that's 100% online. This is great for people who are wary of downloading free programs onto their computers. This works with HTML 5 rather than flash, so no unnecessary downloads on your end. I chose this editor because it works seamlessly with machines that do not have a lot of space (example: Chromebooks).

Pixlr offers a Chrome App that connects to Google Drive. No account is necessary to use Pixlr; you only need to create one if you want to use the Pixlr Library with free cloud storage.

The crowded toolbar reminds us of Photoshop. This photo editing tool includes most of the common photo editing tools such as: magnifying glass, lasso, dropper, pencil and paint brush. It also features a red eye removal tool and a color palette which you can use to fix the color of your image. To add more versatility, you can work with layers.

With the retro vintage editor, you get access to three settings. Each of the settings has a side scrolling list of effects you can use to customize your image. However, whether you use the vintage or basic photo editing tool, you can come up with a high-quality image.

With it, you can create clean canvases, on which you add your photograph. I was impressed by the number of tools that this photo editing software has to offer, everything from standard options, to unique effects and layering features.

A handful of filters such as HDR, glamour glow, and vignetting offer quick and easy ways to improve your photographs. With this photo editor, you can make finely detailed changes to colors, saturation, and vignette effects. On top of these, sharpening and blurring your images is a breeze.

When you go to Pixlr's website, you can choose to use Pixlr Editor or Pixlr Express. Pixlr Editor enhance your image with Free Photo Editing Software features that are similar to Photoshop like cropping, resizing, and changing the colour of the entire image. while Pixlr Express suited for applying filters, texts, and other overlays effects to a photo. The desired Extension can be applied to save your edited image as JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and PXD (layered Pixlr image).

Pixlr offers a free version. However, it is cluttered with ads, which is a major distraction for any photo editing professional. Pixlr is right now offering substantial discounts on its pro subscription plans. You can get a monthly subscription at $5 and quarterly at $12.

12. Photopea

Platforms: Web browser-based | Price: Free and Paid

Like Pixlr, Photopea is a photo editing program that works completely online. This means you won't need to worry about downloading any software onto your computer.

Photopea supports numerous file formats, including PSD, XCF, CDR, etc. making it great for photographers, graphic designers, and graphic artists.

This one could win the hearts of many, as it is internet-based and completely free. If you give Photopea a try, you'll see that it is super similar to Photoshop in many ways.

Of course, Photopea doesn't provide all the functions that are present in Adobe software. But its feature set is extensive enough to satisfy users, especially those, who aren't willing to spend much on the subscription.

The Photopea offers a wide variety of image editing tools, including advanced features like spot healing, a clone stamp healing brush, and a patch tool. The software supports layers, masks, smart objects, layer styles, filters, vector shapes and masks, and more. A full rundown of Photopea's tools is available on the app's website, as well as tutorials for select basic activities.

Unlike Pixlr, Photopea doesn't offer an image library. If you close your browser without saving, you'll lose your work.

It is one of the best photo editing app for PC that works for both vectors as well as raster graphics. It is equally suitable for complicated procedures like web-page design, making illustrations, editing pictures and simpler ones like changing the size of pictures.

Photopea is free, but in exchange you'll notice a lot of ads around the interface. If these are too distracting, you'll need to pay $9 a month to get rid of them. At this price, you could nearly be paying for an Adobe subscription.

13. Fotor

Platforms: Web browser-based | Price: Free and Paid

If you're looking for a tool that simplifies the photo-editing process, then you will definitely love Fotor. This application can be used with no knowledge. It allows you to drag and drop images. It's one of the simplest tools that you could ever use that doesn't forfeit in terms of editing options.

Do you want to tweak your color balance, brighten the image or simply crop your composition? With Fotor it's easy-peezy. A few other editing options include the possibility to add borders, frames or effects such as scratchy pencil or the look of paper.

some of its main features include: design templates, filters, HDR effects, and portrait retouching. Alternatively, if you are looking to create a bit more informal design, there are countless shapes, fonts and stickers that you can play around with.

This online photo editor and collage maker also comes in a full-fledged desktop application. Moreover, it supports RAW photo conversion, which is a valuable feature for free software.

The software also comes loaded with image enhancing tools, including numerous filters to create stunning images. Its user interface is quite simple to use and offers stunning one-click filters, which can enhance your images instantly.

