I love to draw. It’s what I do during my boring lectures. It’s what I do to relax. The tablet pc as a drawing tool was a huge part of the appeal when I was first looking at buying a tablet and seeing that we’re having a bit of a ’software week’ here at STPC I thought I might give a rundown on what is available and what works best for different drawing styles.

I’m going to look at a number of packages including MsPaint, Artrage, Alias Sketchbook, Flash, Corel Painter, Photoshop and I’ll add a rundown of any drawing software that I get sent.

MS Paint (Vista)

We can’t do a drawing software comparison without giving an example of how MS Paint handles tablet input. Its such a staple for many people as its always there, easy to use and is light on system rescources.

Unfortunately, MS Paint does not work with pressure levels so besides the basic scribbling it’s completely outclassed by every other program here.

Artrage 2

Artrage is my favourite program to show off what a tablet is capable of. It can produce some fantastic looking results and is a lot of fun. It’s real forte is its realistic color matching when using paints. This software also designed specifically for tablets so it works really well when you come to painting near a color pallete or changing settings. There are also a lot of cool canvases and effects that can be used such as chalk on a blackboard and pastels on rouch paper. However, for serious drawing, I didn’t find the pencil or pen tools to be quite as nice as programs like Sketchbook and professional painters probably wont find the painting tools to be quite as professional as Corel Painter. This shouldn’t detract from how good this software is and how much the average tablet user should definately get a copy.

Alias Sketchbook 2.0

If you want to replicate the feel of drawing or writing on paper, nothing beats Sketchbook. The default pen tool is SO good that I even use it to write pages of notes! The software runs smoothly, allows saving in a range of formats and is easy to use with a pen. It doesn’t offer any painting function like Corel Painter or Artrage but there is no better software for drawing. I wish that Onenote’s pen flowed like the one in Sketchbook. Its important to note that Sketchbook generates raster pictures so one you have drawn a line, you can’t change that line without erasing it,however, the way that layers are handled is fantastic with the user being able to pen in a description for a layer.

Flash CS3

Some people will wonder why Flash is listed on here but many graphic artists will understand that there is just ’something’ about the way that flash handles its vector art that works incredibly well. The good news is that flash also has a really good looking brush when used with a pen. Its probably not useful for realistic line drawings but I’m sure that there are many graphic artists that would adore it. Flash’s overall UI isn’t fantastic when it comes to doing everything with the pen but if its just drawing you are doing then you shouldn’t have any problems.

That’s Flash 8 but its practically the same for drawing.

Corel Painter X

Without a doubt the most professional pen input painting program. The brushes are flawless and realistic and the paint mixes beautifully. If you are a serious artist or are looking to use a tablet (or any computer) for serious artistic work then this is the definative software for you. The only problem with it… Is that it is TOO good. Its incredibly comprehensive, to the extent that if you are not a serious artist you have to wade through the many many brush types and settings to get your desired effect. While I’m sure that you could reproduce the feel of the Sketchbook pencil or Flash brush using the many settings, the simplicity of being able to just whip it open for a quick draw isn’t there. If you are a serious artist then definately give this a go as im sure that in the correct hands it could produce stunning results.

Unfortunately I don’t have the skillz to give a good example. Perhaps someone can send me something? Otherwise try deviantart.

Photoshop CS3

I couldn’t do this rundown without touching on the mother of all graphic software, Photoshop. Its clearly understood that if you want to do something with raster images, you can do it in photoshop and the same is true for sketching. The brushes are all customisable to work with pens and pen pressure. You can actually set a variety of different settings to vary with pen pressure such as opacity, roughness and thickness all at once if you wanted. This makes its flexible in getting the effect your want out of your brush and its probably a bit simpler than Painter X in doing it. Photoshop does not have any paint mixing tools like Artrage and Painter X. Obviously, Photoshop’s strength is in photomanipulation and the pen can be used to control all of the other tools like you would expect.

Pictures of Photoshop in action soon! (my trial licence ran out while I was drawing)

Conclusion:

Evidently, not one application will suit everyone with each program having its strengths.

Sketchers will love Alias Sketchbook, the pencil works like no other program.

Painters and professionals will love Corel Painter X, incredible range of tools and realism.

Vector graphic artists will love Flash’s cool looking brush.

Photo editors will love Photoshop and its ability to apply its tools seamlessly to the pen.

for everyone else there is Artrage.

If anyone has any cool looking results, send them to me and Ill try to put them up or leave a link in the comments!

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3. Giveaway of the Day: Wow……EverNote!!