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Starting a sublimation business is hard. Like really hard. And whether you're a newcomer, or whether you're a veteran, it's hard to deny that getting off on the right foot is critical to your success. You don't want to handicap yourself by using inferior products, so why would you handicap yourself by not using the best sublimation software?
The design process is one of the most critical processes with your sublimation business. So why would you use a design software that isn't the best for your needs? In this article, we'll be taking a look into the design software available to you for your dye-sublimation business in 2020. We'll be taking a deep dive into the software available, the pros and cons of each piece of software, and whether it's the best option for you. And don't worry, we'll tell you what we're using and why we're using it.
The most powerful and the most Photoshop-like one is Pixelmator Pro for Mac which is more than capable of handling the giant majority of jobs that the Adobe app can. It does have fewer options with. Download Adobe Photoshop CS3 free for windows and mac – Are you looking for one of the best photo editing software? Download Adobe Photoshop CS3 from here. Adobe Photoshop is famous these days for its help for editors and designers in their works.
So let's hop right in and start talking about the best sublimation software out there!
A quick aside on sublimation
Maybe you're more than familiar with dye-sublimation. But maybe you're not. If you already know what you're doing, feel free to skip this section.
Dye-sublimation is a process to transfer inks onto different types of garments. Whether it be t-shirts, hoodies, or socks, you can use dye-sublimation to transfer custom designs using a specialized ink.
The process works using a water based dye that bonds with the polymers in the garment. But what does that mean? Basically, the water based sublimation ink has some special properties that allows it to bond permanently with different types of fabrics and garments.
Okay, so it transfers onto the garments?
This bonding isn't like one of those flimsy heat transfer papers either. No, this bonding of ink to garment is permanent. Once you imprint your design onto your garment of choice, it's there forever. This fact allows you to create truly unique and special garments with custom designs. Plus the process is affordable, and is something you can do from your own home! You just need some designs, a printer that can handle the specialized ink, and something to transfer on to.
That's the basics of dye-sublimation printing! This is by no means a complete run-down. We do have a complete run-down, if you're so inclined. I'd highly encourage you to read more about dye-sublimation if you're unsure about the process, or if you'd like to learn more. Once you have a chance to read up a little, head on back to this article to learn more about the softwares we'll be going over.
How will we be grading the best sublimation softwares?
Understanding what we're looking for in our list of the best sublimation softwares is critical for understanding why we ranked certain softwares. So let's take a minute, and go over exactly what we are reviewing with each of the softwares we'll be going into.
How capable is the software?
For starters, the most important thing is capability. If the software you use is lacking in some areas, then it likely won't cut it for you or your business in the long run. You really want to make sure that you're using a piece of software for your sublimation business that is able to handle everything you throw at it. Whether it's some abstract designs, or if its a customized ICC color profile, you want to ensure that you aren't using a piece of software that will hinder you more than help you.
How expensive is the sublimation software?
The next important piece of the puzzle is price. It's been a recent (and annoying) trend for software companies to switch to subscription models. I personally hate this trend. You can no longer just own a piece of software, rather you rent it from some company. This can significantly increase the cost for a simple piece of software. It's very important to me to use the best thing available, but to always be considerate of cost. Otherwise you may end up going over budget, or buying something you don't need (looking at you Adobe cloud).
The final portion of our review will be sublimation specific. Whatever software you end up choosing, it has to support your sublimation needs. It needs to support customizable ICC color profiles, otherwise you'll never quite get your colors right. This is critical to the quality of your prints, and shouldn't be overlooked. Thankfully, most software already supports ICC color profiles. The pieces of software we'll be reviewing are all capable of changing their color profiles.
One more thing: ICC color profiles
If you don't know what an ICC color profile is, well you should.
Colors, and computers, are very complicated..
Color is complicated. And the way we represent the colors on our computer screen, the way we represent colors in our printer, and the way our eyes interpret those colors are all very different from each other. It's our duty as sublimation industry experts to make sure we understand these differences in colors, and how we can adjust our process to make sure we always have perfect color prints and transfers.
The ICC color profile is a software based representation of colors. Basically, it maps a piece of software into an actual color value. You can think of it turning the 1's and 0's into some RGB color that is represented on your monitor.
What ICC Color Profile am I using now?
The color profile you are currently using is likely sRGB, since this is the most common color profile around. And for the most part, it works great! But when you are dealing with dye-sublimation, you have to be more considerate.
The colors you decide to use for your design and transfer can change at a couple of different steps of the process, and this can change your final product. For starters, there's the way it's represented on your monitor. For example, if you've enabled saturation boosting on your monitor, then your colors might appear differently to you then they are actually represented.