In case you don't like the software's interface, you can simply customize it and swap things around by changing the theme.

The cloud-based software allows you to save the incomplete designs for future editing. That way, you can start from where you left the work. All you need to do is upload your images onto the website and you can start editing, creating designs and more.

For the free photo editor, you are limited to working with 4000px images. This resolution is something most enthusiast or hobby photographers won't have a problem with but can become a hindrance to larger images.

This well-known cloud-based software boasts more than 300 million users already. Fotor is the ideal tool for photographers who don't have a lot of experience with post-processing, or who want to preserve the original quality of their digital imagery. But it will not satisfy you if looking for professional photo editing or adjustments.

14. Befunky

Platforms: Web browser-based | Price: Free and Paid

Befunky is very good online photo editor with lots of stunning picture editing options. It's used for making basic photo enhancement and color correction, create collage and graphic design. This app enables you to crop and resize photos with ease.

There are 10 modules for image editing, which are organized in the form of a side panel. I like that you can create layouts of your works, import images, customize them as you wish, and then change the layout without overloading the pictures.

It works especially great with collages. Create a simple collage is very easy. There are hundreds of great photo collage templates, but the problem is that most them are closed for free use.

If you have a specific area that needs retouching, the tool has a variety of options for taking your image to the next level. It's simple, easy to use, and performs well in your web browser.

BeFunky also has another cool feature, called Graphic Designer, which allows you to create brochures, posters, social media posts, and even your own templates, right in the app. While it may lack certain professional features, such as editing layers, can't open RAW pictures. you won't find a more efficient option for getting high-quality, creative images in little time.

The best feature, though, is the AI image enhance button that does a pretty good job for you in just one click.

However, most of the features are chargeable, so you will have to spend some amount of money to use all of them. But you will be able to do the basic editing of the image, with features like crop, resize, rotate, exposure, beautify, smoothening and blur, free of cost.

This is a great option for beginners, but for more advanced users, the functionality and capabilities won't be enough. Moreover, the free version of the image editor comes with more than 30% of limited tools and constant intrusive advertising. I would choose this software if I could access art effects free of charge, since they are fantastic.

15. Canva

Platforms: Web browser-based | Price: Free and Paid

Canva is a free photo editor that runs in your browser and is perfect for turning your images into other business assets like social media posts, brochures, presentations, and more.

This online design tool offers a ton of powerful editing features, including a drag-and-drop design tool and millions of stock photos, vectors, and illustrations.

You won't find advanced tools here. For clone brushes and smart selectors, you'll need to look elsewhere. But, you will find sliders covering an array of adjustments.

With Canva, you can easily edit photos using preset filters or get advanced tools like tints, vignette effects, sharpening, brightness adjusting, saturation and contrast, and more.

I was amazed at how easy it was. You can edit right from the browser! Upload your image, play around with the filters, and download your photo. It's really that easy.

Whether you simply want to crop or straighten a photo or want to get creative with textures, fonts, badges and stickers, Canva can help. Some of its other features include vignette, photo blur, a speech bubble maker, an image transparency tool, photo frames and design grids.

Though, if you do not know where to start, be sure to visit the Canva Marketplace where you can find more than 8000 templates. Its basic features are available free of charge, but the more advanced features must be paid for. If you need to edit on the go, you will be happy to know that you can download it to your smartphone.

If you want to build a consistent presence around your entire business—from product photos to marketing assets—Canva's got you covered.

This web browser free editor software is a perfect place for changing your images into gifts, either for yourself or family and friends. Cards, posters, and invitations are easily created if you don't opt for social media stylings.

There are upgradable options other than free software. Canva for work comes in $12.95 and gives you access to thousands of stock images and unlimited storage. All of which is handy for your business.

Do I need a graphics tablet for photo editing?

When I first started editing photos in Photoshop, I used a mouse on my desktop and laptop for everything, from drawing complex masks to painting contrast into the sky. It worked, but it was difficult to do accurately and caused a whole load of hassle. It took me some time to make the leap and go from using a mouse to using a art tablet for photo editing, but once I switched to a Photoshop tablet, I have never looked back.

