12 Best Painting Software for Windows 10 in 2024

Enhance your photos by removing imperfections with the Erase feature, or make old photographs look like new ones and restore them to their aesthetic value.

Remove unnecessary objects and smooth the edges of your photos to give them a softer look.

Take your favorite photos, create a wonderful montage in just a few easy steps, and add a dash of extra excitement by using one of the awesome backgrounds.

And if you have old photos, there’s nothing easier than to repair them with just a few clicks using this software.

Don’t worry about learning about using it because you will benefit from an interactive assistant, many tutorials, and an interactive step-by-step tutorial guide that will get you through the photo editor.

Let’s see some of its top features:

• Correct errors on photos with just a few clicks
• Remove objects with a single click
• Create amazing new images
• Simple and friendly interface
• Countless backgrounds available for photomontages
• Share button for Facebook, Twitter
• Switch skies in landscape pictures for vibrant colors

Photo Studio Pro 12

Plethora of editing tools one click away from perfecting your drawing techniques.

Adobe Photoshop is one of the most popular and reliable digital painting programs for Windows 10 PCs. It is widely used by artists, designers, and photographers for good reasons. 

Although its supremacy as the best painting app has been challenged in the last couple of years, the tide has shifted with the new update.

This massive update has brought some long-awaited features like the new re-imagined filters powered by Adobe Sensei.

Photoshop should not only be viewed as a tool that makes you skinnier or brushes up acne. Besides photo editing, it is widely used in creating banners, logos, icons, apparel, and painting.

You can easily switch to a painting mode and adjust the brushes, pencils, and pens for your liking. It is also fully compatible with XP-Pen, which has gained much popularity lately.

If you are passionate about abstract art, you will love the Paint Symmetry feature that lets you duplicate patterns across a line.

Another critical reason to consider is the ability to download thousands of pre-made brushes created by experienced artists. You can also create your patterns and publish them.

Some of the best features that make Adobe Photoshop a perfect digital painting software:

• Duplicate patterns across a line using Paint Symmetry
• Download thousands of pre-made brushes created by experienced artists
• Re-imagined filters powered by Adobe Sensei
• Easy creation of banners, logos, icons, apparel, and painting
• Simple interface but limitless options

Adobe Photoshop

Adobe Photoshop is the best digital canvas you can use to build your art.

Corel Painter is a digital art software that stimulates the use and feel of actual real paint. You can stylize photos using artificial intelligence and transform them into paintings with its auto-painting and cloning tools.

It gives you brush control by allowing you to modify brush size, shape, angle, flow, and many others with thorough brush control panels.

Thanks to its Canvas control feature, you can effortlessly pan, zoom, rotate, and apply lighting and surface texture.

Corel Painter offers great composition tools to establish appealing compositions, such as Divine Proportion, Layout Grid, Perspective Guides, and Mirror Painting.

Moreover, you can strengthen your artwork by using unique content features, including Flow Maps, Patterns, Textures, Gradients, and so much more.

It helps you make the most out of your PC hardware and graphics card by using the Brush Accelerator feature that delivers the best painting experience with just one click.

Here are some other impressive features of Corel Painter:

• Tablet compatibility
• Custom brushes and palettes
• Overlay option to speed up the creation
• Improved keyboard shortcuts
• Change colors, lighting, and texture

Paint.net can easily be considered a stripped-down version of Photoshop, one that is a lot more user-friendly but still can do a great job with any photos.

That said, there is no stopping you from doodling away anything you like, while you can also work wonders on any image you wish to work on.

The usual assortment of paintbrushes is common to nearly all painting apps.

Paint.net uses a tabbed document interface to handle multiple images easily, so switching between projects is as simple as clicking on its tab.

The tab will display a live image, not a text, so there’s no way of messing up which one to access.

And the best part about Paint.net is its versatility. It works well whether running it on an old Windows 7 system or a top-of-the-line Windows 11 rig with a high configuration.

Like other, more complex software, you can use this tool’s layered capabilities to structure your painting like a professional.

⇒ Get Paint.net

Krita – Various masks and layers

Krita is as good as it can get for a serious painting app on your PC, and much of that owes to its origins, given that artists designed it in the first place.

Interestingly, this tool is an open-source project developed by an international community of enthusiasts, and it’s never wrong to add passion for working.

The app can be perfect for any drawing though it seems better tuned for comics and manga.

Also, the artistic lineage is evident in almost every aspect of the Krita app, be it its customizable brushes with the option to save the bespoke brushes for later use or the plethora of pens and fills you have at your disposal.

Then there are panel templates and halftone filters to aid your artistic endeavors. Mention must also be made of the intuitive launching of the color palette or other tools.