To make sure you remain as consistent as possible with your color profiles, it's highly recommended to create and install a custom ICC profile. This profile will be specific to your printer, your ink, and your computer. That way, you know it works perfectly for you.
Installing and using ICC Color Profiles
But creating and installing a profile can be time consuming and challenging. You can rest easy, we actually have downloadable ICC color profiles for some of the most popular sublimation inks around. You can use these profiles until you decide it's time for a more custom solution.
We also have some guides on how to set up your custom color profile with Photoshop and Windows 10. This guide really steps you through everything you need to do to ensure you are using the correct color profile. I'd definitely recommend checking it out if you're ready to get started with your custom profile.
Enough with the asides, let's review the best sublimation software of 2020
Okay, okay. We're all done talking about all that extra stuff. Let's get into it, here's our top few recommendations of the best sublimation software available to you in 2020.
1. Adobe Photoshop
This one may be a little unsurprising, but we love Photoshop. I mean, it's easily one of the most popular design softwares ever made, so is it really that surprising that it's our top rated sublimation software?
Photoshop has it all. It's easy to use. It's easy to get started with. Literally everyone uses Photoshop, so it's incredibly easy to find resources to learn and improve your skills with Photoshop.
If you've never used Photoshop, then no worries. Once you get it installed, you can follow along with the literal thousands of different tutorials online. It won't take you long to get started with learning Photoshop, nor will it take you very long to become adequate at Photoshop.
My favorite part of Photoshop
Easily my favorite part of Photoshop, and of the Adobe suite in general, is how much carry-over there is between their different software. Whether you're using Photoshop, Illustrator, or Premier, there is a ton of carryover between each piece of software. It's almost as if learning one means learning them all. All of your hotkeys are similar, all of your icons are similar, and the general feel and flow of the applications are consistent.
Photoshop also has incredible support from Adobe. It will continue to receive updates for a very long time, so you don't need to worry about your software becoming deprecated. If there's a new feature you're looking for, it'll likely come in the future (if it's not already there).
My least-favorite part of Photoshop
There's only one issue I have with Photoshop, and admittedly it's not a small issue: the price. Adobe ditched the flat rate model in favor of a subscription model a few years ago. And to say I'm not a fan of the subscription model would be the understatement of the year. Not only do you have to pay a monthly fee for your software, but you may even be required to bundle with other pieces of software you don't need.
This is truly frustrating, but I put up with it. And why? Because even if Adobe is not great with their subscription model, they sure as shit are great at making software. Photoshop just works. It comes out of the box with everything you could ever need. It's incredibly easy to use for anything, whether it be design work or mock ups or even photo editing. And it plugs and plays with ICC color profiles to be immediately useful to you and your sublimation business.
It's still the best
I genuinely can't recommend Photoshop enough. And if you're Adobe, please just let me buy Photoshop 2019 and stop paying that damn $30 per month.
2. GIMP
If you haven't heard of GIMP before, then boy do I have a treat for you.
The GNU Image Manipulation Program, or GIMP, is a free and open-sourced piece of software aimed at, you guessed it, image manipulation. Yep, it's basically a free, and open-sourced version of Photoshop!
GIMP has tons of capabilities, and a lot of them are similar to those in Photoshop. You can similarly do tons of design work, work with smart layers, photo-editing, and a ton more. But GIMP just doesn't quite cut it in my book, and let me tell you why.
It was my first
When I first got started with dye-sublimation printing, I used GIMP. It was the first software I was using, and I thought it was going to be my last. But a good friend of mine really encouraged me to try the Adobe suite. So I did, and I've literally never used GIMP since.
GIMP is truly a lot like Photoshop, but just a little worse in every way. Whether it's the resources out there, or the placement of their buttons, GIMP just doesn't do it as well as Photoshop. And it's not like any one feature is so significantly worse in GIMP than in Photoshop. No, not at all. Rather, GIMP is just a little worse with EVERY feature than Photoshop is. And these small frustrations can add up quickly.
When I made the switch to Photoshop from GIMP, everything ran smoothly for me. I felt like my work flow was much faster. I felt like I wasn't putting in the same level of thought into everything I was doing. It was just plain old better.
GIMP belongs in second place, behind Photoshop
Now don't get me wrong, I love GIMP. But GIMP is firmly in second place for me. If you're looking to save a little money on the monthly cost of the Adobe suite, then GIMP is the man for you. If you want the best software out there, you'll need to pick up a copy of Photoshop.
Don't be afraid to try GIMP either! I mean it's literally free. Free is my favorite price! It comes with all of the features you need, and is easy to set up for dye-sublimation printing. You can get started with it right away!
