What's THE BEST Digital Painting Software?! We RANK 15 Digital Art Programs Against Each Other!

34 thoughts on “What's THE BEST Digital Painting Software?! We RANK 15 Digital Art Programs Against Each Other!”

• Just use Krita, boyos. I'd donate $200 to Krita whenever I can instead of buying anything, and then waking up one day for the corporate swine to hold what I paid for hostage, because of perpetually changing licensing. Gone are the times when you bought a piece of software and actually owned it. So gone is my support for anything paid. What saddens me in that tier list is that GIMP got disrespected from behind with a D. Still, my use of it is limited to literally three effects in G'MIC Qt plugin for GIMP, so yeah, don't do art with GIMP, use Krita, everything else is a potential scam in the making.

• This is perfect timing I'm about to get my iPad for art!

• I use krita on my android tablet(they released a beta version on specific devices), switched from ibispaint which was much easier to learn so I had some difficulty but it's genuinely amazing for a free app

• Krita is truly a fantastic piece of software. I think their form of monetization is the most appropriate, I bought it on Steam, although I've been using it for a long time on Linux. Paying/donating in dollars or euros is very prohibitive in Brazil. Other software companies will treat you like a third-class customer, even if you paid for their software.

• Solid take on the right move for PaintStorm Studio devs would have been to move the brush engine from Realistic Paint Studio to PaintStorm. Not replacing the one there, just adding the engine. As for other digital painting styles the current system is pretty good and very flexible. Also PaintStorm has features not so easy to find in specialized painting software, yet very much needed for illustration in many cases, like automatic magnetic snapping guides (the smart guides of Photoshop).

  BTW, PaintTool SAI is developed by one person (in Japan), yep, and I agree with how amazing that is, but PaintStorm has been for a while (dunno now) developed by two brothers, like Photoline, too, from Germany. While this is mostly a Photoshop, has some features not present in Affinity photo. You also "can" paint with Photoline. It has the essential features for painting, but the user needs to seriously configure well the software, before start painting.

• (no anger in this comment, at all 😀 ) Gimp 3.0 will stop being a D for painting, once well known (and I am not a linux super fan, btw, I run it on windows, actually) by the patient painters among us, and with the immense improvements that it is getting in 3.0, I would rate it at least as a B, and well used, for painting, even between A and B. I tested the nightly builds. No way I can agree on Krita being over (even while being free, though amazing that it makes painting software available to those who can't afford software; this includes entire countries), as technically speaking, for painting, Rebelle, PaintStorm and Procreate are very clearly superior. But Rebelle has issues with very big canvases, and for that reason it could be somewhere between S and A, as with nanopixel (a feature in the Pro version) you can export big canvases, for example to print very large canvases or posters.

  If weren't for the subscription and their siding with AI, I could easily give Photoshop the A place (if one knows how to handle the brush system). But with those issues, honestly, I'd just remove it from the list, entirely (I know you can't do it). Affinity Photo for me is a solid A-S. It's just that people don't know its smart uses for painting and how to configure it for a best experience. Realistic Paint Studio is very limited in features, and even in canvas size. But the feel is really good in what is traditional oil painting. Just for that I'd place it on B. Even if it's only usable for specific uses. Procreate just for their defense of artists against AI should be a S+ (or higher…) when also considering its absolutely smart UI and workflows for a painting app on a tablet.

  BTW, special mention of PaintTool SAI… Yes, very limited in features, but it has what is needed. The amount of people doing commissions yet with it (and frankly, unless one has money problems, the few bucks that it costs are really worth the 2.x version. I know a lot are yet using 1.x!. Despite saying it's (the 2.x) a "preview" version, so has been for years, and it hasn't crashed on me ONCE). One very important detail for some people: This is the tool allowing to paint in largest canvases, with largest brushes, and still do it smoothly, of the ENTIRE MARKET (all this list included (exception of Art Studio and Infinite Painter), and more, I made my research, all tested). I don't have an idea on how the dev was able to do it. But I tested it intensely. When I want to do some giant canvas with huge brushes, I just launch my loved PaintTool SAI 2. This also explains one of the main reasons (besides a free beta floated for way too long time) why it became THE tool for students and not super high end freelancers : it runs on a potato. On half a potato. And super fast. It loves ANY hardware, any crappy students laptop old as heck, with no GPU. That makes it a winner for a large group of the population. For me it's a solid A, but only due to having fewer features and options (but to be honest, I can mimic traditional painting without many fancy features that other apps have). And S+ when I need large canvases and/or brushes.

• Clip Studio is my main program (I started with Manga 5, dating myself too). Love that program, great brushes.

• Rebelle, best of them all (*places it at top A*) 🤣

• What are your thoughts on corel painter essentials?

• Hi WES!
  I fully agree with what was said in the video and in fact on my computer the 4 programmes installed correspond to the first ones on your list.
  I have to say, however, that mine is a desperate case as, due to my economic conditions, I have to work with an old PC equipped with obsolete hardware. This creates enormous problems for me when I try to draw with Rebelle or use some recent brushes created for Krita. While drawing, the cursor moves jerkily and lags a lot. But apart from that, I consider these 4 softwares among the most stimulating for those who like to draw and paint digitally.

• Thank you for your, as claimed, detailed subjective list. My finalist would be Procreate and Rebelle. For digital illustration, I would rank Corel Painter higher than photoshop.

