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What is the best alternative to Clip Studio Paint?
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Krita
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Pro
Easy to use layout
All the most used and useful tools are easy to find in Krita's UI and are often just one click away. They are not hidden behind menus or dropdowns.
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Top
Con
New features are not tested thoroughly
Since releases are so often and with little time between them, usually new features are not tested a lot and this can bring a lot of bugs with them. Which fortunately are quickly patched in the next release.
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Top
Pro
Constantly updated
Krita is getting constant releases with updates and bug fixes. New features are added at a pace that far surpasses the other alternatives.
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Top
Con
Documentation is lacking
Krita's official documentation is incomplete in some areas, especially for new features that are constantly added. But this is compensated with it's great design and usability which makes it easier to understand how things work.
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Pro
Free and open source
Krita is completely free and open source. They have raised a couple of successful Kickstarters in the past to get the initial financing and now they are accepting donations.
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Top
Con
Poor touch controls
They are still pretty much a WIP. But they are getting there.
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Top
Pro
Developed in part by KDE, which has a great community and therefore great support.
KDE has a long history of making solid applications.
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Top
Con
Working with text is not that pleasant
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Top
Pro
Amazing support for displaying brushes
Krita's preset brushes are one of the default dockers. Each brush has a preview on mouseover that shows a detailed view of the type of brush involved. All the brushes also have useful and descriptive names such as "HP Pencil" or "Textured Fuzzy".
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Pro
Very customizable
Although the UI is rather busy, Krita is very customizable. The editing window can be themed and the sidebar can be customized extensively throw many dockers or panes.
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Top
Pro
Easy editing in a tiled view
Tiled view that shows your image tiled in the editor, and permits you to edit it as you are seeing it tiled. If the brush passes out of your texture, it will just automatically wrap back the painting to the other side of the original texture, while permitting you to paint and see the results on any of the tiled "clones" (the shortcut key to activate this is w by default).
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Android
License:
Open source
Technology:
C++, Qt
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Experiences
Free
489
77
Photoshop
All
19
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Pro
Industry standard
Photoshop is used by professionals everywhere in a wide variety of fields including photography, graphic design and digital art. It is the de facto standard for image manipulation. If you've seen a magazine ad featuring a model, you've probably seen the effects of Photoshop. You won't be alone when using Photoshop.
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Top
Con
Expensive
The standalone version of Photoshop costs $19.99/month, though it can be leased as part of the Creative Cloud Photography bundle that includes Lightroom for $9.99/month.
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Top
Pro
Trove of plugins that extend functionality are available
A wide variety of plugins that add new effects, improve existing functionality and simplify workflow are available.
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Top
Con
Latest versions of Photoshop are subscription-only
While you can still buy CS6 from 2012 without needing a subscription by contacting Adobe support or the cut-down Photoshop Elements, any full-version version of Photoshop past CS6 requires a subscription.
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Top
Pro
Lots of tutorials
There's a huge number of both free and paid tutorials available online. Websites like Lynda.com offer premium high-quality, in-depth tutorials, but there are plenty of free alternatives to be found on YouTube, blogs and specialized sites on the Internet.
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Top
Con
Learning it can take some time
While you can relatively quickly learn how to perform a few basic image editing tasks, understanding Photoshop's ins and outs can be difficult. It's partially due to the sheer amount of functionality that Photoshop packs (and understanding that some of the advanced functionality can take a while to understand on its own), and partially due to it being aimed at professionals with little hand-holding for novice users.
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Top
Pro
A cheaper, standalone version called Photoshop Elements is available
A stripped down version of Photoshop, called Photoshop Elements can be bought as a standalone application for $100.
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Top
Con
Very slow
It needs a very power CPU and GPU and many GBs of RAM and still it is so slow.
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Top
Pro
Includes powerful content-aware tools
Photoshop includes content-aware tools such as content-aware fill that can fill in a select area based on what surrounds it.
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Top
Con
Stop paying, it vaporises
With Adobes adaptation of the "subscription world" PhotoShop too is available as subscription software only. This means it will never become yours. And if you stop paying, you won't have any PhotoShop any more. Whether you are OK with that or not, it also means that PhotoShop for a large part becomes software for those "who can afford it". Or "push cost to others". Like customers of professionals. Which is also a way to become an "industry standard".
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Top
Pro
Packs a staggering amount of functionality
Photoshop is the most fully featured image editing software available today allowing you to perform highly advanced image manipulation. It has tools for RAW image adjustments, lens correction, retouching, image stitching, HDR, fixing framing. It supports most professional color modes and file formats. It includes extensive lists of filters, styles, effects, fonts as well as tools for painting, sketching and typography work. It understands both raster and vector graphics. It even includes tools for video editing, working with 3D objects and support for 3D printing.
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Con
Affinity Photo is just as good at a fraciton of the price
Switching from Photoshop to Affinity Photo and it's hard to notice the difference quality of a professional's work. They say that PS is the industry standard, but so very few pros that tried Affinity Photo ever look back.
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Top
Pro
Integrates with Creative Cloud
You can save all projects directly to the Creative Cloud allowing you to access them from any device and with any relevant Adobe software.
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Top
Con
Not good enough to be so expensive
Probably the only big advantage Photoshop has over the other free software is the adjustment layers. But still too expensive for just one feature.