My first run-in with a pen and tablet for Photoshop was in 2018 with a XP-Pen Star G640 Tablet. I can still remember getting it. It felt awesome to use but was also very difficult to get used to. At first, I used it for everything because, well, I could! After a while, I realized the pen and tablet are just tools for post-production and it doesn't need to be used for everything. There are two main tasks I use my pen for while I edit.

Before I discuss what I use them for, let's take a look at why I use them.

The pen and tablet is kind of like a mouse with one very special characteristic that makes it stand out, pressure sensitivity. When you are using a brush in Photoshop with a mouse what you click is what you get. What I mean is, whatever brush presets you have set, the brush will respond with. Sometimes that means you will get a harsh line and the only way to make it less abrasive is to lower the opacity. However, you can only have one opacity set at a time, right?

Wit a pen and tablet things are a little different. A Pen and Tablet will use your hand's pressure on the tablet to respond with the appropriate opacity, flow, or size. So, the softer you brush with your pen, the smaller or lighter the stroke will be. The harder you press, the darker or larger the line will be.

As you can see in the photo above, with the mouse, what you click is what you get. With the Pen and Tablet, you have a lot more versatility and all with the delicate stroke of the pen on the tablet. This give you a ton of control when you are editing your images.

I primarily use the pen and tablet for two things in Photoshop, Masking and Dodging & Burning.

You may have heard of a pen and tablet before. The term Wacom is almost synonymous with the pen and tablet. However, other brands such as XP-Pen also offer a wide range of options with an equally wide range of features. Where they differ significantly is price. xp-pen tablet is about at around a third of that of the same wacom model.

The entry level XP-Pen Star G640 has only 6 by 4 inches of the active working area , but this will still be sufficient for most home users and those starting out with their photo editing, making the Star G640 the best beginner drawing tablet. I would recommend the small size as sufficient for most users, although there exists of all sizes from A7 to A3.

When looking for the best pen pad for Photoshop, you need to make a personal decision on whether you want a drawing tablet with a screen or not. You definitely don't need a graphics tablet with a screen, but they can improve the accuracy of your Photoshop work, depending on your technique. If you do want one, you will be looking at a significantly increased cost, although it is possible to get a relatively cheap drawing tablet with screen, such as the XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro , if you are more budget limited.

The XP-Pen Artist 12 Pro is an excellent budget drawing tablet with screen. Technically, the pen pressure and accuracy are on a par with Wacom, although in real-world practice the Wacom tablets come out on top. There are many more models in the XP-Pen Artist series if you have more to spend and are looking for a larger screen.

Conclusion

There are many photo editing software's on the web ,depend on what type of photo editing you usually do. Whether you are a professional or beginner, you can use any of these photo editing tools.

Choose the tool that not only appeals the most to you but is also very easy to use and enables you to achieve desirable results.

Now that you have a good understanding of the top paid and free photo editors out there, it's time to get testing! If you don't want to spend money on a photo editor, start with a free one or a free trial, then take it from there.

Not all software is meant for everybody. For example, Adobe Photoshop needs months/years of practice to become an expert.

However, other software like Canva, Fotor, etc. are browser-based, and they need you to be familiar with their layout. Of course, you needn't be a design expert to get going with any of these.

We hope this article will help you pick the best photo editing app for your computer. Check the pros and cons and go to the official website to download the chosen software!

this article was just my opinion. You should try them out and judge for yourself. Hard work pays off and results will come in no time! Happy Editing!

Leave any questions or suggestions below !

Source: https://www.xp-pen.com/forum-1790.html

Top 12 Best Android & iOS Digital Drawing, Painting and Illustration applications

 

Digital Drawing & Painting are fun . A person uses all his imaginations, innovation and creativity to draw a master-piece that eventually reflects his set of thoughts. Visualizing a certain thing and then picturing it in a canvas is a big art in itself. Drawing a picture freshens up one’s mood, makes a person more positive and lively and therefore this activity is very fun to indulge oneself in.

Becoming a professional digital artist takes years of hard work. Achieving this goal is impossible without spending thousands of hours practicing and polishing your skills. Drawing apps for Android & iOS enable you to keep practicing your drawing and painting skills whenever you have some free time.

