Print this pageDigital Painting software - Painter or Photoshop?
Corel Painter and Adobe Photoshop are the two most popular programs for digital painting and it's tough to know which one to choose when you're starting out. Many artists use Painter, and many use Photoshop, there's no right or wrong, but here are a few things that can help you figure out which software will suit you best.
- What's your painting style?
- What's your budget?
- Learning curve
- Overall comparison
- Download trial versions
- Where to buy
- Other painting software
- Painter is great for creating textured and painterly styles
- Photoshop lends itself better to super-smooth realism
- Painter X costs $439 USD
- Photoshop CS3 costs $649 USD
- Painter is designed purely for painting so it's fairly uncomplicated and easy to learn.
- Photoshop is designed to be an image-editing and design tool, as well as a painting tool, so it has a lot of options and is more difficult to learn.
Painter is less expensive, easier to learn, easier to use, and is (I believe) more fun to use and more responsive and powerful than Photoshop when it comes to painting and drawing. Painter is a dedicated painting program and it shows.
Photoshop costs more money and more effort, but you can also use it for a lot more than painting. If you want to be able to edit images and photographs, create designs, and paint, go with Photoshop.
You can buy both programs directly from the manufacturer but you'll often get a better deal buying your software second-hand from eBay or your regional classifieds in the paper (just make sure you get a legitimate serial number, and the original box and manual if possible).
Also keep in mind that if you don't paint commercially you may be eligible for the significantly-cheaper student or academic versions. And if you also need to buy a graphics tablet (and prefer Painter) check the Corel site to see if they're offering any Wacom tablet + Painter bundles.
I haven't tried these programs myself but they're also popular.
- Open Canvas - Similar to Painter, costs $69 USD. Free trial available.
- GIMP - Similar to Photoshop. Free (open-source).
- ArtRage - Similar to Painter, costs $25 USD. Free trial available.