best app for art design
The best digital art software for creatives in 2021
Determining the best digital art software for you will depend on a number of factors. There are heaps of different programs out there, some for general-purpose art and others for specific niches like painting or manga drawing, so the best one for you will depend on the type of art you want to create.
Then there's also the matter of budget. After all, digital art software comes at all sorts of prices, from software that's completely free, to professional-grade programs that come with a professional price tag.
So, in this guide, we've included the lot. General and specialised programs, free software and full-throttle professional packages. No matter the type of artist you are or the genre of art you want to create, we're confident you'll find a fantastic program for your digital artwork on this page, and our price-checking tool means you can also compare the best prices for each one.
If you're after some more design-focused tools, we also have a roundup of the best graphic design software. For drawing on the go, we've picked out the best drawing apps for iPad and the best 2-in-1 laptops for creatives. If you're looking for some great typography, don't miss our roundup of the best free fonts.
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The best digital art software available now
Still number one, for many good reasons
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS
Cost : $20.99/£19.97 per/month
Reasons to buy
+De-facto standard +Complementary iPad app
Reasons to avoid
-Subscription-based -No vector support
Adobe Photoshop is still the standard when it comes to digital art. If you're working in the industry, it's almost certainly what you'll be expected to use and find others using, and there's a reason for this: it works. Photoshop is basically good at everything, not just photo editing but also drawing, digital painting, and plenty more besides. It works across a multitude of devices, including smartphones and tablets (see our Photoshop for iPad review for more details on this).
The only real drawback of Photoshop is that it's not a vector editor, meaning you don't get smooth, scalable lines. Adobe of course offers its own alternative vector editor in the form of Adobe Illustrator, and you need not necessarily choose between them, as getting a subscription Adobe Creative Cloud suite can get you both. This also allows you to easily share your data and access all of your assets – including brushes, images, colours and styles – across all of your devices. There's also an impressive library of Photoshop plugins available to add extra functionality to the program.
Not everyone wants to pay a monthly subscription to a service. Some of the other programs on our list are either free or one-off purchases, and these are well worth considering if you don't like the idea of entering a marriage with Adobe. However, if you know you're going to be doing a lot of digital art and you want the best software, it's probably best to just bite the bullet and get Photoshop CC. You will honestly be glad you did; and our guide to the best Adobe Creative Cloud deals available right now is a good resource for softening the blow.
Find out more in our Photoshop CC review.
02. Affinity Photo
The best alternative to Photoshop
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS, iOS
Cost : £48.99
Reasons to buy
+Incredible value +Excellent Photoshop compatibility +Impressive tools and performance
Reasons to avoid
-Lacks Photoshop's high-end features
If as mentioned above you don't fancy shackling yourself up to a monthly commitment, then Affinity Photo is your best port of call. It's a one-time-only purchase, so once you've paid the initial cost of the software, you're set, and it's probably the best Photoshop alternative available right now. In terms of power and performance, it's pretty much on a par, though missing some of Adobe's flashier features like content-aware fill.
Also, if you've already used Photoshop but want to move away from the subscription model, then Affinity Photo is one of the best choices you can make. It offers full compatibility with PSD files, making it effortless to migrate your projects over. It also has enough power even to cope with 100+ megapixel images, so you don't have to worry about working with super-high-resolution files. And if you prefer to draw on an iPad, Affinity Photo for iPad is also available.
03. Corel Painter 2022
Painter's annual update brings plenty of improvements
Specifications
Platform: Windows, Mac
Cost: $429/£359.99
Reasons to buy
+Streamlined interface +Lots of brush options +Runs better than previous versions
Reasons to avoid
-Expensive up-front price
Corel Painter 2022, as the name implies, is especially good for those who want to do digital painting. The latest update adds a new stamp-type brush customisation, providing fine control over the dab effects of your favourite brushes. Like many digital painting effects, the whole purpose is to make your work look as "real" and un-digital as possible, and it's very effective.
Elsewhere, the update to Corel Painter has overhauled the brush library with a top-to-bottom reorganisation, which may be unpleasant news for those who are accustomed to the old system, but actually provides a lot of useful functionality. Brushes are alphabetised in categories that are easy to remember, and there's a filter search system that makes it much easier to quickly find the type of brush you need. For individual favourite brushes, there's also a 'like' button that lets you create a custom palette.