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Top
Pro
Creative Cloud Photography subscription includes Lightroom
Lightroom is another image editing software from Adobe that's specifically designed for photo editing and managing of large quantities of digital images.
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Top
Con
Batch editing of images is not straightforward
Photoshop is designed to work extensively on one image at a time and while batch editing support exists, it's not that intuitive to use.
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Top
Pro
Mobile companion apps available
There's a free mobile app available for iOS, Android & Windows Phone.
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Top
Con
Asset management capabilities are lacking
In Photoshop asset management is done through a separate program called Bridge. As Bridge is supposed to be a file management tool for not just Photoshop's files, but for files generated by all of Adobe's applications it covers a breadth of capabilities, but not depth.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS
License:
Hagu
Tethered capture:
via Bridge
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Experiences
$9.99/mo
114
47
Affinity Designer
All
15
Experiences
Pros
12
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
One-time purchase
Rather than a monthly subscription based model, Affinity Designer instead has a one-time fee ($49.99).
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Top
Con
No plug-in architecture, so can't be tailored to specific purposes
Some applications (e.g. Sketch) have an open plug-in framework, by which the software can be extended by independent/third-party developers according to popular trends.
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Top
Pro
Intuitive user interface
The user interface of many graphic editing software programs can often be discouraging for beginners. Affinity Designer, however, has a very well laid out and intuitive user interface with a small learning curve.
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Top
Con
Treats all objects as filled
You can't select objects on the canvas by clicking on them, if they're surrounded by another object (like a rectangle or a frame). Designer treats all objects as filled, so if you've drawn a frame or outline or an object with a hole in it, you can't select objects within that hole directly. You have to laboriously iterate through all objects in a list until you get to the one you want. This is an extremely common situation, which cripples the entire product. Very surprising and unfortunate defect.
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Top
Pro
Powerful artistic tools
Extensively tweakable brush types, color options...
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Top
Pro
Extended slicing and export possibilities
An object can easily be transformed into a slice that can then be exported in various sizes end formats in 1 go. E.g. Export slice A as PNG 1x, 2x and 3x AND GIF 1x AND SVG.
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Pro
Powerful symbol managemment
Symbols can get individual property changes (color, shape, layer effects, fonts text...) while the other properties stay linked with the base symbol.
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Pro
Sketch Alternative (Great for Mixed OS Teams)
For those working in mixed environments that aren't 100% MacOS, you'll find devoting yourself to Sketch.app brings with it...pain. If this fits the bill for what you need feature-wise and you're in a mixed OS environment, it's a very capable replacement for Sketch.app. Note that it doesn't have all the same features, but then again it doesn't need all the same features. Short of organization differences inside the document you're working on, there shouldn't be anything you can't do with Affinity Designer that you could have with Sketch.
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Pro
Cross platform
Available on both Windows and MacOS
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Top
Pro
SVG Support
In the era of "retina" displays, 4k UHD, 5k, and even 8k, Scalar Vector Graphics - independent vector images that can scale to any resolution without any display quality loss - are more important now than ever. And this tool is quite capable of rendering true SVG output suitable for consumption at any display resolution (not a big bunch of rasterized bits in the document, actual paths, points, etc.).
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Top
Pro
Focused vector graphics tool
Unlike some design tools, Affinity Designer isn't trying to be all things to all people. It's focused on its main area of expertise: vector graphics. That's not to say you can't use a raster image (think a photo in *.jpeg format for example), but it's not built to do much with that other than using it somewhere amidst the layers and that's about it.
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Top
Pro
Integrates well with Affinity Photo
These are companion apps & switching between them is built in - Photo is a very powerful raster tool with a feature set close/better to Photoshop, it will also use some Photoshop plugins. This allows you to add-on powerful raster capabilities if you want them - put doesn't force you to.
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Top
Pro
Excellent Photoshop/Illustrator import & export
Best I have seen in a non Adobe app, you can use most of the Photoshop mock-ups and templates easily. Opens most Adobe files to a level to be able to effectively use the content. Allows cross team collaboration across tool-chains.
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Top
Pro
Powerful
The new version 1.5 has a very powerful feature set such as support for symbols and asset windows, as well as constraints controls and improved export options. This all adds up to an interesting alternative to Adobe Illustrator.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, MacOS, IOS
Export image formats:
PNG, JPEG, GIF, TIFF, PSD, PDF, SVG, EPS, EPS, EXR, HDR
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Experiences
$49.99
120
15
Gravit Designer
All
12
Experiences
Pros
5
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Simple to understand and use
Very friendly interface.
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Top
Con
Too simple
If you have used vector illustration software for 10 years or more, you may find Gravit Designer too simple and confusing. Trade in your oil paints and brushes for Legos simple.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
It offers total portability to almost any platform.
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Top
Con
No longer offically licenced with a GPLv3+ version
In 2014 Quasado released Gravit.io having dual licensing: GNU GPLv3+ or a commercial license. This effectively made Gravit.io opensource, when they transitioned to "Gravit designer" they essentially dropped GPLv3+ license. You can still get the GPLv3+ licensed version of Gravit.io here: https://github.com/OliBridgman/gravit You can read the GPLv3+ licensing here: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl.html
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Top
Pro
Modern UI
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Top
Con
Confusing bugs
Sometimes Gravit Designer can randomly duplicate your files, causing you to waste a large amount of time trying to find the right one.
