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How to Turn a Tablet Into a Drawing Pad

5+ best software for drawing tablets

Tashreef Shareef is a software developer turned tech writer. He discovered his interest in technology after reading a tech magazine accidentally. Now he writes about everything tech from Windows to iOS and streaming services... Read more

Updated:

Posted: January 2021

  • An excellent drawing tablet software incorporates realistic brushes and graphics.
  • Adobe Photoshop functions very much like a digital painting tool and so much more. As always, rest assured that it isn't our only recommendation.
  • Professional color management and a wide range of layers can take your work at the next level.
  • Looking for the best drawing app for Gaomon? A 50 layer per frame might suit you and we've got plenty of options to pick from.

digital drawing app for tablet

Behind are the days when graphic artists used pen and paper to create their art.

Most modern artists are moving towards digital devices and use drawing tablets that can help them create stunning artwork with unlimited customization options.

Drawing tablets are more secure and reliable, offer tons of customization features, and can store your creations forever.

If you have the skills and a drawing tablet, the only thing you need to get started is a matching art generator software.

But which drawing software is best for you? We will try to answer that question, while also covering the best drawing pad software.

In this article, we have gathered the best software for drawing tablets to help you find the best editing app that meets your needs.

What is the best drawing pad software?

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Photoshop CC - software for drawing tablets

Adobe Photoshop has earned itself a reputation for being the most preferred photo editing app and rightly so.

If you're looking for one of the best apps for your Wacom tablet then this tool is definitely one of the most suitable options on our list.

With all the tools it has on offer apart from consistently adding new features regularly, Adobe Photoshop is indeed the most recommended software for digital artists.

From the basic text and pencil tool to the advanced textures and hundreds of brushes, Photoshop has everything that you need in a digital painting app to create next-level digital artwork.

One amazing perk is the new brush features that enable you to draw cleaner lines and smooth brush strokes.

This software also comes with smoothing modes (including Stroke Catch-up mode and Catch-up on Stroke End mode).

You also get seamless integration with other Adobe Creative Cloud suite apps and you can also share your artwork on social media Facebook, Instagram, etc with just one click.

One of the best characteristics is the extensive toolkit that allows you to create professional-grade artwork.

Adobe Photoshop CC

Adobe Photoshop CC

Create your best visual digital work, make portraits intricate drawings, or with this versatile software!

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator is up-to-standard graphic design software that allows the creation of many different types of visual products, like illustrations, logos, product packaging, and icons.

While the UI is intuitive and you can get the gist of it pretty quickly, the number of features this software provides is actually very extensive. It can be used both on Windows and Mac and is available in over 20 different languages.

With Adobe Illustrator you can create typography, draw freehand and trace and recolor graphics. The quality of your images is guaranteed because the software is vector-based.

Illustrator users are very satisfied with the high quality of the images, regardless of the sizing. This is due to the fact that the software is vector-based.

A really nice and convenient feature of the software is that it can be used offline. Your files sync to the Creative Cloud and you can always pick up where you left off. The cloud also keeps all the previous versions of your document, so you can easily access them.

Texts and objects can be positioned with precision. You can turn shapes and colors into logos and icons. You can extract colors from other pictures and use them in your design.

Collaborating is also very easy and convenient. You just have to share a link in order to give access to your project. Moreover, Adobe Illustrator has a large number of users worldwide, which makes it more likely that your collaborators are already familiar with it.

Adobe Illustrator is available by a yearly plan, which can be paid in advance or in small increments, month by month. It also has a monthly subscription plan which can be canceled and renewed anytime.

Adobe Illustrator

Adobe Illustrator

Create high quality images of all sorts and styles with a huge set of optimized tools.

Corel Painter

Creating digital art that looks and feels like a real, traditional painting is among the main qualities of Corel Painter, one of the biggest pioneers of digital art software.

A painter can be used both on Mac and Windows PCs, but it has features that are put to best use on a drawing tablet. It is highly sensitive to the pressure of the pen which makes it feel like a real painter's canvas.

Speaking of canvas, you can easily pan, zoom, rotate and apply lighting and surface texture.

The main contributor to the realistic effect of the paintings you can create in Corel Painter is the versatility of the brushes. You have many brush controls such as modify size, shape, angle and flow. They are very well organized in a brush library. Every dab can be individually edited and adjusted which contributes immensely to the traditional painting aesthetic.

Experimental artists can benefit from the possibility of mixing wet and dry brushes on your painting in order to create unique mixed-media-looking works.

