When comparing PaintCAD 4Windows vs Piskel, the Slant community recommends Piskel for most people. In the question“What are the best pixel art / sprite editors?” Piskel is ranked 7th while PaintCAD 4Windows is ranked 28th. The most important reason people chose Piskel is:
WPiskel is HTML5-based so it works in any modern browser.
Specs
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Pros
Pro Doesn't need to be installed
Simply download package, unpack, and use: no installation/setup/registry are required. Furthermore, all settings are saved in its own folder.
Pro You can draw images using the keyboard alone
The cursor on the image allows you to move it to any pixel of your image and place colored pixels precisely. You can draw on a small notebook (when travelling on a train or bus, for example), or in any other situation where you don't have access to a mouse.
Pro Completely free to use
All the user has to do is download the software and put it to use: draw images, create animations (gif), videos (avi), tilemaps, draw raster PCF fonts, and use it on your images for free!
Pro Support for Russian and English
The interface and help system have two localizations (English and Russian) included in the distributive package.
Pro Works with every Windows version
PaintCAD 4Windows doesn't need any .net, java, or other VM installed: it is a pure Windows 32-bit application and will work on every Windows-based operating system starting from Windows 95 until Windows 10.
Pro Works in any browser
WPiskel is HTML5-based so it works in any modern browser.
Pro Animation support
Piskel includes onion skinning, exporting to sprite sheets or gifs, defining frame rate, and present live playback.
Pro Sleek interface
It is also easy on the eyes.
Pro Very simple for beginners
Once you get the hang of it its a very powerful tool
Pro Offline versions available
The downloadable version of Piskel (built with node-webkit) is available for Windows, Linux, and Mac OS X.
Pro Easy to use lighten and darken tool
With the click of a button you can create amazing shading.
Pro Enough tools to be powerful
It has enough tools to be powerful, but not too many to put off beginners.
Pro Open source
Piskel is licensed under Apache License, meaning that the user can use the software for any purpose.
Pro Has a straight foreward tile view mode
... so you can instantly see the result while drawing tiles
Cons
Con Lacks a true resizing tool
There doesn't seem to be any decent tool in Piskel for an easy stretch or shrink. The only ways possible is resizing the whole image or importing and image and shrinking it from the export tool.
Con No button for undo
Have to use ctrl+Z.
Con Rotation is limited
Rotation is only made in predefined angles. Does not support variable rotations or mouse based rotation. Does not support rotating selected areas, only frames-layers.
Con Shading by hand
Shading can be difficult.
Con Doesn't work well with drawpads
In the online tool you can't draw lines at all, yet using a graphic tablet, being in the offline version controls are pretty chunky and everytime you start drawing a line, the screen flickers black for a short period of time.