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Apr 2019

Hello, again. =)

Would anyone consider MS Paint to be a versatile program?

I've been trying to get into spriting, and I feel that it's almost perfect for me.

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    Apr '19
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    Apr '19
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I'm not someone who does sprite work or pixel art so I'm only weighing in on the capabilities of a program. That being said I wouldn't say MS Paint the most versatile program but if you know how to work it then it can be effective.

As for other free software I'm often recommending Medibang Paint Pro and FireAlpaca, though it's mostly because I use them myself. Again I've not gotten into pixel art but it does provide a basic pixel brush and with some quick online research you can find other brushes that are effective for creating pixel based/styled artwork.

Links for the two programs are here:


I use Krita for free, but I'm not a spite artist.

Mostly, paint not having layers or pen pressure is a absolute no for my style. I do use it for editing and resizing since it's so lightweight, but it definitely isn't versatile.

I don't think it's a problem if paint works for you. It doesn't slow down the computer much, and is really easy to work with, but that's because it's a very simple program, and it won't support most art styles. But sprite art is where it can work great, since it doesn't put much emphasis on layers and brushstrokes. I would, however, consider a heavier program just because if you want to put sprites on multiple backgrounds, something with layers will make that waaaay easier.


Paint tool sai is my most favorite art program, I have done sprites and pixel art with this in the past and it came out amazing. I use the binary tool to do this btw.

I also use Sai to draw and where I mostly draw my comics from. In my opinion sai is a very versatile program for me. Second one is Medibang, but I have gotten more used to Sai tho lol

It's perfectly alright if you use MS paint as well, I heard there are some tricks to where you use this but I recommend to keep finding an art program that suits you the most.

Good luck~

I would never be able to work on MS Paint, but I could see it maybe being handy if you draw with a mouse and don’t have pen pressure anyway, or if you’re used to drawing traditional and don’t need layers. Honestly though, props to you if you’re able to work with MS Paint, because that’s awesome (put speedpaints on Youtube with “MADE IN MS PAINT” and I’m sure it will get views hahha).
I’m personally a HUGE fan of Clip Studio Paint, basically the opposite, with a ridiculous amount of options, tools, and I love their page manager for comics.

You can make a ton of cool stuff using ms paint (yes, I saw that santa video lmao), and from what I've heard it's pretty good for pixel art.

However, for most of my spriting, I use this site called piskel (https://www.piskelapp.com/3), which is completely geared towards making pixel art (as you can tell from the name). It's got a whole buncha features that make life much easier, especially when animating.

mm yeah i wouldnt reccomend using ms paint for sprite work.
you'd want a program you can copy-paste portions with (when drawing symmetrical objects) and that automatically reduces the amount of pixels in a storke to the minimum necessary. this has a name i forgot, saldy..
for example SAI has it, medibag (as far as i remember) doesnt.
the difference would mean you spend a lot less time fixing up edges where two pixels overlap since the program already does that for you.

someone also mentioned piskel, which i havent used, but heard great things about!

There seems to be a lot of diverse answers here. I guess I'll just have to experiment. =)

I just got into Krita as well.