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Top
Pro
Friendly keyboard shortcuts
The keyboard shortcuts are very easy to access and remember.
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Top
Con
Pro Subscription
Gravit's many basic features are now included in Pro Subscription. Font Import, Bezigon, Swatches and various Blending Modes fall in Pro Subscription now.
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Top
Pro
Essential Tools and Effects
Gravit has many tools like Pen tool, Bezigon tool, Lasso tools. We can add Multiple Fills to an element also. It has many effects such as Drop Shadows, Blur, Recolor, Glows, etc. and much more.
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Top
Con
Very little information
Official sources do not provide a lot information about the program.
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Top
Con
No integration into the system
It uses it own theme and icons.
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Specs
Platforms:
Linux, MacOS, Windows, ChromeOS, WebApp
License:
Commercial
Company:
Corel Corporation
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Experiences
$99/yr
56
11
Inkscape
All
29
Experiences
Pros
13
Cons
15
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Inkscape is GPL-licensed and maintains public repositories.
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Top
Con
Very slow startup on some systems
Depending on factors like how many fonts you have installed, Inkscape can take upwards of 30 seconds to launch.
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Top
Pro
Opens lots of file types
Inkscape supports many common formats for import (including SVG, Photoshop and Illustrator) and its plugin architecture allows more to be added.
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Top
Con
Uses its own SVG-format by default
Inkscape might use SVG as its default format, however this SVG's contains some additional SodiPodi/Inkscape additions that can be troublesome if you want to import the SVG into some other application.
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Top
Pro
Export to different file types
Files can be exported and saved as a "normal" svg, png, jpg, bmp etc. file.
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Top
Con
1.0 is sluggish
Inkscape 1.0 uses GTK 3 which is sluggish and slow for low spec systems( eg. ARM, Celeron, Pentium, Core-i3, Ryzen 3 or Athlon ) compared to previous versions.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
Pre-built binaries are available for Windows, Mac and Linux. Inkscape can be built from source on additional platforms.
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Top
Con
Buggy
Application is often buggy so it happens from time to time that the popup / right-click menu won't close and stays open. It crashes also sometimes randomly. This makes it almost unusable for productive / business use.
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Top
Pro
Integrates well into a X11-System
Its uses the X11 icon theme and desktop theme(GTK).
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Top
Con
Crashes very often
Inkscape encountered an internal error and will close now - is one of its standard messages.
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Top
Pro
It can do anything
A very powerful software that can do pretty match anything!
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Top
Con
Since 0.91 the gradient editor is gone
It is now only possible to edit a gradient on screen. but you can't set a stop to a specific percentage anymore.
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Top
Pro
Measurement Tool
This tool is extremely handy and can not be found in any other vector graphics programs out there.
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Top
Con
Limited work with ICC CMYK color scheme
Support for ICC color profiles only in SVG files.
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Top
Pro
Live Path Effects
Extremely powerful menu that offers more than 30 powerful Live Path Effects to apply to paths vastly enhancing the application functionality.
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Top
Con
Uses GTK
It looks an feels like an alien. It also uses now touch-based widgets instead of professional widgets.
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Top
Pro
Guides, Grids, and Canvas Rotation
Extremely handy features when building complex graphics using Inkscape.
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Top
Con
Y-axis inverted
0,0 coordinates begin in lower left corner, not upper left corner as SVG standards define in Inkscape 0.92.x. It seems this is now fixed in the 1.0 beta 2 version of the program.
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Top
Pro
Dark Theme Support
The new 1.0 beta 2 version finally got support for dark theme which normally is only available for commercial software like Affinity Serif, Adobe Illustrator.
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Top
Con
A toy for facebook-ist enthusiasts, not for professionals
It's a Linux niche mumbo-jumbo, same as GIMP for raster edit .
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Top
Pro
The new version 1.1 is looks and feels fantastic
Inskape got UI update: new dockable dialogs.
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Top
Con
Based on the GTK widget toolkit
Software is based on GTK, so it might not integrate well in non-GTK environments. It also requires many dependencies on those non-GTK desktops. It also adds dependencies to GTK-environments since it is written in C++ which requires the gtkmm wrapper/interface.
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Top
Pro
Interface is available in 29 languages
Basque, British English, Brazilian, Portuguese, Catalan, Croatian, Czech, Dutch, Finnish, French, German, Greek, Hindi, Hungarian, Icelandic, Indonesian, Italian, Korean, Latvian, Norwegian (Bokmål), Polish, Romanian, Russian, Slovak, Spanish, Swedish, Turkish, Ukrainian, Urdu, Swedish.
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Top
Con
Mac version does not look as polished as its versions for Windows/Linux version for the 0.92.x version
It seems that Inkscape 1.0 beta 2 for Mac got some needed attention and it looks a lot better with dark theme support. native DMG installer and they got rid of X11 which is great.
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Top
Pro
It's really easy and fun
Vector graphics can be created and edited with Inkscape.
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Top
Con
Incompatible with previous versions
Sometimes backward compatibility breaks. For example, pre 0.92 SVGs are incompatible with later releases (due different default resolutions).
