PaintTool SAI is a painting solution by Systemax ideal for various illustrations such as cartoons and animes. The program has a simple interface and comes with easy-to-use tools. It is not complicated like its competition, and still manages to keep the advanced features and functionalities other similar tools offer.
PaintTool SAI comprises two primary panels: layer panel, and colour and tool panel. These are located on the left and right sides of the screen, respectively. Additional controls can be found at the top-located “quick bar”. Users can step back from an action, rotate the canvas, and also reset things to default.
PaintTool SAI provides complete digitised support, which means the program can be used on mobile devices as well. Distortions in drawings and images are also reduced when the lower resolution variants are worked upon in the painting application. This functionality is called anti-aliased drawing.
The flexibility and versatility with regard to colours is among PaintTool SAI’s highlight features. It provides a range of hues for artists to make a selection from. There are basic/primary colours and also more advance colours. When a particular colour is chosen, users get to see the whole spectrum of the colour’s dark and light versions. Moreover, a colour’s saturation, luminescence, etc. can also be altered.
Swatches is a section that helps save all favourite colours. To save a colour, the colour should be first chosen. Then swatches should be right-clicked and the option “set” must be chosen to save the particular colour to the palette. People who use certain colours too often would find this feature time-saving and convenient.
A scratchpad is a section that helps mix all kinds of colours, without hurting the primary canvas. It’s essentially a place to try out colour combinations before applying them onto the canvas. Once a colour combination has been approved, the scratchpad can be cleared and new blends could be tried.
Layer tools let users erase particular segments of a sketch without having to worry about accidentally erasing other portions of the drawing. Also, layer tools help move portions of a sketch or combine multiple drawings. Two different layers can be locked and moved together too.
As far as device support goes, PaintTool SAI supports Windows, Android, Linux, Mac, iPhone, and web-based devices. With regard to customer support, the vendor provides assistance via tickets and also through training.
PaintTool SAI is not free but the software can be downloaded for free. People who are keen to use the tool but aren’t sure about buying it outright can start with a 31-day trial that offers complete access to the tool and all its functions for free. Once the trial period is over, the software would automatically disable its functionality.
PaintTool SAI only runs on Windows computers and doesn’t support Macintosh. It works on almost all 64-bit versions of Windows, including 98, 2000, Vista, XP, 8 and 10. The CPU should be Pentium 450MHz or higher and the RAM needed could be anywhere between 64MB and 1024MB, depending on the OS. And the hard drive should have at least 512MB free space.
The drawing utility that'll bring out your artistic side
