CosbyArt

Computer Scanner Options For Aging Hardware

2018-04-22T11:10:00.001-04:00

I find it troubling that a expensive scanner that still works is relegated to the trash due to nothing more than lack of updated drivers - forcing a new purchase.

Sure companies say that the hardware is "not compatible" with new operating systems, but is complete bull. Thankfully there are a few options to fix the "incompatibility" that is better known as abandoned driver updates.

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Smoothing Drawn Lines - Comparing Options

2018-04-20T01:09:00.001-04:00

To finish off my current round of software reviews the last ones are for drawn line correction, stabilization, smoothing, tracking, altering, and other names given to the same task.

That is any line drawn in software and corrected, rather it be mouse or graphics tablet input.

Reasons to need it range from your hand is shaky, your mouse/tablet drivers are incompatible at some level (common lately even for Wacom), a subpar graphics tablet/mouse hardware issue, art program brush limits, and to whatever else. Sometimes called a drawing crutch, which is humorous in many aspects itself, and the reason for the strange image above (obviously without any stabilization /correction either). 😁

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Software Reviews Nearly Finished

2018-04-12T03:13:00.000-04:00

After 23 software reviews with 407 screenshots of art related programs (counting only unique programs), I am reaching the end of my reviews. I can only imagine anyone who views it all thinks my site is little more than one of those bogus paid/spam review websites. 😏

Truth is I get nothing from my reviews, and any software I reviewed was purchased by me through the years, or tested as trial demo's.

I wrote my reviews as I was looking at what is currently available for artists, as I am getting back into it myself after a few years. Plus sharing those experiences may help others from installing dozens of programs or buying some to find out they do not have certain functions.

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Art Review: Serif Affinity Designer

2018-04-11T19:12:00.002-04:00

Program - Affinity Designer (Serif (Europe) Ltd.)
Tested version - v1.6.4.104

Price - 15-day trial, $49.99 to purchase
Notes - Their new replacement for DrawPlus, and is a amazing upgrade
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.7.5 (Mac Store)
Official website - https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/designer/

Raster or Vector - Both Vector and Raster. Two layouts, Draw Persona (vector) and Pixel Persona (raster), with seamless switching.

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Art Review: Ambient Design ArtRage

2018-04-10T01:55:00.000-04:00

Program - ArtRage (Ambient Design Ltd.)
Tested version - v5.0.5

Price - Unlimited time trial, $29.90 Lite, $79.00 Full (version comparisons)
Systems - Windows Vista/7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.6, Android, iPad/iPhone
Official website - https://www.artrage.com/

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: Serif DrawPlus

2018-04-08T18:17:00.002-04:00

Program - DrawPlus X8 (Serif (Europe) Ltd.)
Tested version - v14.0.1.21 (final)

Price - $24.99 to purchase (discontinued, but still available at the discount).
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - http://www.serif.com/drawplus/

Raster or Vector - Vector

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Art Review: Autodesk SketchBook

2018-04-08T02:03:00.000-04:00

Program - Autodesk SketchBook (Autodesk, Inc.)
Tested version - v8.5.1

Price - 15-day trial, $29.99 per year subscription, $85.00 Enterprise per year subscription (comparison, scroll down their page)
Notes - The demo has very limited features unless you sign-up for the 15-day trial with an account.
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X, Android, iPad/iPhone - see complete details.
Official website - https://www.autodesk.com/products/sketchbook/overview

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: Pixia

2018-04-07T13:21:00.000-04:00

Program - Pixia (Isao Maruoka)
Tested version - 6.04f

Price - Free
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - http://www.ne.jp/asahi/mighty/knight/

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: SmoothDraw

2018-04-07T12:15:00.003-04:00

Program - SmoothDraw (Qingrui Li)
Tested version - 4.1.4.0

Price - Free
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - http://www.smoothdraw.com/

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: AzDrawing and AzPainter

2018-04-07T01:40:00.003-04:00

AzDrawing

AzPainter

Programs - AzDrawing2 and AzPainter2 (AzSky (Azel))
Tested versions - AzDrawing2 v2.02 and AzPainter2 v2.12

Price - Free, open source
Notes - Both programs are a complementary package, so I am including them together too.
Systems - Windows XP/Vista/7/8.1/10, Linux
Official website - Linux (newest) http://azsky2.html.xdomain.jp/ (English translated)
Windows (discontinued November 22, 2011) http://hp.vector.co.jp/authors/VA033749/index.html (English translated)

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Differences Between Corel Painter Essentials 6 vs Corel Painter 2018

2018-04-06T06:02:00.000-04:00

Corel Painter Essentials 6

vs

Corel Painter 2018

A basic comparison of the differences between Corel Painter Essentials 6 vs Corel Painter 2018 - with a setup as similar as possible. I have already reviewed Painter 2018, but I see no need for a individual review for Painter Essentials 6 (beyond this difference comparison).

