Best Free Paint Program

Although they overlap in function, paint programs are really a different class of product: From raster editors such as Adobe Photoshop, and the GIMP, which apply artistic filter effects to photos to look like works of art. To vector-graphics drawing software, such as CorelDRAW and Inkscape, which are programs that have freehand illustration tools with the ability to render images at any sizes. Even traditional 2D animation programs like Toon Boom Studio and Pencil that use both raster/vector imaging are more concentrated in the animation than paint manipulation. A paint software application is supposed to mimic traditional painting mediums and effects more than just a bitmap drawing program like Microsoft Paint. My only two requirements are graphic tablet support and the feel of natural paint on a digital canvas. All artists at one time or another dream of doing a comic book and cartoon animation, so if it supports animation or booklet pages, it's a plus. WOW, these free paint programs are truly a fantastic work of art.  Any one of these will definitely satisfy the inner artist in you. Listed in favorite order:

Discussion

Project DogWaffle is surprisingly full featured. It has a comprehensive set of tools, including fully customizable brushes, lots of filters and effects, multiple color selection options, a good set of color gradients, animation aids and more. On the downside the program runs slowly on older PCs, has limited layer support, has a clunky cut and paste mechanism and only handles BMP and Targa files. Don't let its appearance or unfamiliar menu controls fool you, this is a great totally artistic program to get.   TwistedBrush has one of the most versatile and powerful brush engines in existence, yet it was designed from day one to be easy to use. “Simplicity without sacrifice, powerful enough for the professional artist, yet simple enough for the novice” as noted on their web site, the quick start guide is a nice intro to the programs abilities. TwistedBrush Open Studio is designed for all realms of digital art including natural media fine art even with all the great features of TwistedBrush Pro Studio but just a handful of the very fine brushes included and without brush editing ability.   ArtRage is an amazing natural paint program that allows users to achieve realistic paint effects without the messy cleanup. The user interface is a wonderfully designed and simple to use tool that will suit the young adult through the experienced artist. Even in its limited version its an amazing program and if you do grow out of its limitations you will at least have built a firm and affordable foundation from which to move on. Bottom line is that you can concentrate on your creativity, rather than wrestle with menus.   Pixia is the English version of a popular Japanese painting and retouching software for full color graphics. It supports masks, layers and many other editing functions. You can use your own customized brush tips and even use an image file as a brush tip to create unique effects. With the new engine the paint feels smooth like ArtRage. It has lots of free plug-ins, and filter downloads thant make this program to be quite unique and different from other tools. This is well worth picking up for painting on photographs.   MyPaint is a fast and easy graphics application for digital painters. It lets you focus on the art instead of the program. It comes with a large brush collection including charcoal and ink to emulate natural painting. If you want to look deeper, MyPaint is built around a highly configurable brush engine. This allows you to experiment with your own brushes and with not-quite-so-natural painting.

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Best Free Digital Image Editor

Quick Selection Guide

Project DogWaffle Free Edition       realistic paint effects and frame-based animation tool   support for only Targa/BMP file formats, lacking only the advanced layer and scripting tools, unappealing interface   http://www.dogwaffle.info/   http://www.dogwaffle.info/dogwaffle/free/mirrors.html   4.3 MB    1.2    Restricted Freeware (full commercial version available)    Windows 98/ME/NT/2000/XP   released in 2004, a subset of the PD2-would like to see a more recent free version, the commercial version is now at 4.

TwistedBrush Open Studio      Quick Start Guide, Sketchbook, Full Features!   No brush editing ability (which is understandable)   http://www.pixarra.com/   http://www.pixarra.com/download.html   12.1 MB    16.2x   Restricted Freeware (full commercial version available)    95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista   Love what the company has done to get this program to mass market.

ArtRage Starter Edition       realistic paint effects, appealing user interface, great program for young artist   limited tools, no layers or stencil/ruler creation found in the commercial version   http://www.ambientdesign.com/artrage.html   http://www.ambientdesign.com/artragedown.html   7.8 MB    2.5    Restricted Freeware (full commercial version available)    2000/XP/Vista and Mac OSX 10.3.9 or Later   Portable version available   love this program and is cheap enough to buy full version

Pixia       custom brushes, numerous layers as the PC memory lasts, popular format even PSD (photshop), language support   does not support GIF, the handling Mask/Layer, unconventional tools   http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/   http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/download.htm   4,768KB    4.70j    Unrestricted Freeware    Me/2000/XP/Vista/7   Many fans has aggressively raised its popularity.

MyPaint       Multiple platform, extensive brush creation and configuration options, support for pressure sensitive graphic tablets, unlimited canvas   no layers (work in progress), no filters/plug-ins, BMP only format, basic artistic tools   http://mypaint.intilinux.com/   http://mypaint.intilinux.com/?page_id=6   7.98 MB    0.9.x    Unrestricted Freeware    95/98/Me/NT/2000/XP/Vista and Linux   A very nice program for almost anything.