• Artrage Mobile don’t even have custom brushes. Not even close to the desktop version.

• Ah, yea it makes sense for GIMP to be so low. It is still the main art program that I use, sometimes I'll do some Rebelle touch ups or use Krita's rotating light brush stuff for more interesting textures, but for the most part it's good and versatile. Not very intuitive for traditional painting. The way it handles actual brush strokes and lines leaves a lot to be desired. But as a general digital art program it has so many interesting tools to play around with that can create really interesting textures. That other digital art programs don't really have, filters and plugins and other things mostly. I think I'm probably biased because I use it too much but I do love it. The 3.0 update comes out soon too! They're announcing it tomorrow. I'm very excited personally. Generally agree with your list outside of this though.

• That moment of silence with Gimp, bro hahaha

• The latest Artstudio Pro with its Pigment engine, brush engine + Cladio’s brushes so good. Especially his real paint index and ink index = best experience I’ve ever had digitally honestly.

• Hey Wes, I've been spending some time creating brushes in Rebelle. I was wondering what you meant about Krita and Clip having "wet flow opacity hard and soft round brushes"… I bet I can make that in Rebelle. I just want to know what you mean.

• Rebelle sweep 🔥🔥🧹💨

• Thoughts on Adobe Fresco?

• CSP was my first drawing program since it came for free with my Intuos back in 2019 (got 2 years for free!) but I got an iPad in November last year mainly for Procreate, and truth to be told, Procreate is an amazing program, I love the brushes on it but for some reason it doesn't feel the same for me.. same with ArtStudio, both are so good but I guess just not for me, I got 3 months for free on CSP but will have to buy the sub soon which sucks (will choose the yearly one since it''s not so expensive on sale at least) Rebelle was my favorite one on PC, wish they had it on iPad as well, would spend all my money on it for sure! still I guess I'm stuck with CSP for life, not complaining since it's a great program, only thing missing for me is the Photoshop mixer brush

• Infinite Painter my GOAT!
  Fun fact: Artstudio Pro has the same menu thing that procreate has as well. I dont use it but its there.

• Great video Wesley! I mostly agree with you on the rankings, although I only know about half of these apps. I now use Rebelle 7 Pro as my main painting app, plus Affinity Photo for the final editing. Rebelle 7 is just awesome, man. And like you say, it does almost everything great (for a very decent price). The only downside is that since I work with huge files, I get some bugs from time to time. Nanopixel rocks, tho, and like you say, I don't know how they do it. It's mind blowing.

• i used to love corel painter, but it is hard nowadays because it is not a pratical program, i always have to comeback to photoshop or clipstudio to do some manipulation, even the canvas size isn't intuitive to change, and that is kinda sad cause for me painter has the best realistic brushes, i prefer clipstudio for overall stuff almost no need photoshop when use it, i'm not a fan of krita but i going to try again since you defended it with such a passion.

• When I read "We" in the title, I was hoping for the much anticipated daughter return, but alas. Just your big beautiful head, which is also glorious to behold!!

  Nice list! Did not even know there were over 15 painting software out there! But after watching this and recognizing them all, I guess I knew, but never really put it together like this.

• I have Rebelle and ArtRage. It's nice to know they're pretty good. But the thing I wish Rebelle had was a better way for people to share brushes. I feel like I don't have many brush options and I don't have the time to learn how to make the perfect brush. I wish I could just go and download some. I know there are some on the website but 90% are for Rebelle 6, there's not very many, and a lot of them are identical to each other.

• I got Corel Painter through the Humble Bundle for 53 Australian dollars and I have a PC that's optimised for 3D modeling, sculpting and rendering. So I'm happy with it. Regarding GIMP, these days I find it's only Linux fan boys who don't have a creative bone in their bodies who recommend it.

• I am somewhat new to digital art and art in general. I have a subscription to PS but once that ends I'm done with rentware. I am using Rebelle and also have and use Sketchbook Pro, as the name implies, which for me is good for quickly sketching out ideas which I can then save and import as PSD into Rebelle. and for $20-$25 it is not that expensive.

• I am using Photoshop, but even on my Mac each new version has more and more glitches. Also, to be honest, I see that the brush engine of Photoshop sucks in comparison with Krita. You are absolutely right that Photoshop goes in some other way, not that one he should.

• Well i like Painter 😀

• Hey why put ms paint but not medibang or firealpaca lol 😅

• I used to be a CSP evangelist but they’ve really diverged from what I loved about them over the years. I’ve barely touched it since version 2 released. Rebelle has pretty much taken over as my new pet art program.

• Clip Studio Paint! Once I tried it 12 ish years ago, it has become better and better, and a reasonable (kinda cheapish) price! I'm 56 and have used this stuff for a while now. ( results vary vary!)

• I use CSP but i have a soft spot for "Autodesk scetch book" shame theyve gone down hill

• Oh, this is a very good video, and totally agree wit the list coz tried half of these programs.

• Bonjour ! Je pense être en accord avec votre liste, et j'ai un faible très marqué pour Rebelle 7 et Krita. Je pense qu'avec ces 2 logiciels on peut presque tout faire. Photoshop est pour moi essentiel dans le traitement de l'image de sa qualité de sa colorométrie, mais il ne m'inspire aucune envie de création : c'est juste une boite à outils bien remplie (trop remplie) . En tout cas merci!
  😁

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