3. CorelDRAW
Rounding out our list of the best sublimation software available to you in 2020 is CorelDRAW.
I like CorelDRAW! It's a very capable piece of software, and will assuredly handle everything you throw at it. And want to know my favorite part about CorelDRAW?
No subscription model?
You pay a flat price. No monthly subscription, no package deals. Just one price, and it's yours. And that's nice.
But CorelDRAW doesn't quite make the top of my list, and that's for a couple of reasons.
For starters, in my experience, CorelDRAW tends to work better with vector images than it does raster images. Don't know what those are? Well, vector images are basically mathematical representation of images. Rather than drawing a circle, you're telling the computer a formula for drawing a circle. Then no matter the resolution, the computer can accurately draw that circle, since it's just using a math formula.
Raster images on the other hand are the more traditional way of thinking about images. They're a bunch of pixels, where every pixel has some color. They're also what is most commonly used when it comes to photography and pictures on the web.
CorelDRAW is great, for vector work!
I think CorelDRAW is fantastic if you're working with vector artwork. And maybe you are working with vector artwork! But I, and most other sublimation designers, tend to work with raster images more frequently. Because of this main reason, I believe that CorelDRAW is better served for those that like their artwork represented by vectors.
A quick summary of best sublimation softwares
The best sublimation software is hard to pick out. There are so many factors that can influence how and why you use certain softwares, but we've presented our list of our favorite sublimation softwares.
We believe Photoshop is the best, and we don't think we're alone in that judgement. It's been one of the most popular design software for decades, and will continue to be for the foreseeable future. It comes out of the box ready to work with sublimation ICC color profiles, and has all of the support and features you could ever want. It's genuinely one of the best sublimation softwares out there.
GIMP definitely deserves its place on this list. It's a very capable piece of software with tons of features and functionality. But it just doesn't quite meet the capabilities, support, resources, or functionality of Photoshop. Because of this, it lands as our second best piece of software. But it is free! And free is a pretty damn good price if I say so myself.
Rounding out our list is CorelDRAW. CorelDRAW is great, if you tend to work with vector artwork more than raster images. I, and most other sublimation professionals, tend to work with raster images a lot more often. Whether it's photos, or different designs we've found online, working with raster images gives you more flexibility and capability when it comes to your business. That's why we think CorelDRAW is worth a look, but we think it lands squarely in third place.
Let's round it up!
Okay, so in this article we've reviewed some of the best sublimation softwares out there. We hope that you can take this information, and really make strides in improving your workflow with your sublimation business!
We think it's critical to use the right tool for the right job, and we hope that this article has helped you find the right tool for your business needs. Check out some more of our sublimation resources below!
Digital art software gets better and better each year.
The right software can help you paint faster and feel better about your artwork. Each program handles brush strokes and color blending differently, and the price tags vary from expensive to free.
Adobe Photoshop still reigns supreme as an all-round industry standard for digital artists. Yet there's always new software coming out to compete against Adobe's throne.
Choosing your art software is no longer about the biggest features, but rather finding an application that suits your specific needs as an artist.
Beginners who just want to practice are better off choosing a free program compared to professionals who want to learn software for an industry job. If your goal is to work for a game studio as a concept artist then you'll probably have a different set of goals.
In this post we'll take an in-depth look at 7 of the most popular programs for digital drawing & painting by comparing their features and seeing how they stack up.
But if you're in a hurry here's a quick overview to help you decide:
- Professional Choice: Adobe Photoshop
- Free Choice: Krita
- Budget Choice: Clip Studio Paint
If you need a bit more info on these programs just keep reading.
Adobe Photoshop
Price: $9.99/mo
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Adobe Photoshop is the most popular and widely used software for digital art.
It's feature-heavy, regularly updated, and you can use it to create everything from concept thumbnails to comic book pages or even photobashed pieces.
Photoshop started as an image-editing program for photographers. Over time it slowly became a staple for many other industries, digital art included.
With this software you have a huge variety of painting tools, brushes, filters, plugins, and layer styles.
It's an industry standard for all digital artists across the entertainment industry because it just works. If you want a career in video games, animation, feature films, or any general production studio, knowledge of Photoshop goes a long way.
The learning curve is pretty steep here. If you are a beginner you may feel overwhelmed by all the options and get lost in technical aspects of the program. But once you've learned the basics, your imagination is the limit!
You can do anything in whatever style you choose and edit photos to boot!
Being the most popular software for creatives artists, there's a mass of Photoshop tutorials available online. Adobe even released a series of up-to-date free tutorials which will take you from beginner to expert level.