Previous versions of Corel have been known to be a bit taxing on computer hardware, so GPU acceleration has been tweaked. The program will also examine your system on startup, and recommend optimisations to make itself run as smoothly as possible on your system.
It's another up-front cost, though this time considerably greater than Affinity Photo. Corel Painter 2022 costs $429/£359.99 new, or $229/£180 if you're upgrading. This is a fair chunk of change, though there are no ongoing subscription fees, and Corel does offer discounts every so often.
To get an idea of what's on offer, see our Corel Painter 2022 review.
04. Rebelle 4
Create realistic watercolour, acrylic, wet and dry media artwork
Specifications
Platform: Windows 8 or Mac OS X 10.13 or newer
Cost: $89.99/£71
Reasons to buy
+A wealth of new features +Authentic painting experience +Affordable, with free trial available
Reasons to avoid
-Uses a lot of memory
If Painter 2022's price is just a little too steep for you, Rebelle 4 couple be just the alternative you're looking for. It features over 170 brush presets and is designed to mimic the way that paint behaves in the real world, so if you're looking to create realistic-looking watercolours or oils with plenty of thick impasto effects, it's well worth checking out.
Rebelle 4's an impressive natural media painting app with plenty of useful upgrades from the previous version, including new stabilisation and texture features, natural RYB colour mixing, layer groups and colour management. If you need an affordable alternative to Painter that doesn't cut corners and feels authentic, be sure to take a look.
05. Procreate
A powerful iPad drawing tool
Specifications
Platforms: iPad (iOS 11.1+)
Cost: $9.99/£9.99
Reasons to buy
+Natural drawing experience +Impressive capabilities +Wide range of brushes
Reasons to avoid
-iPad-only
Want to draw and paint on your iPad? There's only one game in town, and that's Procreate. It's a seriously impressive drawing tool that's the go-to for a multitude of artists, and it's packed with powerful tools that make it a joy to use. You can work with hundred of layers if you need to, there are masks, blend modes and groups as well as over130 customisable Procreate brushes to play with, and its typography tools add a whole extra layer of creative functionality.
Procreate 5.2 should be along before too long and it ought to be worth the wait, with support for the M1 iPad Pro as well as 3D painting tools and AR previews, plus an improved interface and audio feedback for a better all-round experience.
06. Clip Studio Paint Pro
This drawing and painting tool is aimed at manga and comic artists
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS, iPad, iPhone, Android, Chromebook
Cost: $49.99/£39 (PRO); $219/£168 (EX)
Reasons to buy
+Affordable +Cross-platform +Free trial available
Reasons to avoid
-Confusing interface
For manga art and comic creation, Clip Studio Paint is a strong option with plenty of satisfied users. It delivers a natural, traditional feel, complete with pen pressure detection to give you realistic-looking pen strokes if you're working on a graphics tablet.
Clip Studio Paint comes in two versions: PRO and EX. If you need all the features and don't mind paying for them, EX is the way to go, but if you just want to see what it's all about you can get started with PRO. Both are available in 30-day trial versions; take a look at the best Clip Studio Paint tutorials to help you get started.
07. Artweaver 7
Full-featured painting tool, great for beginners
Specifications
Platform: Windows
Cost: Free (basic); $41.16/£34.14 (Plus)
Reasons to buy
+Customisable interface +Large brush selection +Free version available
Reasons to avoid
-Some stability issues
If you don't have much of a budget when you're looking for the best digital art software, Artweaver 7 is an attractive option. It features loads of customisable brushes for a real-world look, and it's easy to get to grips with, with a straightforward interface that you can customise to suit your needs.
Artweaver 7 comes in two versions: Artweaver Free and Artweaver Plus. Take a look at the comparison chart to help you decide which is right for you.
08. ArtRage 6
A cross-platform digital painting with realistic tools
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS
Cost: $79
Reasons to buy
+Realistic-looking paint +Great for digital painters +Well priced
Reasons to avoid
-Slow for larger canvases
ArtRage has been around for quite some time and has built up a firm following among artists and illustrators, and it's easy to see why. It's another app that offers realistic paint texture and colour, at a price that's a lot easier to swallow than Corel Painter's.
