The best digital art software for creatives in 2020

1

Adobe Photoshop

For a long time, Photoshop was the unquestioned king of digital art tools, but increasingly, competitors' offerings have been challenging its reign. However, Photoshop remains a hugely capable and powerful tool and recent updates have seen its capability expanded further. Add to that the complementary iOS app that's only set to get more powerful (see our Photoshop for iPad review), and the photo-editing giant becomes even more attractive.

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2

Affinity Designer

Not only that, last year's upgrade (here's our Affinity Designer review) saw Affinity add support for the Apple Pro Display XDR monitor, and tweak the program to run faster than ever on new Macs. While this is a dedicated vector tool, you can switch to a pixel environment if you wish. A new version (Affinity Designer 1.9) is currently in Beta so watch this space for a new version coming soon. There's a companion app for designing on the go, too: read our Affinity Designer for iPad review.

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3

Rebelle

Rebelle 3 claims to provide a true-to-life painting experience, and it doesn't disappoint. Described as 'one of a kind' paint software, which mimics the way paint behaves in the real world, you can simulate a drop of colour being blown and running in different directions. Blow length, drip size and the amount of water being 'used' can all be specified, while the Tilt option lets you decide which direction your colours will run in.

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4

Procreate

This isn't digital art software as we know it – Procreate is for iPad only. However, it's such an impressive tool that we're starting to see more and more digital artists integrating it into their workflows, which is why we've included it in our list. This app packs in most of the capabilities you'd find in a desktop tool, including precise colour picker tools, a text tool, the ability to work with hundreds of layers, and industry standard tools such as masks, Blend Modes and groups.

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5

Clip Studio Paint

Clip Studio Paint is quickly becoming the go-to tool for manga art and comic creation. If you're looking for a natural and traditional feel that's wrapped up in a digital drawing and painting app, this is it. Clip Studio Paint uses advanced pen pressure detection for natural, realistic-looking pen strokes.

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6

Artweaver

Artweaver 7 is a full-featured digital art tool available in two flavours: Artweaver Free and Artweaver Plus. Take a look at the comparison chart to help you decide which is right for you.

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7

Artrage

Although ArtRage is primarily focused on natural media and painting, it's flexible enough that digital artists who are used to Photoshop will find it useful too. With ArtRage 6, you can do everything you'd expect from a digital art tool: customise brushes, record your own actions, customise the look of your canvas and more.

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8

Krita

Krita seems to be one of the most underrated free and open source painting apps on the market, despite the fact that it's been publicly available since 2004. Krita has an intuitive and customisable interface, where the dockers and panels can be set up to maximise your workflow.

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9

Corel Painter

Corel Painter's latest version has plenty to offer artists of all levels. Performance improvements and new tools make the 2020 version more tempting than ever. The Brush Accelerator tool means that you'll always be working with optimal settings, and this makes painting in Corel Painter a decidedly lag-free experience. Improved options for selecting colours also make Corel Painter easier to use than previously versions.

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10

TwistedBrush Pro Studio

TwistedBrush Pro Studio comes packed with more than 9,000 brushes. Yes, you read that correctly – 9,000 brushes. But don't worry, you can still create your own brushes too. Like other digital art tools, TwistedBrush has everything you'd expect: layers, transparency, masks, extensive options for import and export, image filters, and more. It also has drawing tablet support with high precision sampling and pressure sensitivity.

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11

MediBang Paint Pro

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12

Black Ink

It's all about realistic brushes, right? Not always! Black Ink has a different approach when it comes to brushes. Instead of trying to mimic traditional physical art tools, Black Ink embraces its digital strengths and uses a Controller system that opens a whole new world of possibilities in brush creation and customisation. Using a simple node-based language, you'll be able to create any type of brush imaginable, which you can then save and share with the community.

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Paintstorm Studio is another easy-to-use digital art tool that's worth a look. Some of the major benefits of Paintstorm Studio are its brush selection and customisation options (these include spacing jitter, texture, angle, and more). It also supports stroke post correction, which is a handy feature when you're doing linework.