If you ever have a problem or question on anything, a quick Google search will get you a video answer or helpful forum post.
Concept artists like Photoshop's custom brushes and often create their own. Detailed layer settings, regular updates, and a sleek user interface are the driving force behind Photoshop's continued popularity.
You can rotate your canvas naturally to mimic the rotation of paper. And you can setup grids and rulers for complex scenes, or even bring in 3D objects to paint over. PSD files(Photoshop's native file format) play well with other Adobe programs and this file type is an industry standard.
That means you can import PSDs into almost any other art software without a hitch. GIMP and Krita both accept PSD files along with many other programs.
This is why many artists combine Photoshop with other painting software. Depending on the workflow you're going for you could do your concept and lineart in something like Clip Studio Paint, then bring it to Photoshop for coloring and final touch-ups.
Other digital art software doesn't try to replace Photoshop but instead tries to improve on the interface for specific types of art(ex: comics, storyboards, environment paintings, etc).
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Once you've signed up for a Creative Cloud membership you get a free, non-conditional seven-day trial version of Photoshop. This offer applies to Adobe's other software as well. If you like Photoshop and want to buy it, there are four purchase plans to choose from.
The cheapest is the Photographers package which is $9.99(only available annually) and it includes Lightroom CC. If you want to buy a monthly plan you can get Photoshop for $29.99 a month.
If you want to go the extra mile and get the rest of Adobe's software, the entire suite costs $74.99 monthly(or annual for $49.99 p/m).
Bonus Tip: Students 13 years and older get a 60% discount on the full Adobe suite plan!
People love Photoshop for its versatility and wealth of free knowledge online. Adobe has thrown millions of dollars into development so Photoshop isn't going anywhere.
It's a solid, professional choice for aspiring digital artists and concept artists.
Corel Painter
Price: $350
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Corel Painter is characterized by painterly brush strokes and a traditional artist's feel to the interface.
Painter is for artists who love loose, messy brushwork and want to capture the beauty of traditional mediums on a digital canvas. It comes standard with 900 brushes covering every possible situation you could imagine.
As you might guess from the name, Corel Painter is focused on painting. But this should be great for artists who only want software to draw or paint digitally.
It has a 2.5D brush toolset that mimics real-world brushes giving you full control over the final 'style' of your work.
Painter has been a serious alternative to Photoshop for several years and is the company always listens to user requests. They've been working hard to add new features every year and have added a bunch of artist-suggested tools into their latest release.
For example, some users complained of UI sensitivity and slow response times. Those issues were fixed with the 2019 version along with an entire UI design overhaul.
Icons were redesigned to be more intuitive and the interface was changed to a darker theme.
Among all the new features with that version, the most celebrated was the pinned color wheel.
You can position the color wheel wherever you like on the screen giving an instant look at color options without swatches. This spectral feature means you can work in detail without the circular brush icon obscuring your view.
In Painter's web series 'Paint like Bob Ross' you can learn how to paint digital landscapes in 30 minutes using their brushes—a great introduction to conceptualizing landscapes for beginners.
The software is feature heavy and beginners might still feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of brush options and settings. But Corel is worth learning because it is another trusted industry staple among character designers, concept artists, and visual development artists.
Corel Painter has been around since 1992 and you can find an extensive library of free tutorials on their website. Or if you search on YouTube I'm sure you can find plenty of free tutorials there as well.
You won't find as many resources compared to Photoshop. But Corel Painter is still a beast in the concept art world, or just the digital painting world in general, making it an awesome choice for hobbyists or newbies just picking up digital art for the first time.
As of this writing, a brand new copy of Corel Painter costs $350 making it an expensive once-off purchase. Although you can get a free 30-day trial to demo the software and see if it's right for you.
Krita
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
Krita is a free open source digital painting program designed for cartoonists, illustrators, concept artists, and pretty much all digital artists.
The software was initially developed as a general image editing competitor to Photoshop but focused their efforts on digital painting starting in 2009. The Krita community donates monthly to the software efforts helping it to stay free and funding development of new features
If you have a background in some other digital art software(Photoshop for example) then Krita's tools will be a little familiar and a little not-so-familiar.
Whether you're switching or just getting into Krita it's worth the time to watch a few tutorials to find out how everything works.
Krita hasn't released many official tutorial videos but they have created detailed documentation online. If it's your first venture into digital art then start off learning about the basic UI and toolsets.
Use the pop-up pallet to select your brushes, erasers, and colors intuitively. All other tools are stored in the panels to the left and right. Krita supports PSD files so that you can switch between Photoshop and Krita with ease.
