

Right-clicking anywhere on the canvas in Krita will bring up a selection wheel that lets you pick a new tool and select a color in seconds – a system that's much easier than trawling through menus and settings Each brush is totally customizable, and you can save your bespoke brushes to use again later. There are panel templates, halftone filters, and perspective tools in addition to the usual brushes, fills and pens.

But it's particularly great for comics and manga. You can use Krita for any kind of drawing and illustration, and even animation. The infinite canvas is ideal for letting your artwork flow, and while it's still in its beta stage, you can save $40 off off the full price.Krita offers professional-quality free drawing software, created by a team of artists with the noble aim of making creative tools within everyone's reach. Whether you want to sketch something rough or go for a full work of art, you shouldn't have any problems. Need something more suited for artistic ambition? I've been using Leonardo, which is now available straight from the Microsoft Store, for some time, and I appreciate the simple UI that scales to any size display and the overall collection of tools. Not only is it great for notetaking and journaling - you can add your own photos to a page - it can also be used to sketch or draw thanks to a custom color palette and a collection of tools beyond just a pen. Wondering exactly where to start with the apps? Bamboo Paper is a lightweight app that delivers a true paper feel while writing. Don't have a Surface Pen? You can always check out these Surface Pen and Surface Slim Pen alternatives. And don't worry about mixing and matching hardware the Surface Slim Pen works with older Surfaces. Thanks to most of the above apps having at least some sort of free version, you can give them a try with your pen essentially risk-free to see if they'll come in handy. Why you can trust Windows Central Our expert reviewers spend hours testing and comparing products and services so you can choose the best for you.