There are plenty of drawing apps are available in the market for all kinds of devices. Irrespective of whether you are using an Android device, an iPhone or even an iPad Pro, there are drawing apps for everyone. Drawing apps for Android & iOS devices have come a long way from being a basic sketching app a few years ago to full-fledged drawing software. They come with all the advanced features which you will find in some of the pro level desktop apps.

If you want a digital art drawing tablet to connect to your Android devices as well as computers . some models ( Star G640s,Star G960S , Deco mini7, Deco 01 V2 and Deco Pro ) of the XP-PEN sports great pen pressure sensitivity and transmits your drawings to the connected Android smartphones and tablets using Android OS (6.0 or later). For a dedicated tablet for doodling or professional art, XP-PEN is a reliable brand to being your search.

Here are some of the best and well-known art apps for beginners looking to get into the digital world. These are the drawing apps that are quick to pick up and easy to work with. They have a lot of great resources available and a large community to lean on for support while traversing the learning curve.

The 12 Best digital Art Apps for Android or iOS that artists will love

1. Procreate

Procreate is an iOS-only app designed to fully harness the power of Apple’s popular iPad Pro and Apple Pencil combination. There is a Procreate app for the iPhone with fewer features called Procreate Pocket.

It's a classic and well-known app that won the Apple Design Award. Its wide canvas with touch operation ensures a comfortable drawing experience. The simple UI makes it easy to find features.

It features the ability to use a 4K canvas with over 120 brushes available. On top of that, there are 25 customizable settings for every brush resulting in a nearly unlimited number of combinations. On top of that, there are an absurd list of other features you can use including various import/export settings, 250 levels of undo/redo, optimizations for 64-bit processors, and plenty of deeper functions such as exporting HEX values for color.

From transformative tools to video capture of workflow, multi-touch gesture commands and GPU accelerated filters, Procreate offers impressive performance to artists.

You can create just about any kind of art with Procreate, from oil and acrylic style paintings to pixel art, lifelike graphite drawings, digital illustrations, and so much more.

More than just a drawing app, Procreate combines many of the powerful tools you’d expect to find in a much more robust program like Photoshop. Layers, custom brushes, and all sorts of special effects are available on your tablet.

You can export your ended up work of art as PSD, native.procreate, TIFF, transparent PNG, multi-pages PDF, and JPEG file formats.

Procreate offers impressive performance to artists. It's overkill if you're just looking for something to doodle with, but if you're in the market for a robust, professional-quality art app on an iPad, Procreate deserves a look.

2. Adobe Illustrator Draw

Be sure to check out Adobe Illustrator Draw if you use an Android or iOS tablet. Adobe Illustrator Draw has full layer support, much like its desktop counterpart.

The free Adobe Illustrator Draw is a versatile vector graphics drawing app that can be further enhanced with Creative Cloud integration. It supports zoom as much as x64, so you can easily see all the fine information.

You can mess around with five customizable pens and stylus support for popular devices such as Adobe Ink. support for Adonit, Wacom, Pencil by 53 and Apple Pencil devices. You can also enjoy the ability to create up to 10 layers to create images on the app. Easily mixes photos with drawing layers.

Users can import in assets from Color CC and Shape CC, and can export drawings straight to Illustrator CC on the desktop, or PNG files to Photoshop CC. That allows you to begin a creation whenever inspiration takes you, and then flesh it out fully on a desktop rig.

The app is beautifully laid out with a simple approach to Adobe Photoshop Sketch, though the learning curve can be challenging for those who are unfamiliar with design software. The upside: the app features a robust tutorial platform and community engagement available for all users and skill levels.

3. Adobe Photoshoop Sketch

If you’re looking for a free app that combines the ease and simplicity of drawing on your mobile device with the power of Adobe Photoshop, check out Photoshop Sketch. It includes many of the same features as Adobe Illustrator Draw , including zoom support for fine detail, support for various drawing hardware, layers, advanced tools, and more.

The app is quite intuitive because it’s well laid out for use on a tiny screen. You can easily select brushes, color palettes, new tools, and make quick layer adjustments.

With a myriad of drawing tools and customizable toolbar, this app can turn your concepts into incredible and realistic artwork and designs. You can make use of tools that imitate an ink pen, marker, as well as a graphite pencil.