And there's a ton of freebies online like free brush packs that mimic everything from charcoal to watercolors and so much more. The beauty of Krita is the free price tag and the immensely supportive community around this software.
Krita has been criticized by some professional artists for its lag, seemingly unintuitive design, and uneven brush softness. Although the criticism has merit, the program's core features work well and you will learn them with practice.
Also worth noting this has to be the absolute best choice for anyone on a Linux machine. Photoshop does not support Linux outside of a virtual emulator but Krita can run natively in any Linux distro.
This is a huge +1 for Krita since it's really the best digital painting alternative for our Linux & Unix friends.
If you don't have the cash to burn on digital art programs Krita is the perfect choice.
Use the program while you save up some money to grab another program. Or just stick with Krita and use it free for life! Many professional artists like David Revoy create all of their work with Krita and their stuff looks amazing.
Best thing about Krita is that it's simple for beginners to learn and it doesn't confuse you with a ton features or fancy tools. Krita's purpose is digital painting and that's precisely what it does well.
Clip Studio Paint
Price: $49
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Clip Studio Paint is the most popular software for creating comics and manga artwork.
Clip Studio Paint was originally named Manga Studio but changed names in 2013. It originated in Japan as specialist software for manga, illustration, and animators.
The program has long been a worldwide affordable alternative to Photoshop for digital artists but got more recognition with the name change.
The most notable drawing difference between Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop is the brush tool. In Clip Studio the brush tool instantly corrects any minor wobble you make while drawing on a tablet, leaving you with smooth clean linework.
Clip Studio is optimized for comic book creation and has various tools to speed up the process.
A canvas layout tool makes paneling quick with perspective rulers and a library of predefined formats. The pen tool lets you to work in a versatile vector format which means your creations can be scalable without quality loss.
In the most recent release there's a new library of 3D objects and posable models. This is useful for concept artists who like to use references to get poses down quickly.
You can drop in a 3D model, pose it using an intuitive joint system, change the camera angle, make the character fat or thin, and choose between genders. After you've drawn over it you can use that same model's shading as a reference for lighting.
Then when you're done just delete it. Easy-peasy.
With CSP your art will always have a crisp digital finish as the software doesn't strive for a traditional look. Although it's possible to give your brush strokes a blended texture using brushes, Clip Studio Paint is not designed to mimic traditional mediums.
The standard version of Clip Studio Paint also comes with some very basic animation features. You can quickly test character movement over 24 frames without the annoyance of switching programs. But this is not really the best software for animation so it works best in conjunction with other programs for that purpose.
Now Clip Studio Paint comes in two versions: PRO(standard) and EX(full-featured).
Unless you're planning on putting all of your projects through Clip Studio Paint and creating various manga & comic books, you'll probably be happy with the PRO version. The EX edition has only a few extra features that would benefit expert users.
EX lets you save manga & comic pages in a ‘book' which acts like one editable file. You can then bulk save them for printing which shaves off a ton of time and organizational effort.
The animation feature also gets an upgrade with EX and you can create an unlimited number of frames(instead of the standard 24).
EX comes with filters for 3D assets too turning them black and white for easier integration into your scenes.
Generally speaking, the PRO version is the same and EX minus the above features. It's unlikely you'll need those features as a digital painter or concept artist. Only serious comic and manga artists would find the EX features useful.
Try out either version with a free 30-day trial of both PRO and EX versions. If you don't like it then just move on. The free version does give plenty to toy with so you'll know whether you like CSP or don't.
And it's worth mentioning that the PRO edition is an affordable option at only $49 flat fee, while EX comes at a premium of $219.
Although sometimes you can get CSP at a discounted rate from annual sales so keep checking their prices.
GIMP
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
GIMP is another open source program built as a free Photoshop alternative.
Back when computer graphics were slowly becoming 'a thing' it was up to software developers to create graphics for companies. With Photoshop costing a lot more back then, buying it was out of the budget for many companies.
GIMP was built to fill the need for a cheaper option to digital imaging editing software.
Unlike other free digital art software, GIMP was designed to be a full replacement for Photoshop. This means you can use it for digital painting but it's really meant for graphic design, photo editing, text effects, and similar features.
Likewise this program has all the tools you need for digital art. If you are looking for Photoshop's functionality without the price tag you'll be happy to with GIMP's default functionality.
If you know a little about software development you can also add to GIMP's code by creating your own plugins for the system. But the default setup is more than enough for artists.
Many versions of GIMP have been released over the years, but their team of volunteers hasn't been able to keep up with the sheer financial power of Adobe. The user interface is definitely unrefined and will be very confusing to beginners.
There are loads of GIMP tutorials created by their loyal users and there's enough content to help you learn everything you need about the software.
