Alternatives to Corel Painter

A digital painting program from Corel that simulates natural media brushes for illustration and photo painting. The listings below can replace it for an important use case. Each note says what changes if you switch.

  • Corel Painter

    A digital painting program from Corel that simulates natural media brushes for illustration and photo painting.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOS

Replacements

Listings that take over the same core job as Corel Painter.

  • Rebelle

    Painting software for Windows and Mac that simulates real color mixing, wet diffusion and drying.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOS

    Rebelle also runs on Windows and Mac and simulates wet paint diffusion and drying for watercolor, oil and dry media, with free papers and a trial.

  • ArtRage

    A natural-media painting program with realistic paint blending and textures for desktop, tablet and phone.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOSAndroidiOS

    ArtRage adds Android and iOS versions with realistic oil and watercolor blending, and offers low-cost Lite and mobile editions.

  • Krita

    A free digital painting program built for illustrators, with over a hundred brushes ready to use.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsmacOSLinux

    Krita is free and open source, adds Linux support and ships over 100 brushes with stabilisers, replacing Corel Painter's paid licence and brush packs.

  • Clip Studio Paint

    A commercial drawing and painting app for illustration, comics and animation across desktop and mobile.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOSAndroidiOS

    Clip Studio Paint adds mobile and Chromebook versions and comic and animation tools, with brushes imitating traditional media and paid use after a trial.

  • Paintstorm Studio

    A paid digital painting program with deeply customizable brushes for Windows, macOS, Linux and iPad.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOSLinuxiOS

    Paintstorm Studio is paid software that adds Linux and iPad, with very detailed brush customization and perspective rulers.

  • MyPaint

    A distraction-free painting app for graphics tablets, with an infinite canvas and deeply configurable brushes.

    FreeOpen sourceWindowsLinux

    MyPaint is free and open source on Windows and Linux, with configurable brushes and pigment mixing, but has had no stable release since 2020.

  • Procreate

    A digital painting and illustration app for iPad, sold as a one-time purchase.

    PaidProprietaryiOS

    Procreate moves painting to the iPad as a one-time purchase, with no Windows or macOS version available.

  • Adobe Photoshop

    Adobe's raster image editor for photo retouching, compositing, painting and generative AI edits.

    PaidProprietaryWindowsmacOSWeb

    Adobe Photoshop covers painting plus retouching, compositing and generative AI on desktop and web, but the full version is subscription only.

Also worth comparing

These listings name Corel Painter as their own alternative, so the relationship runs both ways.

  • Artweaver

    A digital painting program for Windows with realistic brushes, layers and basic image editing tools.

    FreemiumProprietaryWindows

    Corel Painter adds macOS support and natural media brush simulation, but is paid only, with a cheaper Essentials edition and extra brush packs sold separately.

Similar software

Related functionality, not a direct replacement.