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Top
Con
No support for large printing machine system
No support for large printing machine environment, except exporting the resulting artwork to PDF.
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Top
Con
Under GNU GPL
It is released under GNU GPL which one of the restricted open source license.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, macOS, Linux, Unix
License:
GPL-2.0-or-later
Technology:
C++
Initial Release:
2003
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Experiences
Free
249
52
Vectr
All
11
Experiences
Pros
9
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Intuitive
Vectr is simpler than other web design or vector graphics design tools, and has all the features needed to make designs beautiful.
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Top
Con
Requires an Internet connection to work
Must be tethered to an Internet connection at all times, so forget working on planes or other places where you're not online.
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Top
Pro
WordPress plugin
Embedded editor in WordPress is perfect for editing / creating: annotated images, watermarks, banners, image-collages, infographics, logotypes.
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Top
Pro
Grid and snapping
The grid and snap lines in your workspace serve as a visual aid and guideline for the composition and alignment of your designs.
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Top
Pro
Supports importing various image formats
You may import your previous designs or downloaded graphics and edit them in Vectr as you like.
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Top
Pro
Supports collaboration
You can send the unique URL to your Vectr project to friends and colleagues for collaboration.
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Top
Pro
Low learning curve
Vectr has a very low learning curve and would be perfect for beginners. However, it’s absolutely easy to use no matter what your background is. Professional designers will also find a great number of useful tools which may change their designs completely.
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Top
Pro
Designing offline
Vectr's desktop app works offline for up to 100 edits, and then once you get online it automatically synchronizes all of the projects with your online account. So you can work whenever you want without fearing for your projects.
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Top
Pro
Free
The app is going to remain free forever.
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Top
Pro
Cross-platform
You may download Vectr for Mac, Windows, Linux, and Chromebook.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, Web
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Experiences
Free
14
5
Sketch
All
17
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
6
Specs
Top
Pro
Designed specifically for web and mobile UI design & workflows
Sketch is essentially a version of Photoshop built from the ground up to suit the workflow of web designers.
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Top
Con
No Windows support
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Top
Pro
Active community with a lot of resources
Sketch is hugely popular among designers so there are a lot of well maintained community resources for everything from iPhone frames to iOS/Android UI elements & icons.
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Top
Con
No Linux version
Sketch is currently only available on Mac, which can make it hard to collaborate if you have teammates using Linux.
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Top
Pro
Clean UI
Reactive panels keep the UI for Sketch clean from the sort of clutter the panel system in Photoshop suffers from. The panels in Sketch change based on the object in question, saving you from having to have a multiple separate panels.
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Top
Con
License based payment model
Sketch has recently decided to cease development of major version (2.0, 3.0, 4.0) with free updates in between, and has switched to a license based subscription model. A yearly license costs $99 and includes the latest version of the Sketch software, plus a year of free updates. After this license expires, you can renew for another year of updates - or continue to use the current software without updates.
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Top
Pro
Symbols and shared styles
Sketch lets you re-use the same design in multiple places, with changes synced throughout the various places it is used. You can also create text styles to sync typography changes.
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Top
Con
Buggy releases and lack of quality assurance
The fast rate of change means new releases often break files and cause havoc. Duplicate symbols are really bad in the latest releases so you have to keep updating.
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Top
Pro
"Artboards" are great for working on multiple views simultaneously
Artboards let you easily work on multiple views side by side. Great for having a separate artboard on each page for the various responsive sizes.
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Top
Con
Very feeble raster tools
You have to go elsewhere if you want something more complex than basic vector masking of raster images.
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Top
Pro
Vector based yet pixel aware
You can rescale assets without quality loss, easily export x2 assets for retina designs and design high quality icons & artwork. Being pixel aware lets you set a grid and snap objects to it as well as round to the nearest pixel edge to clean up your layers.
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Top
Con
Limited compatibility with Photoshop and Illustrator
Although it is possible to export certain Adobe file types in Sketch, compatibility is mostly hit and miss. For example, some elements seem a little offset in Adobe products.
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Top
Pro
Makes it easy to export assets
Sketch has a built in exporter that supports PDF, JPG and PNG.
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Top
Pro
Built-in grid system
You can set the square grid to whatever dimensions you like as well as set thicker lines every x blocks. You can also configure the color of the lines to make them as obvious or subtle as you wish and toggle the grid with a keyboard shortcut (crtl+g).
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Top
Pro
"Mirror" makes it really easy to test designs on multiple devices
Mirror lets you connect your iPhone to sketch and see how your current artboard looks on mobile. It's really useful as you can live check changes which lets you rapidly iterate mobile design.
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Top
Pro
Easily align layers with smart guides
Holding down alt will show the smart guides that show the distances between any layer you hover over to nearby layers or the edges of the artboard. Very useful for checking your spacing or aligning layers.
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Specs
Platforms:
Mac
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Experiences
Paid
124
48
Adobe Illustrator CC
All
18
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
9
Specs
Top
Con
Subscription model
Illustrator CC requires a $19.99/mo (minimum) subscription to use. Adobe no longer sells previous versions of Illustrator.
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Top
Pro
Amazing integration with all other Adobe Software (PS, Ae, Id...)