Although GIMP doesn't have a dedicated support team to answer your questions, many issues are well documented on various forums and you'll be able to troubleshoot a solution with a few Google searches.
The painting tools are reasonable, although in my opinion Krita is a stronger option if you just need painting.
Granted you can find plenty of free GIMP brushes all made for digital drawing & painting.
But really this software is the best all-round alternative to Photoshop. If you see yourself doing a bit of design work, some painting, and some photo editing, try out GIMP and see what you think.
ArtRage
Price: $79
Platforms: Mac, Windows
ArtRage is a digital painting powerhouse that's perfect for traditional artists moving digital and for existing professional artists.
Unlike other digital art programs, ArtRage has stepped away from the complicated user interface and ditched the blocky side panels. They want your focus on the canvas creating great work.
When you open the program you'll find a semi-circular brush picker on the bottom left of the screen and a color picker on the bottom right. Both give you immediate access to the most important tools.
Small 'pods' containing extra options hover just above the circles, minimizing extra clutter.
If you want to go the extra mile and get the rest of Adobe's software, the entire suite costs $74.99 monthly(or annual for $49.99 p/m).
Bonus Tip: Students 13 years and older get a 60% discount on the full Adobe suite plan!
People love Photoshop for its versatility and wealth of free knowledge online. Adobe has thrown millions of dollars into development so Photoshop isn't going anywhere.
It's a solid, professional choice for aspiring digital artists and concept artists.
Corel Painter
Price: $350
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Corel Painter is characterized by painterly brush strokes and a traditional artist's feel to the interface.
Painter is for artists who love loose, messy brushwork and want to capture the beauty of traditional mediums on a digital canvas. It comes standard with 900 brushes covering every possible situation you could imagine.
As you might guess from the name, Corel Painter is focused on painting. But this should be great for artists who only want software to draw or paint digitally.
It has a 2.5D brush toolset that mimics real-world brushes giving you full control over the final 'style' of your work.
Painter has been a serious alternative to Photoshop for several years and is the company always listens to user requests. They've been working hard to add new features every year and have added a bunch of artist-suggested tools into their latest release.
For example, some users complained of UI sensitivity and slow response times. Those issues were fixed with the 2019 version along with an entire UI design overhaul.
Icons were redesigned to be more intuitive and the interface was changed to a darker theme.
Among all the new features with that version, the most celebrated was the pinned color wheel.
You can position the color wheel wherever you like on the screen giving an instant look at color options without swatches. This spectral feature means you can work in detail without the circular brush icon obscuring your view.
In Painter's web series 'Paint like Bob Ross' you can learn how to paint digital landscapes in 30 minutes using their brushes—a great introduction to conceptualizing landscapes for beginners.
The software is feature heavy and beginners might still feel overwhelmed by the sheer number of brush options and settings. But Corel is worth learning because it is another trusted industry staple among character designers, concept artists, and visual development artists.
Corel Painter has been around since 1992 and you can find an extensive library of free tutorials on their website. Or if you search on YouTube I'm sure you can find plenty of free tutorials there as well.
You won't find as many resources compared to Photoshop. But Corel Painter is still a beast in the concept art world, or just the digital painting world in general, making it an awesome choice for hobbyists or newbies just picking up digital art for the first time.
As of this writing, a brand new copy of Corel Painter costs $350 making it an expensive once-off purchase. Although you can get a free 30-day trial to demo the software and see if it's right for you.
Krita
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
Krita is a free open source digital painting program designed for cartoonists, illustrators, concept artists, and pretty much all digital artists.
The software was initially developed as a general image editing competitor to Photoshop but focused their efforts on digital painting starting in 2009. The Krita community donates monthly to the software efforts helping it to stay free and funding development of new features
If you have a background in some other digital art software(Photoshop for example) then Krita's tools will be a little familiar and a little not-so-familiar.
Whether you're switching or just getting into Krita it's worth the time to watch a few tutorials to find out how everything works.
Krita hasn't released many official tutorial videos but they have created detailed documentation online. If it's your first venture into digital art then start off learning about the basic UI and toolsets.
Use the pop-up pallet to select your brushes, erasers, and colors intuitively. All other tools are stored in the panels to the left and right. Krita supports PSD files so that you can switch between Photoshop and Krita with ease.
And there's a ton of freebies online like free brush packs that mimic everything from charcoal to watercolors and so much more. The beauty of Krita is the free price tag and the immensely supportive community around this software.
Krita has been criticized by some professional artists for its lag, seemingly unintuitive design, and uneven brush softness. Although the criticism has merit, the program's core features work well and you will learn them with practice.