For this, you only got to do a simple right-click anywhere on the app, and there will be a selection wheel offering various tools and color options.

Besides, the app also offers a variety of masks and layers as well, including HDR support for exceptional quality pictures. This is one of the best apps for serious painting and is completely free.

Krita

Paint your ideas with personalized brushes and highlight every detail with the Krita app.

This formed part of the Windows 10 Creator’s Update and is billed as the modern-day version of the ubiquitous MS Paint.

While Paint has since survived and will continue to be available via Microsoft Store, it is Paint 3D that will subsequently be the official coloring app on all Windows 10 PC now.

As for the app, there are new brushes and tools for drawing on the display.

However, you get the real taste once you tap on the 3D Object tab that lets you introduce 3D objects and animals onto your canvas or turn your creations into 3D.

Then there are other options to spice up your creation through lighting effects or apply different finishes such as matte, polished metal, glass, etc.

Also, of course, you can paint the surface how you wish. On the whole, a fun app to while away your time while also getting along with some serious painting jobs when needed.

In the newest version, you can use a new Tube brush to create long ribbons or short dollops of volume like a pro. Try it out!

⇒ Get Microsoft Paint 3D

Artweaver can be great for both serious paintings and a fun app for kids. It has a great collection of pens that range from cone brushes, airbrushes, and calligraphy pens, while there also are a range of patterns to choose from.

The app is layer-based, which means you can let loose your creativity in stages with the option to go back and change anything you wish to without hampering the entire artwork.

The app also makes even complex images effortlessly, so try it out.

You now have an enhanced brush editor, which provides all brush settings, including a scratchpad, to try them out.

If you’re done with the work in one day, you can still retrace your steps because the brush selector will show you a preview of the brush stroke and a history of recently used brushes.

Artweaver even supports the Windows Ink Pen interface to get the perfect pen pressure information and translate it to your digital canvas.

⇒ Get Artweaver

Microsoft Fresh Paint is another free painting software for Windows 10 from Microsoft that offers the closest feeling you can have of a pen or brush touching real paper.

So life-like the app is that the colors also tend to splatter when you dip your brush into the palette.

You can wash the brush before using another color or directly smear the brush with a different color if you intend to make a color blend, just as you would have done in real life.

Skeuomorphism is the keyword with the app, as the canvas also tends to take some time to dry, offering you to smear any other color while it is still wet.

You will also discover a feature that you can use to transform your photos into paintings.

No, you will not fool anyone that you became a Van Gogh descendant overnight, but you will get some excellent results.

Overall, this is a nice app for experienced artists or for unveiling the artist to just about anybody.

⇒ Get Microsoft Fresh Paint

MyPaint is another excellent painting app, but it is also unique.

And much of it owes to the app’s Linux origins. That also makes it befitting only artists or those who don’t mind picking up new skills to use the app.

That being said, there is an assortment of brushes to add color to your creations. Then there are layers, while a notepad lets you create sketches.

Also, other artists offer more varied brush packages with the open-source app, which you can download and install in your application.

Lastly, for those who’d like to know, the credit for creating the MyPaint app goes to artist Martin Renold.

He went out to develop a more effective painting solution to suit his needs, which he wasn’t getting with the other painting apps available then.

⇒ Get MyPaint

Zen: Coloring book for adults is a great app, more to pass the time than anything else.

Nevertheless, this coloring book app is designed to breathe new life into your creativity with a new design every time.

As you might have guessed, a series of intricate designs will be presented to you.

All you need to do is let loose your creative instincts in filling up the patterns with the colors of your choice. The results can be stunning if done with care and passion.

However, it’s a painting app that anybody can use without fundamental painting skills because you only need to fill the designated spaces with the indicated colors.

So the only skill you need is a little patience, and the result will be guaranteed to be stunning.

⇒ Get Zen: Coloring book for adults

Sketchable is a great app to put your stylus to the best use, and it’s completely free, which makes it even more enjoyable.

The free version will let you have everything to put your artistic creativity to good use, though, for a few other niceties like layer support for the more serious artists, you need to go for in-app purchases.

The app can also be an excellent asset for design students or officials who can quickly get along with their creative work with the Sketchable app.

With this tool, you can create high-resolution journals with personalized names, covers, and sizes ranging from standard screen sizes up to 4k.

You can be as precise as you want by adjusting hue, value, and saturation to get to the desired color or using a dropper to select one.

Sketchable is like a journal and a canvas, allowing you to scribble a note, snap and edit a picture, import and augment an image, or easily paint a masterpiece and share it with your friends.

⇒ Get Sketchable