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Art Review: Corel Painter

2018-04-05T20:44:00.000-04:00

Program - Corel Painter 2018 (Corel Corporation)
Tested version - v18.1.0.651

Price - 30-day trial, $199.00 for full version
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.10
Official website - https://www.painterartist.com/en/product/painter/

Raster or Vector - Raster with some editable vector tools

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Art Review: CorelDRAW

2018-04-05T03:15:00.000-04:00

Program - CorelDRAW 2017 (Corel Corporation)
Tested version - v19.1.0.419

Price - 15-day trial, $469.00 for full version (or $198.00 for a yearly subscription)
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.coreldraw.com/en/product/graphic-design-software/

Raster or Vector - Vector

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Art Review: Inkscape

2018-04-03T01:06:00.000-04:00

Program - Inkscape (Credit list)
Tested version - v0.92.3

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows XP/Vista/7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.7, Linux
Official website - https://inkscape.org/en/

Raster or Vector - Vector

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Art Review: MediBang Paint Pro

2018-03-31T17:37:00.002-04:00

Program - MediBang Paint Pro (PGN Inc.)
Tested version - 14.0 (ver 2.0.1)

Price - Free, ad supported (single closable window) no malware in version tested (or ever heard of).
Notes - The software Terms of Service. This software is aimed at artists that want a MediBang account, but is not required.
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.9 - iPad / iPhone / Android (see site for those specs)
Official website - https://medibangpaint.com/en/

If you are wondering what are the Differences Between FireAlpaca vs MediBang Paint Pro then read my post.

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Differences Between FireAlpaca vs MediBang Paint Pro

2018-03-31T10:37:00.000-04:00

FireAlpaca

vs

MediBang Paint Pro

For this I used the newest versions of both programs from PGN Inc., FireAlpaca v2.0.1 and MediBang Paint Pro 14.0 (ver 2.0.1) as of March 31, 2018.

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Art Review: FireAlpaca

2018-03-30T16:19:00.002-04:00

Program - FireAlpaca (PGN Inc.)
Tested version - v2.0.1

Price - Free, ad supported (single closable window) no malware in version tested (or ever heard of). Or an ad-free version for $39.99 on Steam (ironically).
Notes - The software Terms of Service is found on the download page (half-way down the page).
Systems - Windows Vista/7/8.1/10, Mac OS X 10.7
Official website - http://firealpaca.com

If you are wondering what are the Differences Between FireAlpaca vs MediBang Paint Pro then read my post.

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: Corel PaintShop Pro

2018-03-29T13:15:00.001-04:00

Program - PaintShop Pro (Corel Corporation)
Tested version - v20.2.0.1 2018

Price - 30-day trial, $63.99 to buy
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.paintshoppro.com/en/

Raster or Vector - Primarily raster; however, some things are done in vector format too.

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Art Review: Artweaver

2018-03-27T19:04:00.001-04:00

Program - Artweaver (Boris Eyrich Software)
Tested version - v6.0.8

Price - Timed trial, $42.30 (34 €) for Plus, they also offer a limited Free version, see comparison
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.artweaver.de/en

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: Krita

2018-03-27T08:16:00.004-04:00

Program - Krita (KDE)
Tested version - v4.0.0

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X, GNU/Linux
Official website - https://krita.org/en/

Raster or Vector - Primarily raster; however, various things can be done in editable vector format too.

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Art Review: Paint.NET

2018-03-25T12:55:00.003-04:00

Program - Paint.NET (dotPDN LLC.)
Tested version - v4.0.21

Price - Free (custom license)
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.getpaint.net

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: MyPaint

2018-03-25T04:58:00.001-04:00

Program - MyPaint (MyPaint Contributors)
Tested version - v1.2.1

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X, Linux
Official website - http://mypaint.org

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: PaintTool SAI

2018-03-25T01:31:00.000-04:00

Program - PaintTool SAI (SYSTEMAX Inc.)
Tested version - v1.2.5

Price - 31-day trial, $51.49 (5400JPY) to buy
Systems - Windows 98/2000/XP/Vista/7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.systemax.jp/en/sai/

Raster or Vector - Primarily raster; however, various things can be done in editable vector format too.

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Art Review: openCanvas

2018-03-24T22:58:00.000-04:00

Program - openCanvas (PGN Corp.)
Tested version - v6.2.11

Price - 120-day free trial, $59.00 to buy
Note - Version 6.2.11 is the newest version available from their website, however they sell openCanvas 7 through Steam (if you want to install/use Steam).
Systems - Windows Vista/7/8.1/10
Official website - http://www.portalgraphics.net/en/oc/

Raster or Vector - Raster

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Art Review: GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program

2018-03-24T09:00:00.000-04:00

Program - GIMP - GNU Image Manipulation Program (The GIMP Development Team)
Tested version - v2.8.22

Price - Free, open source
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10, Mac OS X, Linux, BSD, Solaris
Official website - https://www.gimp.org

Raster or Vector - Raster

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