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Top
Con
Heavy use of CPU/RAM
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Top
Pro
It's the industry standard
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Top
Con
Steep learning curve
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Top
Pro
Advanced tools
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Top
Con
Very slow
Even in very good computers Illustrator is very slow.
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Top
Pro
Has all the vector tools you could dream of
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Top
Con
You never truly own this software
As soon as you stop paying you to lose access to the software. This should be illegal.
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Top
Pro
Flexible, non-intrusive interface
Small palette menus and the ability to save multiple menu layouts keep the UI out of the way.
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Top
Con
Install useless and intrusive software
When you install any Adobe product it also installs lots of useless and intrusive software and services. It adds two services and up to three auto-starting software that runs when you start your operating system and keep running constantly. One is for auto-updating, others for "checking" if you are not a pirate and some others that seems to be just to collect information.
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Top
Pro
There are many tutorials on the internet
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Top
Con
Imprecise coordinates
Oftentimes your 140 is 139.9997 and as a vector program it doesn't rely much on precision.
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Top
Pro
Frequent updates
The CC subscription model means that major releases are no longer necessary, so existing users gain immediate access to new features.
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Top
Con
No proper selection mode
In a vector-art program, the critical selection mode is the one in which objects must be fully enclosed by the selection marquee to be selected. In the simple example shown here, selecting all the circles should merely require you to draw a selection rectangle around them. But in Illustrator, there's no way to avoid selecting other objects as well, even though they're not totally enclosed by the selection box. Year after year, Adobe fails to fix this bizarre oversight, making Illustrator a tedious pain to use.
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Top
Pro
Easy to learn
It's easy to learn how to work with this software.
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Top
Con
Buggy
Software can be very buggy at times.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows; Mac
License:
Proprietary
Initial Release:
1987
Exports:
.ai; .eps; .ait; .pdf; .fxg; .svgz; .svg; .png; .bmp; .dwg; .dxf; .emf; .swf; .jpg; .pct; .psd; .tif; .tga; .txt; .wmf; .html; .gif
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Experiences
$19.99+/mo
60
37
OpenToonz
All
4
Experiences
Pros
2
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Pro
Used in many movies/TV shows
It was used by Futurama and Studio Ghibli.
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Top
Con
Crashes a ton
If you are going to use this for a project, make sure you save frequently.
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Top
Pro
Easy to learn
With a quick 20 minute tutorial, you can get off and running easily.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Technology:
C++
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Get it
here
6
0
Darktable
All
11
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Feature rich
There are a lot of different modules.
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Top
Con
Can be overwhelming
There are a lot of different modules. You're going to need some time watching tutorials to understand how to get the best out of it.
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Top
Pro
Fast and Flexible
A very well considered UI makes edits fast and fluid. You can redo or undo any step without disturbing any other part of your edit. The UI doesn't get in the way.
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Top
Con
For tethered capture on Linux you may need additional software installed that is not a dependency for Darktable
First make sure you have gphoto2 and libgphoto2.
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Top
Pro
Good batch editing capabilities
Darktable allows applying the same set of operations to multiple images and saving your history stack as a style (you can pick exactly which modules).
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Top
Con
No official Windows version
Whilst official builds exist for Linux and OSX, this isn't the case for Windows (though unofficial versions do exist).
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Top
Pro
Edits are saved to a separate file
Original files are untouched by any edits. No worries on what was done before or if an accidental save occurs. All work is separate from the originals.
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Pro
Customizable
Darktable allows favoriting modules and remapping hotkeys.
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Pro
Allows for local adjustments
Most modules, by default, affect the whole image, but have the option to only be applied to masked-off areas (be those drawn masks, parametric ones, or a combination of the two).
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Top
Pro
Supports tethered capture
On the camera set it to use USB Remote. Open Darktable, on the left side under Import, click scan for devices. The camera should appear. Click on tethered shoot. Next on the right side look for the gear icon above the battery n/a and click it. go to the session options tab, and change the base directory to the location you want to save photos. close that settings window and try taking a picture. It should come right up.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac
Technology:
C
Tethered capture:
Yes
Non-Distructive Editing:
Yes
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Experiences
Free
112
10
Mischief
All
3
Experiences
Pros
3
Top
Pro
Specs
Platforms: Windows, MacOS Mac OS 10.8 or greater. Windows 7, Windows 8 and Windows 10, either 32 or 64 bit versions.
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Top
Pro
Low-priced illustrating software
A really good price for what the application as to offer.
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Top
Pro
One-time purchase
Rather than a monthly subscription.
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$25
2
0
VECTARY
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Con
You have to be online
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Top
Pro
Free
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Top
Con
Subject to frequent change
As this tool is rather new, it tends to change often, it may confuse sometimes, but generally the change makes it better
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Top
Pro
Simple UI
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Pro
Visually stunning
The feel of this app is really good and the beautiful design helps the overall experience.
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Pro
Fast-evolving
This tool is progressing very nicely and often brings out new cool features.
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Top
Pro
Any operating system
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Pro
Browser based - no install required
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Pro
Easy-to-learn
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Pro
3D printing ready
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Top
Pro
Free online support
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Pro
Great for educational use
Since there's no need to install any application, VECTARY can be a great tool for teaching 3D modelling in schools as well. Students only need to make an account and they can use the same software both in their school labs and their own PCs.
