ForumsArt, Music, and WritingFree Art Programs

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Cholokid
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Cholokid
1,667 posts
Shepherd

I noticed that a lot of you are asking about some drawing programs, better than MSpaint. So I decided to use some of my time to do a little research into it, not all from first hand experience. Remember, these are free! Here are my results:

Inkscape
Pros:
-Vector Manipulation
-Similar to adobe products

Cons:
-Sometimes "freezes" tablet for brief second
-Difficult to choose color

Gimp
Pros:
-Very similar to Adobe programs
-designed for web graphics
-Small with all the features

Cons:
-awkward to draw with a mouse
-best with tablet

Dogwaffle
Pros:
-Can create custom brushes
-Quick to download
-good filters
-a lot of tools

Cons:
-Takes time to learn how to use
-No cut and paste
-Limited layers
-Cannot undo many times

ArtRage
Pros:
-little effort to master
-easy tools
-good with tablet

Cons:
-limited
-buy for full use of tools

Paint.net
Pros:
-Good photo editing
-Easy to learn
-good features

Cons: No serious concerns.

Please post you're feedback. If you use a free art program not listed here, be sure to tell about it! ^^

  • 1 Reply
Strop
offline
Strop
10,817 posts
Bard

Thanks Cholo, here's another:

Opencanvas v1.1

Note that this is V1.1 and not the commercial V4.5.

Pros:
-Super simple, intuitive interface
-Emulates a range of paint and ink media quickly
-Small filesize
-Has event playing and networking ability
-Tablet compatible, with adjustible pressure sensitivity

Cons:
-Original is Japanese so Engrish translation can be confusing
-Limited undo functionality (memory cache based) and no redo
-No selection tool (BAD!!!)
-Designed almost exclusively for tablet use. You can try the mouse but I don't recommend it

Additional feeback about GIMP:

Pros:
-Pressure sensitive fuctions for tablet use

Cons:
-Memory eating monster
-Pressure sensitivity for brush sizes appears to be piecemeal/discrete, not gradated, which will result in a noticeably jagged line on smaller brushstrokes. Highly irritating...GIMP staff recommend "don't use brush then, use paths and stroke".

Feeling obselete isn't pleasant!

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