Opinions wanted on drawing programs

[sporticus]

Hi, I have read some of the posts but have become confused.

I currently use Paintshop pro 9 but have been having various errors with it. It is no longer supported so I've had no luck fixing it.

I have considered upgrading to the latest version but don't think it will work on my laptop which is a little old now. I am running window 8.1 on a laptop with an Intel(R) Celeron(R) CPU B830 @1.8ghZ with 4GB RAM.

I was hoping the more experienced of you could give me some advice on alternative art software? I have used PSP as I originally had a free veriosn many years ago and then upgraded to version 9.
The thing I found it good at are:-
1) Imporing PDF files as images for editing and rescaling etc
2) I use the clone tool, smudge/retouch tools, texture effects a lot for adding some detail to models.

Any suggestion very welcome

[Texman]

You might consider Inkscape. It takes a bit to learn (I am still learning) but it
does it's job very well for a free program.

[whulsey]

Are you wanting a drawing (vector) or an image (bitmap) program. From your post it sounds like you're looking for an image program which I believe is what PSP is. In that case I would recommend GIMP which is available as a free open source program.

For vector programs I'll go with Ray' recommendation of Inkscape. Learning curve is a bit steep, but all of them are. I've seen ads that Corel Draw is being offered at special prices for the holidays. Its an excellent program.

[bigpetr]

I am with you boys. Best free programs:

Vector drawing - Inkscape
Bitmap drawing - Gimp

[Damraska]

GIMP is a very powerful, open source alternative to Paint Shop Pro. Paint Shop Pro 9 was released in 2004 so the latest version of GIMP probably has far more features. A vast community of users offer support and tutorials. Open source means the program is offered free to all users and maintained by developers from all over the world who donate their time. Anyone can view the entire code base and anyone can contribute to further development.

GIMP runs fine on my writing laptop with Windows 8 and 4 GB of memory. It may crash from time to time but I mostly blame crummy Windows memory management for that. When in doubt, save regularly.

It will take some adjustment learning a new interface and hot keys, especially after 16 years. That always sucks. If things do not work out, uninstall and try something else.

Inkscape is an open source replacement for Adobe Illustrator of Corel Draw. Unless you also want to learn vector drawing, that will not help you.

Good luck!

[ShadowCory]

For painting, I really prefer Krita, which is free and open source as well, over Gimp. I also use Inkscape for vector work.
Krita Desktop | Krita
Also, just a suggestion, you should see about getting rid of that windows, and try out Linux Mint, or Lubuntu for an OS. They do a lot more with lesser hardware than Windows can. You can even just boot up on a thumb drive and give it a test run without bothering your windows install. Just a thought.

[bigpetr]

Kritia looks powerfull, I must try it. Thanks for the tip.

[sporticus]

Thanks all. I've downloaded Gimp and will give it a go. Tbh I never found psp that intuitive so learning a new program won't be that bad!