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Specs
Supported platforms:
Windows, Mac, Unix, Chrome OS
Service integrations:
Figma, Sketch
Exports:
More than 60 file formats, including USDZ, GLTF, FBX
Import:
3D and 2D formats
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Experiences
Free
26
4
PosterMyWall
All
4
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Top
Pro
Great tool for beginners
Unlike many other softwares, PosterMyWall has a less steep learning curve and designing is made even easier with a huge gallery of free customizable templates.
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Top
Con
Can't use offline
Since it is an online based program you will not be able to use it offline which is bad if you don't have internet, travel on airplanes a lot, don't want to pay extra for internet or have other reasons for not having internet available.
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Top
Pro
Available online
Requires no download prior to using, available on your browser. Usable on your desktop pc, laptop, tablet and mobile.
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Top
Pro
Simplistic Interface
Very easy to learn.
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0
5
1
GRAVIT
All
12
Experiences
Pros
8
Cons
3
Specs
Top
Pro
Free
Gravit has a free version, but there is paid version with more features.
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Top
Con
Paid version
Expensive paid version that has many features you can find in free or cheaper applications.
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Top
Pro
Multi platform
Works on Windows, Mac and Linux.
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Top
Con
This does not appear to be a Web-design tool
Gravit appears to be a vector-art tool, and nothing more. Their homepage doesn't even mention Web design as far as I can see.
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Top
Pro
Actively developed
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Con
Changing rapidly
The fast rate of growth/change for Gravit can be a pro in that in means plenty of new features. However, it also makes the product fairly unpredictable. For example: In the past year, Gravit was open sourced, then closed sourced again.
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Top
Pro
Easy to export all assets
Gravit has a built in exporter to PDF, JPG, PNG and SVG.
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Pro
Clean and helpful UI
The panels in Gravit adjust to contain the information needed based on the type of element selected, preventing the clutter that Photoshop often experiences.
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Top
Pro
Easy to design multiple pages
The ability to assign layers to specific pages, and view single or multiple pages at once makes it easy to design an entire website without getting lost in thousands of layers. Easy to view multiple pages at one time.
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Top
Pro
Symbols and libraries
With Gravit you can re-use the same design for buttons, inputs, etc, in multiple places, with changes synced every where the element is used. It's also possible to set text to a shared style to sync text changes throughout the app.
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Top
Pro
Able to open Sketch files
The ability to open Sketch files makes it easier for Linux/Windows users to collaborate with people who use Sketch, which is macOS specific.
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Specs
Platforms:
Linux, Windows, macOS, Web
License:
GPLv3+ or Commercial license
Available as:
Snap, AppImage, WebApp
Unoffical download location:
https://github.com/OliBridgman/gravit
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Experiences
FREE or $99/yr
25
5
GrafX2
All
13
Experiences
Pros
10
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Scriptable using Lua
GrafX2 is scriptable using the Lua language, which can be used to automate tasks and add new functionality to it. The script library features advanced color reduction and enhancement tools, palette analysis, and much more.
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Top
Con
Dated look and feel
It looks like it was never supposed to be used in the modern world.
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Top
Pro
Supports many file formats
GrafX2 supports many file formats, including the popular gif and png, but also importing and exporting from deluxe paint, degas elite, and various other editors using custom formats.
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Top
Con
Lack of modern features
Some modern features that are necessary to do pixel art creation for game dev work are lacking.
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Top
Pro
Very large number of tools and effects
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Pro
Free, open source, and cross-platform
GrafX2 is totally free to use, copy, and modify. It's available on Windows, Linux, Mac OS X, Haiku, AROS, MorphOS, SkyOS, Syllable, Mint, and a few more systems. Basically anything is supported by the SDL library.
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Top
Pro
Palette color cycling
GraphX2 being based on older 256 bitmap software has inherited some tricks that modern pixel editors do not have . One of them being the ability to cycle color palette and produce animations and effects with it.
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Top
Pro
Has a great palette tool
You can create gradients from one color to another, work in either RGB or HSL color space, save and load palettes, sort and organize palettes, and even work on "color cycling" images.
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Top
Pro
Supports tileset addition and extraction
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Top
Pro
Supports animations
The program has a basic support for animation using frames in newer versions. Graphics can be cloned and copied between frames and changed slightly. See here how to animate with GrapfX2 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Gnq6zBZOqoM
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Top
Pro
Has a customizable UI with themes support
Theme UI style can easily be changed from settings including buttons and colors.
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Top
Pro
Drawing constraint mode for vintage 8bits machine
The program is able to enforce the pixel constraints of old machines (C64, ZX Spectrum, Apple II, Game Boy Color, etc.) For example, in ZX Spectrum mode, only 2 different colors can be used in a 8x8 pixel block.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, macOS, Haiku
License:
GPL2
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Experiences
FREE
126
20
Paint.NET
All
10
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Easy to learn and use
Unlike most photo editing software, Paint.NET is simple to learn and easy to use. This means less time is spent learning the in's and out's of Paint.NET and more time on photo editing. For those who only edit photos sporadically and don't have time to invest in learning complicated tools for editing, Paint.Net will suit your needs.
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Top
Con
Only available on Windows
Paint.NET is only available on Windows.
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Top
Pro
Free software
There is no charge for this software; but donations are welcomed.