When it comes to colors, Painter has a color wheel, a color mixer, color sets, and harmonies so you can create your own personalized palette. Moreover, you can view your painting in grayscale which helps with certain adjustments.

You can get the software as a one-time purchase or as a monthly subscription. It can be tried in a 15-day free trial.

Corel Painter

Corel Painter

Make digital art that looks and feels like traditional art and mix a variety of tools to create beautiful and unique pieces.

Affinity Designer

Affinity Designer is one of the fastest and most precise vector graphics software on the market. The app offers all the tools that you need, ranging from pen to gradient.

The Designer offers great speed and accuracy, and it allows you to pan the screen at 60fps. In addition, it supports zoom, so you can see and edit the smallest details.

Supports RGB, CMYK, LAB, and Grayscale colors (ICC color management and 16-bit channel editing) and is compatible with PSD, SVG, EPS, PDF, FH files, and more.

With this great software you can take advantage of a raster graphics toolkit and enjoy a wide range of adjustment layers, masks, and blend modes.

Thanks to all the versatile functions this tool is considered by many users as the best drawing app for the Gaomon tablet.

Make the best of your skills with a complex range of brushes, pressure control, and tilt that you can use with your stylus to create natural-looking artwork.

You also get a powerful export mode (to select areas, layers, or objects to export). Affinity supports real-time editing for embedded documents and it allows outline, pixel, and split-screen view.

⇒ Get Affinity Designer

Pixaki for iPad

As suggested, this app is designed to get the most of the iOS features.

Boasting an impressive drawing and editing toolkit, Pixaki allows you to import any image at full resolution, resize and reposition it, then start drawing pixels.

With advanced animation features such as per-frame duration, color-shifted skinning, multiple reference layers, and fully customizable palettes you can easily bring your creations to life.

With Pixaki Support for up to 50 layers per frame (adjust opacity, lighting, and translucency effects)

Customizable color palettes (use the pre-installed ones or import your own) and powerful color replacement

Import and export documents from other apps and share them on social media (PSD, GIF, ZIP, PNG, TIFF, JPEG, and many more).

Modify your images with features such as the adjustable pixel brush and the eraser tools. Work more efficiently with the Split View multitasking support function and get the job done in no time.

In addition, Pixaki offers seamless integration with iCloud Drive and a customizable user interface, which makes it a great choice for pen tablet software for Windows 10.

⇒ Get Pixaki

Procreate

Procreate Ipad

Just like Pixaki, Procreate is built to seamlessly blend with your iOS tablet or iPhone.

Highly versatile, this award-winning app is optimized to fully embrace touch technology allowing incredibly intuitive two‑finger tap gestures.

Create anything from sketches and illustrations to complex paintings on the go and share your artwork with the entire world effortlessly.

Speaking about being on the go, Procreate is powered by the Valkyrie graphics engine designed to help you paint fast and work at your desired pace.

With this tool, you can achieve professional results thanks to industry-leading features (QuickShape, StreamLine, Drawing Assist, ColorDrop, etc.).

You are free to let your imagination take over and make the best of the wide collection of customizable handcrafted brushes (pencils, inks, charcoals, artistic brushes, etc.).

Enhance the visual aesthetic with complete color control features such as Color Dynamics, Color Harmony, Color Companion, and Color History.

This app is compatible with touch technology and it has an integrated Valkyrie Engine for accelerated workflows.

⇒ Get Procreate

Artweaver

Artweaver

Boasting an impressive toolkit, Artweaver is a feature-rich painting tool that covers all your art needs from simple tasks to complex projects, making it suitable for both beginners and pro users.

Artweaver delivers a wide collection of predefined and highly configurable brushes to create pristine results every time.

This is definitely a characteristic that makes it stand out among other programs for drawing tablets.

The realistic brushes (powerful and highly configurable brush system to simulate many different brushes)

This software is easy to use and suitable for novices as well as advanced users thanks to the friendly, intuitive, and customizable interface.

One excellent perk is that you get integrated collaboration tools and an impressive toolkit with multiple layers and filters.

⇒ Get Artweaver

Digital painting apps have evolved over the years, and the manufacturers consistently try to add new features to the tools.

If you are an aspiring digital artist looking for the best drawing tablet software, try our recommendations in this article.

We'd like to hear more from you on this matter so please drop us a comment in the section below.

Frequently Asked Questions

How to Turn a Tablet Into a Drawing Pad

Source: https://windowsreport.com/best-drawing-tablet-software/