8 best free drawing software to use in 2023

Verdict: Gravit is a graphic editor that has both an online version and office applications for all the main platforms. This digital paint software has a full set of tools necessary to work with vector graphics. The application supports curves, layers, geometric shapes, various selection and transformation tools, texts and many other functions to manipulate objects.

The 5 best drawing software for graphics tablet

The time when graphic designers used brush and paper to create their art has remained in the past.

Most modern artists are moving towards digital programs and using tablets to create superb illustrations.

Indeed, the graphic tablets are more secure and reliable, offer unlimited customization options and can store your creations forever.

If you have the skills and a drawing tablet, the only thing you need to start is corresponding drawing software.

But which is best for you? We will try to answer this question.

What are the best tools for drawing on tablet ?

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Photoshop has carved out a reputation to be the most favorite photo editing and rightly so.

With all the tools he offers, in addition to adding new features regularly, Adobe Photoshop is indeed the most recommended software for digital artists.

Basic tools for advanced textures and hundreds of brushes, Photoshop has everything you need in a digital paint application to create higher level illustrations.

Let’s quickly see her key characteristics::

• New brush features to get cleaner lines and smooth brushstorms
• Smoothing modes (including Stroke Catch-Up and Stroke End Modes)
• Transparent integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud applications
  Share your illustration on social networks (Facebook, Twitter, Skype, etc.))
• Complete toolbox to create professional quality illustrations

Adobe Photoshop

Whatever the form of art, from digital painting to graphic design, Photoshop is the natural choice!

Free tryVisit site

Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is one of the fastest and precise vector software on the market. The application offers all the tools you need, ranging from pen to gradient.

The designer offers high speed and great precision, allowing you to move the screen to 60 frames per second.

In addition, it supports the zoom, so you can see and modify the smallest details.

Let’s quickly see her key characteristics::

• Supports RGB, CMJN, Lab and gray levels
• Compatible with PSD, SVG, EPS, PDF, FH and more
• Large range of adjustment, masks and fusion modes
• Large range of brushes, pressure control and tilt (you can use it with your pen to create illustrations with a natural appearance)
• Powerful export mode (to select areas, layers or objects to export)

Pixaki for iPad

As suggested, this application is designed to make the most of the iOS features.

Benefiting from an impressive drawing and editing toolbox, Pixaki allows you to import any image in full resolution, resize it and reposition it, then start drawing pixels.

With advanced animation features, several reference layers and fully customizable pallets, you can easily give life to your creations.

Let’s quickly see her key characteristics::

• Supported up to 50 layers per image (adjust opacity, lighting and translucent effects)
• Customizable colors (use those preinstalled or import yours)
• Import and export documents from other applications and share them on social networks (PSD, GIF, ZIP, PNG, TIFF, JPEG and many others)
• Transparent integration with iCloud Drive
• Customizable user interface

Procreate

Like Pixaki, Procreate is designed to dressed in your iOS tablet or iPhone.

Very versatile, this award-winning application is optimized to fully kiss multi-touch technology allowing incredibly intuitive tactile gestures on two fingers.

Create anything on the road, sketches and illustrations with complex paintings and share your works of art with the whole world effortlessly.

Speaking of mobility, Procreate is powered by the Valkyrie graphics engine designed to help you paint quickly and work at your own pace.

Let’s quickly see her key characteristics::

• Advanced features (Quickshape, Streamline, Drawing Assist, Colordrop, etc.))
• Large collection of customizable craft brushes (pencils, inks, charcoal, artistic brushes, etc.))
• Complete color control
• Compatible with touch technology
• Valkyrie engine for accelerated and performance actions of 120 Hz

Artweaver

Benefiting from an impressive toolbox, Artweaver is a painting tool rich in functionality that covers all your artistic needs, from simple tasks to complex projects, which makes it suitable for beginners and professional users.

Artweaver offers a large collection of predefined and highly configurable brushes to create impeccable results each time.

Let’s quickly see her key characteristics::

• Realistic brushes (powerful and highly configurable brushes system to simulate many different brushes)
• User -friendly, intuitive and customizable interface
• Easy to use and suitable for novices as well as advanced users
• Integrated collaboration tools
• Impressive toolbox with several layers and filters

Digital painting applications have evolved over the years, and manufacturers are constantly trying to add new features.

If you are looking for the best digital drawing software, try our recommendations and let us know your favorite in the comments below.

• Design software
• Numerical drawing software
• Tablet

8 best free drawing software to use in 2023

You are looking for the best free drawing software to create amazing paintings on your PC with a stylus, a mouse or a touch screen ? Choose one of the following digital art software to make a realistic simulation of the grunge effect, watercolors, oils, pastels, charcoal, etc.

Top 8 best free drawing software

1. Clip Studio Paint – Ideal for rendering and inking
2. Adobe Illustrator – Complete Vector Drawing Tool
3. Paint.Net – Standard Windows Paint Standard software for drawing
4. GIMP – Open Source Drawing Software Superior quality with free plug -ins
5. Corel Painter – For professional digital drawing
6. Krita – For professionals
7. Mypaint – Simple interface
8. Gravit – Online version

1. Clip Studio Paint

Ideal for rendering and inking

• Brushes can be personalized
• Excellent vector tools
• Large coloring options
• The user base and the community are important
• Many resources can be downloaded for free

• Were not found

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: This is one of the most popular professional drawing applications for PC. The program was designed to create illustrations, animations, manga and comics. Currently, more than 4 million people use this application.

Many professional artists and illustrators prefer Clip Studio Paint because it offers superior flexibility and freedom. When creating manga or comics, you can do the same things as on paper. However, you have more advantages thanks to digital technology. The program has a wide selection of quality drawing tools. The update version also includes animation functions, making it one of the best free artistic programs.