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Top
Con
No project-based interface
You can only edit a single image at a time in Paint.NET. For example, in other tools you can open 5 or a 100 images at the same time, and stack those windows in all directions. Furthermore, when you are editing in Paint.NET you can only "view" a single image at a time, even though you can have multiple images open. This limits your zooming ability, as the image will go fullscreen quite quickly, and hide parts of it behind the floating toolbars which can not be embedded anywhere on the screen.
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Top
Pro
Lightweight
Paint.net provides a streamlined but effective core tool set. Support for advanced and niche features is provided through modular plugins, allowing the user to install only what's needed.
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Top
Pro
Actively developed
The project is active and being continually expanded and refined.
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Top
Pro
Active and friendly community
The forums are filled with tutorials, as well as people who are friendly and eager to help.
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Top
Pro
Plugins allow extra functionality
Plugins can be made by anyone in the community, and are offered for download on the forum. They extend the capabilities of Paint.NET to cover most tasks.
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Top
Pro
HiDPI support
Paint.NET supports fully HiDPI displays, with no scaling problems.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows
Technology:
.NET
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Experiences
FREE
77
15
Blender
All
25
Experiences
Pros
16
Cons
8
Specs
Top
Pro
Free and open source
Blender is licensed under the GPL. Some Blender modules such as the Cycles rendering engine are licensed under the Apache 2.0 license.
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Top
Con
Too many possibilities, no unified workflow
The operations are not optimized enough for specific tasks.
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Top
Pro
Wide import and export format support
Support lots of modern 3D formats including DAE and FBX - ideal for game developers.
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Top
Con
The physics engine is a bit lagging behind, especially the destruction physics
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Top
Pro
Has a powerful rendering engine
Blender runs the Cycles path tracing engine under the hood. Cycles is a very powerful rendering engine capable of full path tracing (light fall off, caustics, volumetrics). It is mostly compatible with OpenCL and CUDA rendering, and is implementing mycropolygon displacement features. The upcoming release has a viewport engine called EEVEE whereby you can see and interact with your work in render mode in real time!
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Top
Con
Difficult learning curve
Blender has a history of being unintuitive, but the 2.8 overhaul made the program far easier for beginners to pick up, and changes continue to be made to further improve the experience. However, there is still a learning curve.
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Top
Pro
Python extensibility
Blender embeds Python 3, which can be used to write add-ons, tools, extend the interface, rig characters and automate tasks.
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Top
Con
Not good for Industrial Design because it uses average vertex normals
You can not create a hard surface with a radius continuity degree along a surface using a specific radius value.
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Top
Pro
Powerful animation suite
Blender provides a full rigging system, and automates animation by interpolating between keyframe positions.
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Top
Con
Vertex normal issues on edges after boolean operations.
After creating a simple boolean operation the vertex normals are broken. A lot of work to fix the issue and you loos surface continuity.
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Top
Pro
Supports both low-poly and hi-poly modeling
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Top
Con
Bad vertex normal after boolean operations
Does not handle well polygon intersections. And need tweaking by hand points or adding average vertex normals via modifiers.
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Top
Pro
Regular release schedule
Releases are made every ~3 months.
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Top
Con
Does not handle NURBs
Is not capable of real hard surface for industrial design because is not able to reproduce surface continuity degree as a NURBs does and average vertex normal destroy surface radius.
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Top
Pro
Sculpting and 3D painting features
Although Blender's 3d painting and sculpting tools (mostly painting) are not at par with specialized software like Substance Painter, ZBrush, or Mari, it is more than capable of getting most jobs done if the user takes the time to learn and understand it.
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Top
Con
Poor particle system
The Blender particle system can at times be a little limiting and finicky (and buggy) to get working. Even if it can get most straight forward jobs done, it is far from the most advanced system, and could benefit largely from advancements.
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Top
Pro
Includes video editing & compositing tools
Blender's node-based compositor has comprehensive video sequencing and post-processing features.
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Top
Pro
Node based modeling support
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Pro
Keyboard shortcuts
Good keyboard shortcuts for everything. Keep your left hand on the keyboard and your right hand on the mouse.
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Top
Pro
Very useful for a freelancer
It offers a round solution (it covers many areas and professional fields) for a freelancer, for free, constantly updated, very polished, and allowing high quality results that clients do require. After some learning, it becomes very useful for professional work.
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Top
Pro
Has a large community
There's a huge community to help you get started immediately.
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Top
Pro
Coherent and streamlined workflow / internal use logic
The trick with Blender is to get used to its usage philosophy, as it keeps consistent through all the application. Once you get it, every feature or addition is learnt naturally, almost effortlessly.
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Top
Pro
Very versatile
You don't have to switch between software when you want to do different things. Because modeling, sculpting, composting, video editing etc can all be done in blender.
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Top
Pro
Generative geometry using nodes
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows, Linux, Mac, FreeBSD
Technology:
C, Python
3D:
Yes
2D:
Yes (as of 2.8)
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Hide
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Experiences
Free
663
95
Affinity Photo
All
31
Experiences
Pros
28
Cons
2
Specs
Top
Pro
Lifetime updates
Pay once, get updates forever.
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Top
Con
Limited selection of plugins
Plugin support was only recently added to AP and not many plugins have been created for the program so far.
