Introduction Paint programs—when we talk about them some people may interpret them generally as a raster or bitmap editor, or wrongly as vector-graphic drawing software. Even though they have some similarities, paint programs are really a different class of product. If we talk about raster or bitmap programs, like GIMP or GIMPshop for instance, they give users ability to apply artistic filter effects to photos and transform them to look like works of art and save images composed of connected dots; whereas about vector programs like Inkscape, they give users flexibility to work on images composed of connected lines and scalable to any size without effecting image quality. Paint programs even though work like bitmap programs, in general sense they are software that is supposed to give traditional painting medium feel and effects. On the right is an example of what an artist can do with a paint program. (Image source: ). Paint programs are a choice for many and can be used by newbies because generally there is no steep learning curve.
To start working on them you only need a little imagination. My idea about a good paint program is that it is easy to use even to novice users, gives feel of natural painting on a digital canvas, supports graphics tablets with pressure sensitivity and is able to save in a small file size without taking up much space.