Digital art has become the norm, thanks to a wide range of programs that allow you to draw and paint on a virtual canvas. Often these programs focus on a particular aspect, such as design, illustration, or photomanipulation.

Design programs can be used for CAD, such as three-dimensional structure for architecture, or focus on graphic design, such as shapes, banners, and logos. General design software will focus on one or the other. Illustrative programs may often include graphic design elements in their interface, but will also have a number of additional options for working with color and shading…

Photo manipulation software was originally designed only to manipulate images for digital photography, but it often now also includes elements that are key to illustration options. There are also special programs that seek to mimic painting.

The various design, drawing and painting programs have their own strengths and focus, and while they can all work with a mouse, it is often better to work with a digital pen / design tablet such as Wacom to get the exact details and as accurate as possible.

Whatever you’re looking for in design software, illustration or photo manipulation, here we’ll look at the best to help you make your choice.

The best drawing and painting software – at a glance

• Photoshop
• Painter
• Rebelle
• Artweaver
• ArtRage

1. Photoshop

A very famous drawing tool from the creative masters

Easy-to-use cloud-based packageFull tools

When it comes to creative software, Adobe has dominated the scene for decades, and Photoshop CC (CC stands for Creative Cloud) is beloved by artists and designers around the world. It provides creative types with a host of cloud-based tools to create and enhance photos, illustrations, and 3D visuals…

This software is not just about editing photos. if you are a professional designer, you can use it to create packaging, banners, websites, logos and icons. Not only can you come up with your own creations, but you can also use the intuitive templates if you’re more of a beginner, or you’re working on a tight deadline.

You can create your own illustrations and turn images into drawings, with the ability to switch between animation and print style options. When you’ve created a piece, you can enhance it with a number of built-in effects.

2. Corel Painter

A painting solution that can produce stunning results.

Custom brushes. Support for third-party applications and hardware.

Corel offers many creative software packages, one of which is a painting application called Painter. This cross-platform application is designed for designers, artists, and students. ‘Thick Paint’ which you can apply to your digital canvas and then scratch or blend to create some very realistic looking masterpieces.

There’s a large selection of brushes with the ability to create custom brushes and palettes – plus you can also import them. Painter is a downloadable application that’s available for both Windows and Mac. It’s compatible with third-party software such as Photoshop, and drawing tablets from companies such as Wacom as well.

As for price, the latest version of Corel Painter is available for about $400, although there are special prices for the tutorial edition for students and training centers.

3. Artweaver

A great application for painting with collaborative chops

Easy to use collaborative features. Lots of brushes. Available only on Windows.

Artweaver is one of the oldest drawing tools, and now its sixth version. The application provides you with a diverse set of predefined brushes and pencils that you can use to create amazing works of art.

Not only does Artweaver offer an intuitive and easy-to-use interface that makes it suitable for beginners, but it also has an impressively customizable brush system. So while you can choose from a variety of predefined brushes, you can also customize them to suit your needs.

In addition, Artweaver has another strong point when it comes to working together on art projects, because you can use the app to collaborate with other people on the same document. Of course you’ve got to be online to do that.

4. ArtRage

ArtRage is an art program designed primarily for Windows and Mac, but it also has app versions for iOS and Android.

It includes a wide range of drawing functions such as pencils, pens, and oil paint brushes, as well as digital editing features such as layers, transforms, filters, and custom brushes.

Like the tablet apps, the desktop versions are available in both full and light versions, with the full version costing a very reasonable $79 per license and the Lite version being half the price.

The site also has a good selection of support options such as manuals, tutorials, and an online community for tips, suggestions, advice, and recommendations.

Other drawing and painting software

Although we’ve covered some important issues regarding drawing and painting software, there are some good lower level programs to look at, whether you’d rather not pay for a great program. Here we’ll look at some other alternatives you might want to consider, especially if you’re looking for something more entry-level or just competent when it comes to art and design.

PaintShop Pro is a neat little art program. While not as full-featured as some of the above, it is still very competent software for many aspects of art and design. Whether it’s photo editing, drawing, or creating/designing graphics, there are many tools and optional plug-ins to get the effect you want. Originally developed by Jasc, it is now part of Corel’s stable creative software and costs about $80…

Adobe Illustrator can sometimes be considered the little brother of the more powerful Photoshop, but don’t forget its features. While Photoshop was originally created to edit photos, Adobe Illustrator has always been designed for illustration and drawing. You don’t have to choose between one or the other, but if you subscribe to even Adobe’s basic creative application plan, you can have Photoshop and Illustrator together.

Sketchup is more focused on 3D design than drawing and painting, but it’s worth considering if that’s the main reason you need drawing software. Even better is that there is a free version, but even the paid versions are relatively cheap compared to some of the above, with an annual cost of $119 or $299 depending on how many features you want to unlock.

GIMP is a special art program specifically designed to work on Linux operating systems. While it may not be as powerful as some of the software listed, it puts a lot of effort into doing many things, from photo editing to sketching and design. Anyone who already works with Linux has probably heard of it and even has a copy, but if you were thinking about switching to Linux but weren’t sure what creative software was available, you could do a lot worse than try GIMP…

Microsoft Paint is the basic art package that comes with every Windows installation. The Windows 10 release adds 3D editing tools, but let’s be honest – it’s still a simple program that won’t compete with anything else on this list. Nevertheless, because of its easy availability, MS Paint is worth mentioning-if nothing else-because it has a basic set of tools that are expandable by other software.