This program can be considered a worthy competitor of the classic Photoshop. Today, many artists opt for clip studio paint, because it is more universal in many ways.

2. Adobe Illustrator

Complete vector drawing tool

• Multi-Pages art publications
• Tools to create websites models
• Various personalized effects
• Rapid sharing

• Requires learning

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: Adobe Illustrator is commonly used vector drawing software. The program includes a wide range of tools for drawing, color management and work on visual projects. Thanks to a diaper system, the software offers a non -destructive process of creating and modifying your drawings.

As Illustrator integrates with other Adobe applications, you benefit from a more extensive functionality. So you can use the Adobe fonts to make your project unique. In addition, there are a wide range of personalized effects such as 3D, etc.

Illustrator offers adjustable vector drawing tools, allowing you to create different types of graphics and illustrations such as logos, web graphics, brand elements, packaging, etc. Once the project is ready, you can export it to any Adobe software to improve it more. In addition, the software allows you to share a project directly on social media.

3. Paint.NET

Standard Win software update

• Practical and simple to use
• Many functions and effects
• The interface is well organized
• Online support and useful tutorials

• Brushwork is limited
• Burn & Dodge is not available
• You cannot correct the text after applying other effects

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: Just like its name, the program interface looks like a standard drawing tool integrated into the operating system. But in terms of features, paint.Net is far ahead. This free digital art software allows you to draw volumetric models, mobile objects and transparent structures.

Due to its simplicity, paint.Net is perfect for budding artists. In addition, it can operate quickly, even on low -power devices. Paint.Net supports layers and has a large number of effects. There are tools for vagueness, stylization, accentuation and noise reduction. If you wish, the program features can be extended using plug-ins. In addition, this free paint program allows you to get images from the scanner and improve them.

4. Gimp

Open Source drawing software

• Management of graphics tablets
• Individual file storage format “.XCF “to store texts, textures, layers
• Possibility to open PSD files
• Plug-ins creation

• Imp is a bit difficult
• The user interface is not well organized
• There are fewer features than in paid versions

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: This is an editor of powerful, flexible and customizable open-source matrix images.

This free paint software has a large number of tools available in Photoshop: layers, masks, color calibration, smart selection, brushes, filters and tons of other features. Other tools can be added using third -party extensions. However, the interface and the shortcut keys are special here. If you are used to Photoshop, you will have to relearn how to use these tools.

Originally, this product was created as a free alternative to Photoshop. However, the application features allow you to create drawings from zero. This best free drawing software includes different “soft” and “hard” brushes with variable characteristics, the possibility of treating layer drawings, smooth them and other effects, as well as a large number of additional tools.

5. Corel Painter

Completely free drawing software

• Constant updates
• Dozens of tools that imitate real drawing
• User -friendly interface

• An upgrade is a bit expensive
• Difficult to understand

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: Corel Painter is a program originally created for painting. Its features do not solve a wide range of problems, and it is not at all a universal program. However, for the needs of digital drawing, Corel Painter is well developed. This drawing software will provide you with an impressive range of professional artist tools. Brushes, oil pallets, watercolor pallets, various paper textures are available.

Digital drawing software not only imitates the result of the application of a particular tool, but also the work process with this tool. If you use a pencil, the thickness of the line will depend directly on the angle of the stylus compared to the screen of your tablet. A brush that has just been soaked in the paint will leave a wider and more saturated brand than a brush that has been painting for some time.

6. Krita

For professionals

• User interface updated with a nice layout
• OpenGL improved
• Many brushes
• The diapers are available
• HDR is supported

• Lack of image touch -up tools
• After update, you may have discrepancies
• Impractical text tool

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: Many professionals prefer this program. The application does not limit the size of the virtual canvas. It depends on the performance of your PC. Krita imitates real canvases, emulates various drawing tools and the effect container includes many artistic effects. Consequently, the process of creating digital drawings is as realistic as possible. In addition, this free digital art software works without problem with layers, contains post-processing tools and offers a high level of detail.

Find out more about the way to repair the delay in the Wacom tablet.

It is interesting to note that at the origin, Krita was developed as a drawing tool, but today, the program can boast of offering many additional functions for the publishing of digital photos ready for the use and can be considered as a competitor of Adobe Photoshop.

7. Mypaint

• Works on all platforms
• Many special functions
• A great free option for manga and anime artists

• The cancellation function could be faster
• Some problems with the graphical interface when choosing brushes
• The sharp lines are not smooth enough

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: This graphic publisher is intended for beginner artists. This is one of the best free drawing programs, with a simple interface and unlimited canvas sizes. This software allows you to immerse yourself in the paint process, by deleting all the panels and additional parameters of the program of the program. The application offers the possibility of selecting brushes. They are all divided into three sections: “classic”, “experience” and “favorite”. In addition, Mypaint contains an interesting tool called “notepad”. This is a kind of draft where you can try to paint with different brushes.

8. Gravit

• Simple and understandable interface
• It is possible to reuse the same element several times
• Sketch files are supported

• Sometimes there are discrepancies
• General functionality is approximate
• General functionality is approximate

FREE DOWNLOAD

Verdict: Gravit is a graphic editor that has both an online version and office applications for all the main platforms. This digital paint software has a full set of tools necessary to work with vector graphics. The application supports curves, layers, geometric shapes, various selection and transformation tools, texts and many other functions to manipulate objects.

Gravit can also be used as an editor of matrix graphics. It offers functions such as cropping, masks, mixing, resizing and adding filters. It is very useful for designing interfaces, creating layouts for web pages and printing products. In addition, the program has access to a large library of vector objects that can be used for free in your work.