Three Best Photoshop Alternative Programs That Will Allow You to Paint Like a Pro!

Depending on your budget, there are a lot of Photoshop alternative applications out there for digital painting. In this section, I will recommend three affordable alternatives to Photoshop that will save you money while still creating beautiful digital art!

The basis for selecting simple: the program must have all the tools that will allow you paint correctly! This means it must contain a brush tool, an eraser tool, color manipulation tools, blending tools, and layers.

Also note that these are paid programs. There are free drawing software out there but I don't have the confidence that free programs will have all the tools necessary for digital painting. You truly do pay for what you get!

With that said, in order of price, the software is Corel Painter, Paintshop Pro, and Art Rage. So depending on your budget, one of these will be right for you and your drawing needs!

You don't have to worry about buying one version immediately, either. All three will give you an average of 30 days to test drive. This will make sure you are comfortable with the program!

But before we get started, let's talk about why Photoshop is in the top position.

Why is Photoshop special in the first place

For what you do in the field of graphic design, Photoshop is an industrial leader in the field of image manipulation. There is no question that it brings a lot to the table in the graphics world.

Generally speaking, the strengths of Photoshop includes:

Nondestructive editing tools
Painting capabilities
Photo manipulation capabilities
Photo editing capabilities
Raster and vector imaging capabilities

Photoshop alternative: Photoshop interface

But for the purposes of being a digital painter, the program can get a bit complicated sometimes. As a matter of fact, you will be hard pressed to use more than half of the available features as a digital painter.

It is also quite costly. At around 600-1000 US dollars for a new copy of the latest Photoshop version and 150 dollars to upgrade older versions, you will find that it is a bit steep for what you want to do! That's why it may be overkill for a lot of illustrators out there!

Due to the minimal changes for the purposes of digital painting, my recommendation is to use an older copy to help save on costs if you insist on using Photoshop as your main digital art program.

With that said, let's start talking about the three other Photoshop alternative programs that will give a digital artist what they may need at a fraction of the price!

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Photoshop alternative 1: Corel Painter

Originally only available on the Mac, Corel Painter became available on Windows due to its amazing painting abilities. The jump to another operating system allowed it to gain even more popularity within digital painters as one of the best painting programs out there!

In terms of painting capacity, the brushes available far exceed what Photoshop has to offer as there are a lot of well made brush presets you can choose from.

As well, the program is quite intuitive to use, comes fully supported with most drawing tablets right out of the box, and very flexible in generating various media styles.

Photoshop alternative: Corel Painter interface

However, being painting oriented, it will lack in other features like some filters and measurement type tools for web page design, vector imaging support, nondestructive editing features for manipulating images, and very limited photo editing capabilities.

Another drawback is the price. Just like Photoshop, it is rather pricey. At around 350 US dollars, it's a fairly expensive program. However, as a digital painter, this program would definitely suite all you illustration needs!

Of course, see if you can find older versions of this computer drawing software to save on costs. Otherwise, it's probably the best programs out there for painting. I highly recommend it as the program is an industrial standard on its own for raster graphics!

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Photoshop alternative 2: Paint Shop Pro

The next software on the list that I recommend is Paintshop Pro. This program offers quite a few bang-for-the-buck features. In addition to the raster image capabilities, it is capable of doing vector paintings as well (just like Photoshop).

The best way to think of Paint Shop Pro is that it is the Jack of all trades but master of none. That's fine though because as a digital painter, the tools and brushes are more than enough.

It's hard to explain but depending on how you look at it, you can consider Paintshop Pro as a 'baby Photoshop' in its own right.

Photoshop alternative: Paintshop Pro interface

You will find that it does photo editing, photo manipulation, has generous nondestructive editing features, vector image support, color correction tools, as well as a host of painting tools.

Another advantage is the price. At less than 100 dollars, it is more affordable than Photoshop! Compared to Painter, what little you give up for pure illustration bliss is made up with more graphics flexibility.

So what are your needs as a digital artist? If you want to focus more on photo editing or web graphics with a bit of illustration on the side, this is the best out there as to a program to do it all affordably.

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Photoshop alternative 3: Art Rage

Art Rage is a new computer drawing software has a lot of potential! As a program centered on illustration based on traditional media, it has most of the tools needed to get the job done.

At a low price of 80 dollars US for the Studio Pro version, it is also very affordable! It is also very easy to use as the learning curve is nearly non-existent.

Being priced very low, it has its advantages as beginners are able to get started on their crafts without a huge initial investment. Plus, most drawing tablets that are bundled with Art Rage are cheaper compared to being bundled to other drawing software.

You also have to keep in mind that, while it has all the tools needed for painting, some of it may be a bit different to get to as the interface is a uniquely different from any of the well established drawing programs.

Photoshop alternative: Art Rage interface

For example, color manipulation tools require extra attention to simulate. To dodge and burn colors, you must select a brush that has this featured blend mode, set the opacity to a very low setting, and then paint on that area to change the color values.

There are no filters, either! This is a program that feels very 'old school' when it comes to painting. Aside from the eraser tool and layers, you paint as though you are painting on a real canvas. Basic and simple indeed!

With that said, the type of artworks that you can render using this program is amazing! You you didn't know better, you would thought that it did come from a real canvas! That's how good it is at mimicking real media.

Regardless, being a beginner, it is a good idea to play with the trial versions of the Photoshop alternative applications mentioned here to get a feel for it.

Not only will you find one that you like, but you can learn a lot about what makes a good drawing program. As one on the road to becoming a professional artist, it is an asset to understand the advantages and disadvantages between various drawing programs.

Plus, you may find another good Photoshop alternative on your own in the near future that works very well for your artistic needs!