Over the last few years several new programs have surfaced for doing digital drawing and painting that may be of interest to map makers. The professional standards of Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator being beyond the reach of most people's budget leaves a large space for potential new software packages. There are of course free options such as GIMP, Krita and Inkscape. But sometimes you might want something more or just different from these free options.
There are some lower cost options that are interesting and we'll look at several.
Most of these come in at around the $25 to $50 price range and should be doable by even the frugal hobbyist.
PaintTool Sai
PaintTool Sai by Systemax runs about $45 and seems to be a very good and fluid drawing program with much of the potential for full color work needed by map makers. It's used frequently by our member Larb to do some great work and shouldn't be overlooked. It runs on Windows from 98 on up and on 64 bit systems. No MAC version though.
http://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/
openCanvas
Another good editor is openCanvas from Portal Graphics. I've seen a number of users produce works that rival Photoshop and it's much more attractive in price at $59.
It runs on Windows Vista through 10, so no XP and no MAC versions.
http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/oc/
Artrage
Another interesting program at the $50 range is Artrage. I've messed around with a demo and Artrage has some very interesting features like a rotate-able ruler for diagonal lines, paint symmetry or mirroring, and a unique user interface. There's a lot more to see for features at their site. It runs on Windows Vista and up and MAC, as well as on iPads and iPhones at $5 and $2.
https://www.artrage.com/
Sketchbook Pro
Autodesk offers a wonderful drawing package with Sketchbook Pro which is now at $65. For drawing, it is a fast and fluid program with some great features. It isn't quite as full bodied as Photoshop for texturing and color but you can do some incredible full color work. You will need to create some brushes as the brush set is more limited. It supports both Windows and MAC, as well as some lower price options for iOS and Android devices.
http://www.autodesk.com/products/ske...k-pro/overview
Painter Mobile
Corel, makers of Painter [the ultimate digital paint program], have a free offering for Android devices at the Google Play store and the Amazon marketplace. Having just given it a quick try I would say it's good for some quick sketching but not quite a full fledged app. Still, it's free.
http://www.painterartist.com/us/prod...-painting-app/
Procreate
If you use an iPad you can pick up Procreate for a mere $6 at the iTunes store. The program looks very nice and from what our member Xpian says it is wonderful to work with. He does much of his work, if not all, with Procreate and highly recommends it.
http://procreate.si/
Affinity Photo
Another option for you if you're running Mac is Affinity Photo by Serif. At $50 it's pretty affordable and looks very much like the full suite that Photoshop has. Also for $50 from Serif is Affinity Designer, comparable to Adobe Illustrator, which is also Mac only. So for $100 you could have the full raster and vector solution from Serif.
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/photo/
https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/designer/
Mischief
A new choice to try is Mischief, the infinite canvas. Mischief is a vector program that functions like a paint program. It loads of fun to draw and paint in. You can get some great results and you have an infinite canvas which has some nice possibilities for map making. It runs on Mac and Windows [7-8] and is quite affordable at $25.
https://www.madewithmischief.com/
Black Ink
Last is a new program that is still in BETA but looks very interesting. It's Black Ink from Bleank.
You really have to see it to understand how this program works. It's really unique for a program of this sort. It's discounted at $45 while still in BETA. Check out the vids on Steam or at their website.
http://store.steampowered.com/app/233680/
http://blackink.bleank.com/
GIMP
If you're still set on a free program there are a few options.
GIMP runs on almost all OSes and is fairly full fledged and comparable to Photoshop and others.
It is used by a number of the map makers here and is a great option for an image editor.
http://www.gimp.org/
Krita
Another good image editor is Krita. It's free and runs on most systems and OSes, though MAC is a stretch at the moment. There's also a version for touch devices and a Steam version, all free.
Krita can load Photoshop brushes but may not have the full useablity of those brushes.
https://krita.org/
Inkscape
And of course, if you wish to do vector mapping for free there is Inkscape which runs on all OSes and offers a lot of what you'd want in a vector program. And it's free.
https://inkscape.org/en/
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