# PaintTool SAI Reviews **Vendor:** Systemax **Category:** [Drawing Software](https://www.g2.com/categories/drawing) **Average Rating:** 4.3/5.0 **Total Reviews:** 61 ## About PaintTool SAI PaintTool SAI is a high-quality, lightweight digital painting software designed to provide a seamless and enjoyable experience for artists. Developed by SYSTEMAX, it offers full digitizer support with pressure sensitivity, enabling precise and natural brush strokes. The software's simple yet powerful user interface ensures ease of use, making it accessible to both beginners and professionals. Its efficient performance allows it to run smoothly even on less powerful computers, making digital art creation accessible to a wide range of users. Key Features and Functionality: - Digitizer Support with Pressure Sensitivity: Provides full support for drawing tablets, allowing for natural and responsive brush strokes. - Anti-Aliased Drawings: Delivers smooth and clean lines, enhancing the quality of digital artwork. - 16-bit ARGB Channels: Ensures highly accurate color composition for detailed and vibrant images. - User-Friendly Interface: Offers a straightforward and intuitive layout, facilitating a quick learning curve. - Intel MMX Technology Support: Optimizes performance for efficient rendering and processing. - Data Protection Function: Includes features to prevent data loss due to unexpected software termination. Primary Value and User Solutions: PaintTool SAI addresses the need for a reliable and efficient digital painting tool that balances functionality with simplicity. Its lightweight design ensures smooth operation without taxing system resources, making it ideal for users with older or less powerful hardware. The software's emphasis on essential painting tools, combined with its responsive brush engine and pressure sensitivity, provides artists with a natural drawing experience. By focusing on core features without unnecessary complexity, PaintTool SAI enables users to create high-quality digital art efficiently and comfortably. ## PaintTool SAI Reviews ### 1. Simple interface, better than others **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Tofiq H. | Digital Artist, Design, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 29, 2023 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** SAI is an impressive lightweight software compared to other professional tools like Photoshop and Clip Studio Paint. It works smoothly without any lag issues and offers advanced options for each tool. The blend and blur tools are particularly excellent. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** In version 1, the RAM usage was limited to 8GB, which was sometimes problematic. However, I am now using version 2, and it would be perfect if there was an option for "Timelapse record" like in Clip Studio Paint. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** I am a digital artist and currently, my primary software is PaintTool SAI 2. ### 2. As powerful as other software with less investment **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** April M. | Supervisor, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 02, 2021 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** The various tools available are plentiful and I am able to gradient down to fine details for greater breakthrough of my art to the naked eye. I actually prefer this program over photoshop. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** There's not really much to dislike. I enjoy using paint tool to work for my clients as well as myself to make all kinds of beautiful things from party invitations to signs around the house, as well as freelance work. I guess I dislike the fact that this tool does not get as much recognition as it should vs. other tools on the market. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** Make sure to take the time to understand the product and all of the tools available on it, you might be surprised at how powerful it really is. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** The problem I solved with the Paint tool SAI is not having to purchase an exorbitantly expensive product instead of being able to do the same things with this product. Benefits I have realized is being able to take my art a step further to meet the needs of my clients. ### 3. Paint tool sai review **Rating:** 4.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Waleed Z. | Video Editor and Graphic Designer, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 17, 2021 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** Simple tool for drawing and creating illustrations **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** Almost unusable without a drawing tablet **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** It is a cheaper alternative if you do not own a highly advanced drawing tablet or need to start digital painting **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** Creating illustrations directly onto the computer without needing to scan. Very simple interface and the smoothing tool is very helpful ### 4. My favourite painting software! **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Meijia W. | 3D Art Student, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 24, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** I like everything about PaintTool SAI. It doesn't use nearly as much GPU as Photoshop does (this means you can see the brushstrokes as soon as you press down your tablet pen, without any delay) and the brushes are just much easier to use than photoshop brushes. To this day I still don't know how to blend colours in Photoshop, but it is so much easier in PaintTool SAI. The user interface is very friendly and supports PSD files as well. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** The only thing I dislike about PaintTool SAI is that it doesn't have the range of features compared to Photoshop when it comes to Image editing & grading. But it doesn't mean I can't just export it into Photoshop to do it. The other annoying thing is that sometimes the software can't support PSD files and won't let me save my artwork, it seems to be a bug that always catches me off guard and I will have to re-install the app to fix it. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** Everyone I know who use PaintTool SAI will agree that it is much easier to use than Photoshop. I tend to create my artwork in PaintTool SAI, and then export it into Photoshop to grade for a final polish. ### 5. Lightweight compared to other drawing tools **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Ian L. | Online Marketing & Communications Associate, Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** December 20, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** It is lightweight compared to photoshop and i do personally like the pen brush pressure of Paint tool sai compared to PS. The brush pressure is much natural to me without tinkering lots of of its settings. The simple UI of it will make the work faster like you can see all the settings you need on the side and lastly you can intergrate PSD files that you have drawn and edit in photoshop. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** it lacks finishing Image editing features. The only way for now to edit the artwork for finishing touches is through photoshop. Its a good way though but it is super hassle. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** Some will say Paint tool sai is better than Photoshop but it is subjective and clearly based on your skills. Paint tool sai is best in some aspects light being lightweight compared to PS and better simple and direct to use UI. You can use Paint tool SAI to discover and enhance furthur your talents and digital drawing experience. It also provide Free trial so you can test out if you are good with this application or not. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** The direct to point of the program is one of the best featue of it. Photoshop is good for its editing touches but PAint tool SAI is muh better to draw directly and more on a natural feel like the traditional pencil and paper. ### 6. PaintTool SAI - Better for artists than graphic designers **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Quirky P. | Student, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** May 11, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** As an artist, I enjoy the ability to create digital illustrations with ease. There are many different brushes and tools that are necessary for those who like to make digital art and digital paintings. It could be used for logo creation and other illustrations for graphic design, but I would suggest using Illustrator instead, since it's more about precision compared to Paint Tool SAI. Paint Tool SAI feels less limited compared to Illustrator, so I like it more. A final bonus for the program is the ability to have custom brushes, and change settings for brushes. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** I dislike the price, since it's a little expensive, but it's an amazing digital art program for what it is and has so many options. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** I recommend using Paint Tool SAI with other programs if you want to create logos or graphic design projects, because certain fonts might be accessible in other programs, and you might want to format it in different ways. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have realized that Paint Tool SAI is a great program for many artistic possibilities, whether it be making a logo or an art piece. The ability to customize many different things a sort of advantage which is something I appreciate. ### 7. A Review on PaintTool SAI. **Rating:** 5.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** loise k. | Digital Painter, Chemicals, Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** September 19, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** It's possible to open multiple view ports to the same document. There is also a set of vector drawing tools intended for inking which are used to create amazing designs. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** Since i started using this software i haven't experienced any problems. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** I have experienced uninterrupted work with this tool. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** It allows the user interface to open multiple documents. Its easier to create and design graphics paint them with favorite colors. This software incorporate various raster drawing tools such as the Airbrush. ### 8. Such a great product **Rating:** 4.0/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Graphic Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** June 24, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** Sai is absolutely amazing for digital painting. It is so responsive to the pressure and movement of the pen and it’s great. Once you get the hang of it, it isn’t hard to use at all and you make amazing paintings. **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** What I least like about Paint Tool Sai is its outdated interface. It doesn’t look like Sai has been updated in forever since it’s launch maybe even. The flip side of this is that it is simple and there’s not that much that needs to be learned. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** Thus software is easy to use, clean, and helps create professional level digital paintings. Additionally, you can’t go wrong for it’s price. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** I’ve found out how to create beautiful paintings on a digital software that provides a great alternative/collaboration to Photoshop. Without PT Sai, this might not be quite possible. ### 9. Often shutting down randomly **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Graphic Design | Small-Business (50 or fewer emp.) **Reviewed Date:** August 12, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** Easy to navigate tools and gives you the opportunity to customize them **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** The interface is bland, its too bright and can be eye straining. If there was a lock or unlock feature for the in app tools to let your workspace float over your desktop that would be neat. **Recommendations to others considering PaintTool SAI:** If you are a professional, dont use this! This is better for beginners as its more straight forward and easy to navigate. **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** I have been using Paint Tool sai for almost 9 years now. I have used it for a while as im more comfortable with but have not seen much benefits from it. Its good for starting out graphic illustrators though! ### 10. Simple, but enough **Rating:** 3.5/5.0 stars **Reviewed by:** Verified User in Mechanical or Industrial Engineering | Mid-Market (51-1000 emp.) **Reviewed Date:** October 23, 2019 **What do you like best about PaintTool SAI?** It is a very simple tool available on every Windows computer that can do basic tasks like cropping, combining, re-formatting images **What do you dislike about PaintTool SAI?** It is not a professional tool for drawing, and the pixel of the lines being drawn is quite big, making it hard to draw curves **What problems is PaintTool SAI solving and how is that benefiting you?** It is my go-to tool when I need simple image editing or simple designing, illustrations for reports and image cropping. ## PaintTool SAI Discussions - [Hello. I would like to know if there is any tool for highlights? Any brush you recommend?](https://www.g2.com/discussions/hola-quisiera-saber-si-hay-alguna-herramienta-de-brillos-algun-pincel-que-me-recomienden) - 1 comment, 1 upvote - [View PaintTool SAI pricing details and edition comparison](https://www.g2.com/products/painttool-sai/reviews/painttool-sai-review-110025?section=pricing&secure%5Bexpires_at%5D=2026-05-16+08%3A24%3A16+-0500&secure%5Bsession_id%5D=39d37529-d341-4620-8bfb-c44d7495b316&secure%5Btoken%5D=02a7cfc4e1397e59bf69c8aacf083ca55197d5ad5c50d3d7f4fb0cb08d790255&format=llm_user) ## Top PaintTool SAI Alternatives - [Sketchbook](https://www.g2.com/products/sketchbook/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (173 reviews) - [ArtRage](https://www.g2.com/products/artrage/reviews) - 4.4/5.0 (73 reviews) - [Procreate](https://www.g2.com/products/procreate/reviews) - 4.9/5.0 (70 reviews)