If you’re fond of using a stylus while drawing, Photoshop Sketch can work well with you since it supports Bluetooth styluses such as Pencil, Adobe Ink, and those from Wacom and Adonit.

Photoshop Sketch aims to replicate the analog drawing experience, augmented with a few digital flourishes such as a color picker and an undo history. Users can import in assets from other Creative Cloud tools such as custom brushes and colors, and your creations can also be exported into Creative Cloud as layered PSDs to Photoshop, or flat images for Illustrator.

You can also get rid of the menus completely so you can have your whole screen to draw on. Then bring ‘em back when you’re ready to adjust something.

This is truly a beginners app but it’s also the ideal choice for Photoshop artists who want a slimmer version of their favorite digital art program on the go.

4. Autodesk SketchBook

SketchBook by Autodesk is one of the most powerful and popular drawing apps for Android and iOS. Additionally, Autodesk made SketchBook entirely free. That makes it arguably the best free drawing app on the Android and iOS, with no ads or payments required. Apart from Android and iOS, the app is also available on Mac and PC.

SketchBook stands out from similar apps due to natural drawing experience , clean interface and consists of the unique Copic Color Library. It comes with a variety of drawing tools and brushes, all of which you can customize on the fly, pinch to zoom, a gallery organizer, and support for saving and storing your works to Dropbox or iCloud.

SketchBook also has a Scan Sketch feature, which lets you capture a sketch using your device’s camera, and it automatically makes the background of the paper transparent. This way, you only have your drawing to deal with. Many industrial designers, architects and the like have integrated this handy little tool into their workflow for easy drawing and quick transition into the Autodesk family.

There’s also a screenshot tool that allows other people to view and add notes to your artwork for review. If you wish to create flipbooks or animations, SketchBook has got you covered. Simply click on File > New FlipBook then choose any of the options to enter Animation mode.

Autodesk SketchBook basically works like a sketchbook for your mobile device. You can use this for practice and to work out ideas, but not really to draw your finished pieces in. Sketchbook isn’t meant for fancy finished pieces so it’s not a true painter’s app. But it’s great for quick sketches and working out concepts from anywhere in the world.

The application also lets you export your work as JPG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, and PSD. Lastly, Autodesk SketchBook has complete support for layer features.

In addition, users can create a free Sketchbook account to gain access to more features such as layer and symmetry tools. A premium subscription unlocks more pro tools such as an expanded brush library, and more powerful layer and selection tools.

5. Ibis Paint X

If you’re searching for an app that’s easy and enjoyable to utilize for both kids and grownups, look no more than Ibis Paint. ibis Paint is the of the best drawing apps for Android and iOS out there.

It has some unique features like recording your drawing as video, and SNS features where you can see and learn from videos other users have made.

Other features like fast open GL technology, 335 customization brushes, , 46 screen tones, 27 blending modes, and over 1,000 fonts makes it an obvious choice for people looking for an android or iOS drawing app with lots of plus points.

It does have layer support and you can use as many layers as your device can handle.

Apart from this, there are separate features for those artists who are interested in creating manga. the app works great with concept art, anime/manga, or any type of illustration work.

There is also optional pressure sensitivity and you can load images to trace with the easy tracing mode.

On top of the above functions, Ibis Paint offers stroke stabilization function and different ruler features.

ibis Paint X makes it easy to create beautiful art on a small smartphone screen. You’ll find great linework for drawing on a small screen.

While Ibis Paint X is a free download, an in-app purchase removes advertising, and an optional Prime Membership subscription unlocks extra fonts, materials, and filters.

6. Medibang Paint

MediBang Paint is a free drawing app available for Android, iOS, and PC/Mac computers. The mobile and desktop versions do feel a bit different so try both and see what you think.

The app comes with the features you'd expect from a solid mobile art app, including layers, rulers, a wealth of brushes, and snap guides and tracing aides. also support for 3D Touch on newer iOS devices.

The app makes it easy to create drawings and comic books and is packed with features such as brushes, screen tones, fonts, premade backgrounds, comic panels, and other resources.

It uses cloud storage by default so it’s easy to transition between your devices and continue working on the same piece. This means you can also easily share your artwork with others for collabs.

What’s more, the app has a vibrant community so there are plenty of resources and tutorials online that will help you learn the ropes quickly.

