What is BlankCanvas?
BlankCanvas is a free, open-source raster graphics editor software for digital painting and photo editing on Windows platforms. Developed as a lightweight alternative to commercial programs like Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint, BlankCanvas comes with user-friendly tools for drawing, painting, and image manipulation.
The intuitive interface features a single document window with a toolbar on the left providing quick access to layers, brushes, colors, and other commonly-used functions. It supports an unlimited number of layers for complex compositions, as well as layer groups, layer effects like transparency, and blending modes. There is also a brush engine that allows you to create custom brushes.
For painting, BlankCanvas includes a brush toolkit with options to control size, opacity, spacing, scatter, textures, and more. It simulates realistic paint blending on canvas to help artists create natural-looking brush strokes. Additional handy features for painting include symmetric drawing, rulers and guides, and perspective tools.
On the photo editing side, BlankCanvas provides selection tools, filters for adjustments, text tool, transform controls, and more. It uses non-destructive editing for filters and adjustments to preserve image quality. The Save feature allows saving in common formats like JPG, PNG, BMP and PSD to maintain layers.
As an open-source program, BlankCanvas is completely free to download and use. It works well on low-spec computers too. The simple interface is beginner-friendly for those looking to get into digital art. Artists can use it as a basic program for painting, illustration, concept art, texturing, and image editing.