Also worth noting this has to be the absolute best choice for anyone on a Linux machine. Photoshop does not support Linux outside of a virtual emulator but Krita can run natively in any Linux distro.
This is a huge +1 for Krita since it's really the best digital painting alternative for our Linux & Unix friends.
If you don't have the cash to burn on digital art programs Krita is the perfect choice.
Use the program while you save up some money to grab another program. Or just stick with Krita and use it free for life! Many professional artists like David Revoy create all of their work with Krita and their stuff looks amazing.
Best thing about Krita is that it's simple for beginners to learn and it doesn't confuse you with a ton features or fancy tools. Krita's purpose is digital painting and that's precisely what it does well.
Clip Studio Paint
Price: $49
Platforms: Mac, Windows
Clip Studio Paint is the most popular software for creating comics and manga artwork.
Clip Studio Paint was originally named Manga Studio but changed names in 2013. It originated in Japan as specialist software for manga, illustration, and animators.
The program has long been a worldwide affordable alternative to Photoshop for digital artists but got more recognition with the name change.
The most notable drawing difference between Clip Studio Paint and Photoshop is the brush tool. In Clip Studio the brush tool instantly corrects any minor wobble you make while drawing on a tablet, leaving you with smooth clean linework.
Clip Studio is optimized for comic book creation and has various tools to speed up the process.
A canvas layout tool makes paneling quick with perspective rulers and a library of predefined formats. The pen tool lets you to work in a versatile vector format which means your creations can be scalable without quality loss.
In the most recent release there's a new library of 3D objects and posable models. This is useful for concept artists who like to use references to get poses down quickly.
You can drop in a 3D model, pose it using an intuitive joint system, change the camera angle, make the character fat or thin, and choose between genders. After you've drawn over it you can use that same model's shading as a reference for lighting.
Then when you're done just delete it. Easy-peasy.
With CSP your art will always have a crisp digital finish as the software doesn't strive for a traditional look. Although it's possible to give your brush strokes a blended texture using brushes, Clip Studio Paint is not designed to mimic traditional mediums.
The standard version of Clip Studio Paint also comes with some very basic animation features. You can quickly test character movement over 24 frames without the annoyance of switching programs. But this is not really the best software for animation so it works best in conjunction with other programs for that purpose.
Now Clip Studio Paint comes in two versions: PRO(standard) and EX(full-featured).
Unless you're planning on putting all of your projects through Clip Studio Paint and creating various manga & comic books, you'll probably be happy with the PRO version. The EX edition has only a few extra features that would benefit expert users.
EX lets you save manga & comic pages in a ‘book' which acts like one editable file. You can then bulk save them for printing which shaves off a ton of time and organizational effort.
The animation feature also gets an upgrade with EX and you can create an unlimited number of frames(instead of the standard 24).
EX comes with filters for 3D assets too turning them black and white for easier integration into your scenes.
Generally speaking, the PRO version is the same and EX minus the above features. It's unlikely you'll need those features as a digital painter or concept artist. Only serious comic and manga artists would find the EX features useful.
Try out either version with a free 30-day trial of both PRO and EX versions. If you don't like it then just move on. The free version does give plenty to toy with so you'll know whether you like CSP or don't.
And it's worth mentioning that the PRO edition is an affordable option at only $49 flat fee, while EX comes at a premium of $219.
Although sometimes you can get CSP at a discounted rate from annual sales so keep checking their prices.
GIMP
Price: Free
Platforms: Mac, Windows, Linux
GIMP is another open source program built as a free Photoshop alternative.
Back when computer graphics were slowly becoming 'a thing' it was up to software developers to create graphics for companies. With Photoshop costing a lot more back then, buying it was out of the budget for many companies.
GIMP was built to fill the need for a cheaper option to digital imaging editing software.
Unlike other free digital art software, GIMP was designed to be a full replacement for Photoshop. This means you can use it for digital painting but it's really meant for graphic design, photo editing, text effects, and similar features.
Likewise this program has all the tools you need for digital art. If you are looking for Photoshop's functionality without the price tag you'll be happy to with GIMP's default functionality.
If you know a little about software development you can also add to GIMP's code by creating your own plugins for the system. But the default setup is more than enough for artists.
Many versions of GIMP have been released over the years, but their team of volunteers hasn't been able to keep up with the sheer financial power of Adobe. The user interface is definitely unrefined and will be very confusing to beginners.
There are loads of GIMP tutorials created by their loyal users and there's enough content to help you learn everything you need about the software.
Although GIMP doesn't have a dedicated support team to answer your questions, many issues are well documented on various forums and you'll be able to troubleshoot a solution with a few Google searches.