Due to its mild complexity MediBang Paint might not be the best for beginners who have never used digital drawing apps before. But if you have some experience you’ll probably really like it.

The app is free to download on the Play Store and App Store. However, the free version showcases ads from time to time. Purchasing the Remove Ads option will eliminate these interludes.

7. Infinite Painter

Infinite Painter might not have the easy name recall of Adobe, Autodesk or any of our other best drawing apps, but it's garnered a well-deserved cult following among Android users.

The app is free with a 7-day trial, after which premium features are available as in-app purchases. While originally an Android exclusive, Infinite Painter has since made the leap to iPad screens, operating under the same free trial model.

Infinite Painter features 80-plus natural brushes and the ability to create custom ones, infinite layer support, paper textures, a variety of transformation tools and perspective aids, color blending, pattern and gradient tools and more. Works can be exported into PSD, PNG or JPG.

The well-designed layout makes it simple to change brush sizes and color choices quickly. You can also sample colors from anywhere in your paintings.

The minimal layout is designed to keep your drawing space clear so you don’t get lost in menus to find what you need. Infinite painter also makes it easy to see which tool you have selected, because it’s the only one you can really see.

Use layers, create masks, add symmetry tools, and work with selection tools similar to what you’d find in Photoshop. You can even create your own brushes and modify the ones that come with the app. And when you start a painting you can record a video of your process to create your own speedpaint videos.

Infinite Painter is tailor made for sketching and painting on your phone and tablet. Its built-in brushes are incredibly diverse and work like actual paint on a digital screen. It feels very natural for anyone with painting experience.

8. ArtRage

The concept behind ArtRage is to make the experience of painting as real as possible on the Android and iOS . You can experience the mixing of different paints like you are blending them on a real canvas.

ArtRage delivering a set of drawing and painting tools firmly rooted in the analog art of applying graphite on paper or paint on canvas. It features a series of tools that aim to mimic real world painting tools and mediums, such as oil paints, watercolors, a palette knife, paint rollers, etc. The painting engine is designed to mimic the effects of paint thickness, thinner and other real-world behaviors of tools and media.

The canvas textures are beautiful so it looks like you’re painting on actual canvas. You can even customize your paper to get the exact texture and line quality you’re looking for.

As this app also works with layers, you won’t face any difficulty with the blend modes if you know Photoshop. You can also save your strokes for watching later on your desktop.

This is a brilliant program for traditional artists who want to continue working in their style, but with the benefits you get in digital art(ex: undo, painting over layers).

You also get a full set of stencils, grids, and perspective guides to speed up your painting process. You can tell ArtRage was created with artists in mind. ArtRage supports Apple Pencil, Adonit, Wacom and Pogo Styli.

As for the interface and workflow, ArtRage is an easy-to-use application. Even someone who is not familiar with the app can swiftly grasp the gamut of it. It also has built-in quick reference and essential help files, including multitouch support for canvas and object manipulation.

With ArtRage you can create gorgeous paintings and drawings that perfectly emulate working on a desktop computer. Due to all these reasons, ArtRage is hands down one of the best drawing apps for Android and iOS.

9. Dotpict

Are you trying to create a piece of art that is different from the rest? Or are you someone who just enjoys the world of pixel art? Dotpict is one of the best drawing apps for Android and iOS as it offers a different take on drawing. The app is free on the Play Store, the App Store, and has ads. In addition, this artsy app is also partly a game.

You get a solitary brush with a couple of chosen hues. Utilizing this application is somewhat similar to testing yourself. On the top bar you get couple of menus to play out some extremely straightforward assignments. Directly underneath it is the illustration zone.

You get a square canvas with a customizable layout. This is trailed by a lot of various shaded pencils and toward the end we have the push catch. The tools in the app include a brush tool, an eraser, a color picker, a bucket, and a complete color wheel. Just point the cursor to a pixel and tap the big button to fill it with color. Apart from that, dotpict also allows users to undo or redo the steps.

Move a small hand with your finger or stylus, then push your color to create an 8-bit shape. There's a variety of canvas sizes, so you can create anything from a small figure to a whole landscape.

Maybe you just want to browse around and get some ideas on what to do next. Dotpict has a great gallery for you to peruse the creations of similar artists so you can take an idea and turn into something of your own. All of your work is automatically saved, and you can easy share or export it once you've finished.