Although ArtRage is primarily focused on natural media and painting, it's flexible enough that digital artists who are used to Photoshop will find it useful too. With ArtRage 6, you can do everything you'd expect from a digital art tool: customise brushes, record your own actions, customise the look of your canvas and more.
09. Krita
A free and open source painting program
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux
Cost: Free
Reasons to buy
+Intuitive interface +Customisable +Free
Reasons to avoid
-Not a lot of support
Krita has been quietly doing its thing since 2004, and it's one of the best-kept secrets in the digital art world. Free and open source, it has a great set of tools as well as an intuitive and customisable interface that you can set up in the best way to work with your style of painting. Its semi-guerrilla mature means there isn't much in the way of customer support, so you may need to consult some online tutorials to get the most out of it.
The tool offers over 100 professionally made, preloaded brushes and nine unique brush engines, including a Colour Smudge engine, Shape engine and Particle engine. You can also import brushes and texture packs or create and share your own. As an added bonus, you can use a brush stabiliser to help you get perfectly smooth lines.
10. TwistedBrush Pro Studio
More custom brushes than you'll ever need
Specifications
Platform: Windows
Cost: $99 (version licence); $189 (perpetual licence)
Reasons to buy
+Extensive brush collection +Good drawing tablet support
Reasons to avoid
-Windows only -Confusing interface
Need literally all the brushes? Take a look at TwistedBrush Pro Studio: it comes with over 9,000 of them, which is probably overkill but means that you should always be able to find precisely the brush you need. And if you can't, you can simply create your own brushes instead. On top of its multitude of brushes, TwistedBrush has everything you'd expect from a digital art package: layers, transparency, masks, extensive options for import and export, image filters, and more. It also has drawing tablet support with high precision sampling and pressure sensitivity.
It's not a budget option, though; TwistedBrush Pro Studio will set you back $99 for a version-specific license, or $189 for a perpetual licence. For that price, it might be worth considering one of the bigger names.
11. MediBang Paint Pro
A free tool with everything you need to illustrate comics
Specifications
Platform: Windows, macOS
Cost: Free
Reasons to buy
+Free +Great for manga artists +Works with Windows and Mac
Reasons to avoid
-Needs more brush options
Looking for a free alternative to Clip Studio Paint for creating manga art or comics? Paint Pro from Japanese company MediBang is well worth investigating. It's a free and lightweight digital drawing tool that comes with 800 free pre-made tones and backgrounds, as well as over 50 brushes, easy comic panel creation tools and a massive selection of free fonts.
12. Black Ink
Explore your creativity with controller-based brushes
Specifications
Platform: Windows
Cost: $59.99
Reasons to buy
+Fast GPU rendering technology +Controller-based brush system
Reasons to avoid
-Not great for beginners -Brush tools a little confusing
Not everyone wants realistic brushes, and if you need something a little different for your strokes then Black Ink could be the answer. Rather can copying traditional physical art tools, Black Ink takes a more digital approach and uses a Controller system to deliver all manner of possibilities in brush creation and customisation. Using a simple node-based language, you'll be able to create any type of brush imaginable, which you can then save and share with the community.
13. Paintstorm Studio
A powerful digital painting tool for professional artists
Specifications
Platforms: Windows, macOS, Linux, iPad
Cost: $19 (desktop); $12.99 (iPad)
Reasons to buy
+Intuitive +Cross-platform
Reasons to avoid
-Slow on integrated graphic cards
Paintstorm Studio is a great-value digital art tool that's easy to use and capable of impressive results. With a decent brush selection, complete with customisation options (including spacing jitter, texture, angle, and more) it's perfect for creating striking artwork, and it also supports post-stroke correction, which can come in really handy when you're doing linework.
The interface is easy to navigate and laid out exactly how you'd expect (and the default colour scheme is fantastic). However, if you're not a fan, it's completely customisable.
Read more:
- Drawing apps for iPad: Brilliant options for artists
- Krita tutorials: Learn the basics of the digital art software
- Best tablets with a stylus pen: Devices for drawing and note-taking
Tammy is an independent creative professional. She enjoys working on projects from content creation – including books, tutorials, videos, and podcasts – to the design and development of cross-platform applications and games.
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best app for art design
Source: https://www.creativebloq.com/advice/the-best-software-for-digital-artists
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