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Top
Pro
Interface will be familiar to those coming from Photoshop
The interface, especially the Photo persona, is laid out in way that's very similar to Photoshop - a panel for icons for tools on the left, a panel for information and settings on the right.
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Top
Con
Can not import gimp or krita files
Free alternatives like GIMP (and Krita) are sort of "go to" apps you can always install and use for simple image editing or graphics on any computer. Affinity's support for Photoshop is great, but having support also for opening and editing GIMP and Krita files would make the versatility and use of this program absolutely superb.
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Top
Pro
Compatible with Photoshop PSD files
Affinity Photo can import and export .psd files.
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Top
Pro
Great performance
Uses the GPU extensively for fast speed on any platform.
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Pro
Supports layer styles
Layer styles allow non-destructively applying effects to a layer.
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Top
Pro
Personas allow separation of concerns
At a high level the interface is organized into broad groups of tools called Personas. Personas like Photo for in-depth image manipulation, Liquify for warping the image, Develop for basic RAW photo development and Export for exporting. Each persona displays only those tools that are needed for that task.
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Top
Pro
Powerful effects
Dozens of visual effects available. All run extremely fast with live previews
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Pro
Non-destructive adjustment layers
Extensive adjustment layers are non-destructive.
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Pro
Everything is well organized
Easy to find and use tools.
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Top
Pro
Runs faster than Photoshop's old code
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Pro
Lots and lots of undo
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Top
Pro
The easiest, even easier than photoshop
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Top
Pro
The perfect combination of Photoshop and Lightroom - all in one
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Top
Pro
Supports Photoshop brushes, shapes, etc.
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Top
Pro
Many tutorials
But still it does not actually matter which tutorial you're actually watching, Photoshop or Affinity's, they are pretty much the same.
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Top
Pro
Very, very cheap for such an app
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Top
Pro
Has an iPad app
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Top
Pro
Decent functionality, 100% comparable with Photoshop
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Top
Pro
Much more lightweight than photoshop
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Top
Pro
RAW file editing
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Top
Pro
HDR image editing
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Top
Pro
Powerful, cheap and lightweight
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Top
Pro
Very modern and intuitive interface
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Top
Pro
Color correction
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Top
Pro
Very fast to learn
Takes about 20 mins, it's that easy.
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Top
Pro
Growing decently fast
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Top
Pro
Panorama creation
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Top
Pro
Imports free images from Unsplash
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Specs
Platforms:
OSX, iPad, Windows
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Experiences
$74.99
134
28
GIMP
All
12
Experiences
Pros
7
Cons
4
Specs
Top
Con
Unintuitive interface
GIMP doesn't embrace OS X application design, thus Mac users might have a hard time wrapping their heads around GIMP's interface.
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Top
Pro
Free, open source and cross-platform
GIMP is completely free and open source, meaning you can use GIMP and all of its features without spending a penny. This makes it an excellent case for artists or designers who may not have the budget to spend over 700 USD on Photoshop. It is also available for free on Windows, Mac OS and Linux. It's licensed under GPL with source code available here.
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Top
Con
Less features than other programs
Being a free program, it shouldn't be surprising that it has limited features. For those needing more advanced features for something more professional, GIMP just isn't for you.
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Top
Pro
Powerful
GIMP is the most feature rich free image editing tool. It has most image manipulation and workflow tools that you would expect from an image editing software and what it lacks it makes up with plugins.
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Top
Con
Lacks adjustment layers
Adjustment layers offer a non-destructive way of combining different photo manipulations. Without adjustment layers the only way to see changes is by irreversibly editing the image. They are promised in future updates.
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Top
Pro
Content-aware tools with a plugin
There's a content-aware fill plugin available for GIMP.
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Top
Con
Poor performance
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Top
Pro
Modular & single-window interface options
By default GIMP splits out each window, but you can check to use the one screen mode in options if you prefer.
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Top
Pro
Lightweight
Compared to to other photo editing software, GIMP is very light weight. In addition it isn't very resource-intensive, meaning you can put it on a flash drive and have it with you to load up on just about any computer.
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Top
Pro
Beginner-friendly
Gimp has less features than programs like Photoshop, but for a beginner, or someone not needing complicated options, Gimp is the perfect choice. It allows you to quickly do basic photo manipulation so you can easily get the product you need without having to worry about complicated features getting in the way.
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Top
Pro
Full channel support
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows 10/8/7; Linux; MacOS
License:
GPLv3+
Tethered capture:
No
Non-Distructive Editing:
No, Feature in development with GEGL
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Experiences
Get it
here
283
60
PaintShop Pro
All
5
Experiences
Pros
3
Cons
1
Specs
Top
Con
Windows only
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Top
Pro
Has tutotirals
There are quite a few tutorial videos available on Paint Shop's website for users.
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Top
Pro
Several file formats supported
Can read and write images in several file formats: PCX, PNG, GIF, CDR, PSD, JPG, EPS, TIF, TGA, WMF... even RAW.
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Top
Pro
Custom palettes
Being able to work with a pre-defined number of color palettes, save and load custom palettes and several modes to reduce the number of colors on a picture.
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Specs
Platforms:
Windows
Tethered capture:
No
Hide
Get it
here
15
5
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