The painting tools are reasonable, although in my opinion Krita is a stronger option if you just need painting.
Granted you can find plenty of free GIMP brushes all made for digital drawing & painting.
But really this software is the best all-round alternative to Photoshop. If you see yourself doing a bit of design work, some painting, and some photo editing, try out GIMP and see what you think.
ArtRage
Price: $79
Platforms: Mac, Windows
ArtRage is a digital painting powerhouse that's perfect for traditional artists moving digital and for existing professional artists.
Unlike other digital art programs, ArtRage has stepped away from the complicated user interface and ditched the blocky side panels. They want your focus on the canvas creating great work.
When you open the program you'll find a semi-circular brush picker on the bottom left of the screen and a color picker on the bottom right. Both give you immediate access to the most important tools.
Small 'pods' containing extra options hover just above the circles, minimizing extra clutter.
After you've picked your color and brush you can start drawing on the canvas. The UI automatically disappears(although this setting is optional) and without the UI you get a full screen canvas to work on without any distractions. Pretty cool!
If you've never used digital painting software before then ArtRage is fantastic. It's beginner friendly and super affordable.
You can start off slow, familiarizing yourself with the various brushes, and slowly work your way up to painting full scenes and character designs.
If you are coming from Photoshop you'll find the minimalist layout refreshing and easy to pick up. The brush presets are so good that you don't need to waste time adjusting them much at all.
One of ArtRage's most exciting features is called 'real color blending'. It calculates realistic color mixing as you paint and it's useful for digital painting in an oil or watercolor style.
If you want to try your hand at digital painting for the first time, this software will hold your hand and take you from hobbyist to professional if you put in the effort.
It doesn't have all the gadgets and gizmos that some prominent art programs have, but it's got all you need to make fun paintings(and a little extra).
ArtRage is budget software and friendly to those getting started. You can also use the demo version for an unlimited amount of time. The demo doesn't let you save anything, which of course is a drag, but you can use that to familiarize yourself with the program. Mac brushmac makeup wholesale private label.
If you decide you want the full version it costs $79 and you'll receive all future updates included with your license.
If that sounds a bit expensive you could go for ArtRage Lite which is only $29.90. The lite version is great for beginners and includes all the painting features of the full version.
Think of this much like Krita but aimed for simplicity. It's cheap enough that you could run ArtRage for life and it's certainly refreshing when you come from a big bulky art program.
Paint Tool SAI
Price: $49
Platforms: Windows
Lastly on this list is Paint Tool SAI: a simple painting program that's exceptionally popular among anime & manga artists.
Paint Tool SAI was first released in 2008 to a wave of popularity. It quickly spread among the art community who loved the clean brush strokes and unique interface.
SAI is a small, old program and has not been significantly updated over the years. It only runs on windows and has a limited set of features.
That being said, it's aged remarkably well and is easy for beginners to pick up.
Many artists use SAI to achieve a digital watercolor effect where the blending modes can mimic watercolor, but the overall feel is smooth and sleek. Others use it primarily for lineart, or for creating a ton of anime.
You'll find that Japanese artists almost exclusively use SAI for their artwork. It's a very popular choice in Japan, likely because this software was originally developed by the Japanese Systemax Software.
SAI's learning curve is minimal and if you're coming from Photoshop you'll pick it up almost instantly. It's still very detailed though and great to use as a sketching program.
Use the pencil brush to get realistic sketches down on a textured canvas. Then switch over to brushes and color your line art to completion.
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Now there are some minor limitations like that new projects are limited to 256 layers per canvas. It's also known to slow down with larger file sizes and glitch when trying to preview .gifs in the explorer window.
They also have a weird system of brushes where you can import textures to merge with brush styles and create totally new brushes. I haven't mastered this setup but you can find a ton of textures in this post with dozens of free brush assets for SAI users.
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SAI is a Japanese program and is priced in JPY(Japanese Yen). It costs ¥5400 which roughly equates to $49.
Compared to other software on this list, SAI is a tad on the pricier side considering the last update was in 2016. Free mac os dmg os file.
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Small complaints aside, considering the price tag and the anime-centric fanbase I'd say SAI is an awesome choice for anime lovers the world over.
Get started using SAI by following some easy beginner tutorials on painting in the program. If you put in the time you'll be a pro within a few weeks.
A fantastic program for anyone serious about anime-style art or any kind of digital painting. Biggest downside is you'll have to be a Windows user.
Although if I had to cast a vote for the absolute best digital painting software, that title falls with Photoshop.
Here's hoping even more digital art software comes out in the next 10 years and gives some stiff competition to Adobe's reign.
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