You can directly save the project to your Photos app or share it within the app or to your social media.

Other than that, it’s not too feature heavy and it stays out of your way while you draw. It’s an excellent app for those who enjoy creating pixel art.

10. ArtFlow

If your Android tablet isn't feeling the love with all of these iPad apps in the running, don't lose heart. Artflow is a beautiful drawing app for Android that features a clean user interface and lots of pro features like layers and custom brushes. It is the perfect drawing and painting app to create paint your dream.

The ArtFlow digital art studio for Android comes packed with features and tools, both in free and paid tiers. ArtFlow's free version is already a solid drawing app, with nine customizable brushes, a symmetry tool, color picker, six-step undo and support for two layers.

A premium version massively expands the tool selection from the free dowload, with more than 80 brushes, expanded history support, the ability to create up to 16 layers, GPU-accelerated paint engine, stylus pressure support and custom palettes. That premium version has more features than any normal user would probably know what to do with, but it's great for seasoned and aspiring digital artists looking for an Android art app.

You can export to JPEG, PNG, or even PSD so you can import it into Photoshop later. To top things off, you’ll have access to Nvidia’s DirectStylus support if you’re rocking an Nvidia device. It’s a solid all-around option for both kids and adults. You can download it for free to try it out. ArtFlow is also free to use if you use Google Play Pass.

11. PaperColor

PaperColor is one of the most versatile photo editing and drawing app for Android devices. It is equipped with lots of professional tools for sketching and provides stunning system UI with easy controls. It includes both drawing capabilities and photo editing functionality with just some tap on your mobile devices.

PaperColor aims to imitate real-life drawing experience as closely as it can. It offers the necessary features that include different brush types, ruler, eraser, etc.

Different types of rulers makes each line you draw is perfectly straight or curved, depending on your needs. The paintbrushes this drawing app offers can imitate graffiti, a pencil drawing, or any type of doodle, as you can choose from a variety of paintbrush styles.

While most apps try to give you a modern, minimal UI, PaperColor lays the pens and brushes out in front of you. It's as close to an easel and canvas as you can get from an Android app.

It allows you to import a picture as the base map and set it to transparent mode. Then you can trace the original image and draw above it. A base map helps you to learn drawing in a straightway.

Moreover, other features include the ability to add text, custom cover, graphics tools, etc. You can add a handwritten signature to each image you create with this app, and share your creations with your friends on social media.

The app is free with no ads and has some in-app purchases. It is one of the best Android art apps that are worth trying for budding artists. Learning the basics of digital drawing and painting is much easier with an app like PaperColor that offers a base map.

12. Corel Painter Mobile

Finally, it's worth considering an offering from another publisher with desktop art package experience: Corel Painter Mobile is aimed at all levels of artist, with options to paint photos, trace, or start from nothing. and it intends to become one of the best drawing tools available for mobile devices.

With Corel Painter Mobile you can draw and develop your artistic work from almost anywhere.

Among the options offered by Painter Mobile, the following are included: Painting and drawing tools that allow us to make interesting sketches and easily color in images; Different sorts of brushes, pencils, and pens.Includes effects to be applied; Possibility to import images from the camera, gallery or Google image searches; Capacity to work with up to 20 layers.

You'll find the usual paint, blend, eyedropper, and paint bucket tools. Free version includes 16 brushes. paid version includes 70 natural media brushes. There's also integration with Samsung's PENUP social art network.

One of the greatest advantages of this software is that it allows you to import files created with the desktop version. Thus, you'll be able to continue working on your projects and show them from wherever you are.

Final Words

Producing digital artwork from an Android & iOS OS device has never been easier because there are so many different apps that enable you to draw or paint from your tablet or Smartphone. The majority of the drawing apps we included in this article can be used just for fun or for professional purposes.

However, your choice of a drawing app for Android & iOS devices depends on your digital drawing and painting skills, since there is no need to opt for an app aimed at professionals if you just want to create doodles.

Because all the features and descriptions of these apps are so clear that you will easily find your most desired app. Which of the twelve best drawing apps for Android & iOS are you going to choose? Also, inform us if you have any questions or confusion about this discussion. Leave a comment and let us know.Thank you for your time.

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