It has brushes (e.g. marker tool, brush tool), effects (e.g. fringe, luminosity), and textures (e.g. watercolour A & B) that I can't find anywhere else. Discovering them, experimenting, and applying them changed the way I looked at art and my style as a whole. I've grown dependent on these features to give my art a certain edge that can't be reproduced or mimicked in other programs such as Photoshop or CorelDRAW.

Other awesome features include:

- A unique colour blending system which is fun to play around with. It's different from other programs, so it'll also give different results.

- An easy way to flip the canvas. Extremely important for us nit-picky folks. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It's tricky adding new brushes, patterns and textures, especially when you just want to draw and you're not really inclined to go through the hassle. I find it more difficult compared to Photoshop, so I just don't bother and stick with defaults.

Features that need improvement:

- CMYK definitely needs to be worked in. I take up an unnecessary amount of time and computer memory exporting to Photoshop just to get my work print-ready.

- I've experienced file corruption. I've never figured out why it happened and there's no way to restore the file. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It`s easy and simple to use, it has good tools, it simulates very well traditional techniques.

I liked a lot to use it for inking and digital coloring. Specially I used one brush I liked very much, better than the Photoshop standard brushes.

For example, I used a lot this software for this project, with better results in the "Maple Syrup Page": https://www.behance.net/gallery/23026607/The-Canadian-Leaf-Comic-Book

The color gradation works very well with the pen pressure of my Wacom tablet. Also I liked a lot to use thsi software for inking. Here a sample: http://fav.me/d55vng8

Again, I prefer make the inking with Paintool Sai than Photoshop. The result is more similar to inking traditionally. You can get a clean line and again it recognizes very good the pen pressure. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Only I didn`t like that if I have fonts in a psd file, after the coloring, if I wanted to edit the texts I couldn`t do that. The other thing that there`s not a version for Mac that works fine (I had OS X 10.9). I tried to get Sai for my Mac and didn`t recognize the Wacom pen pressure.

I also tried to contact to the creators of the software or get technical service for solving the problem but I couldn´t.

Only for that I didn`t put a mark of 10. But if it could get a new version of Paintool Sai for latest OS X of Macintosh I would get back to using it. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

PaintTool SAI is fast and easy, everything you need for drawing and painting is already there. Next to this you can create your own brushes and edit options like density, opacity, texture, shape and the amount of blending.

Talking about blending: I found that this works a lot better in SAI than in a lot of other drawing applications.

Next to that, you have a build-in stabilizer for smooth lines. For me, as an illustrator, SAI is absolotely very useful.

You can also save in Photoshop file format, so you can continue editing in Photoshop if needed. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

It is difficult to add new brush shapes/textures, you'd have to change/add things in the file folders instead of in the application itself. I personally don't need it, since I use their given options, but it might be complicated for others.

Another thing that bothers me is that some of the layer blending modes tend to behave different than that of other drawing/painting software. "Luminosity" works great in SAI, but when I open it in Photoshop it opens like "Add" or something else that does not have the same effect.

The pen tool is a bit weird to me, it makes good curves but you can't easily change thickness of the line etc., so I wouldn't recommend it for that.

Also, you can't draw in CMYK in it, so you'd need to convert it later if you need it for accurate printing. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I like it's lightness and the simplicity of the tools, I especially like the color blending capabilities which leave an oil paint feeling when using the tools. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Is doesn't have continuous support, it already feels outdated with some limitations on image size.

The texture options for the brushes need an overhaul.

It lacks circle selection, font support, rulers.

It needs an overhaul to the distortion and selection tools as well.

Lacks more modes in the tools (overlay, lighten, color dodge, etc.) Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Being an artist myself, I have spent time searching for a decent art program that can provide the tools that I need to create; and Paint Tool Sai does that extremely well. A program with smooth lines, intricate detail, and vector artwork is great for any digital designer - especially those interested in manga art, but also other types of styles as well.

Other things which are beneficial from using this art program over others include it's price. Incredibly affordable, with its 31 day free trial that accompanies the download - just to give you a taste of its power. It also supports pressure sensitivity, which is something nearly all modern digital artists need to get the strokes they desire. Also, works well with touch screen computers. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

What I find is a gripe with using Paint Tool Sai as a primary drawing station is that it can be difficult to edit drawings when you have finished them - unless you plan to draw all sections of your images on many different layers, don't expect to have the flow and control over your lines that other rival programs may offer as a base. Also, the layout can get finicky rather quickly, and unless you know the software already, it can be a pain to learn. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The quality of the line art and pencil tools works incredible smooth. Inking with SAI and blending colors its so nice. You can't do that kind of lines and mixtures using Photoshop,vbut the good one is that SAI is compatible with Adobe, so you have the best of two worlds. Another one good point is that SAI doesn't needs much ram or memory space. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

I dislike how limited are the tools, like the lazo and the arrow to move objects. Also the thumbnail in the layer shows blank even is not blank. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The software is really simple and fast to use. It's really soft for the computer compared to other softwares loke PS. With everything you need. Big amount of possibilities with brushes. My favorite is the perfect pen stabilation for the best lineart. It can be use by begginers and profesional artists because is super easy amd fast to understand to understand, it's not overwhelming like PS' layout. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Lack of text tool. Gets stuck when the file is too heavy having too many layers. Canvas maximum around of 8000x8000. Waiting for SAI2 but slow progress. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Painttool SAI has an extremely simple user interface. It's stability option is a blessing for people who are just getting used to using graphic tablets. You can customize brushes and experiment a lot with stroke styles and save the ones that you prefer. It also has a very active community online to discover and use new brush settings. Plus, the lineart options are fantastic once you get accustomed to using them. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Not a lot of 'effects' options. Tools can be hard to get used to. Definitely needs more tools such as Ruler and Text. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Super light and fast. Perfect for sketching/flats/coloring. Brush stabilizer is very helpful for control. Anti-alising is quite remarkable. Vectorial lines are smooth and everything feels more natural. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

Memory issues when working with big files. The non-existing ability to save and keep different brush settings ie: Photoshop's tool presets. No CMYK. Brush customization in need of improvements. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

SAI is a vector based program, and comes with a stabilization tool so any line art produced always looks extremely crisp and sharp. It has a wide variety of brushes and anyone can mimic just about any kind of painting style. The brushes will blend colors together and give textures that are brilliant.

The program is quick to load and does not take a lot of ram, unlike many other paint programs. It also has quite a few of the same layer features Photoshop has and a somewhat similar interface. It has a color wheel which is a wonderful feature. It also has the ability to save in a Photoshop format so you can import all your work to Photoshop and add to it there or import Photoshop files to it. Just keep in mind it will convert any text to a regular layer as there are no text tools in the program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.

The biggest thing I dislike about SAI is it has no text tool and lacks certain features that necessary for graphic design. The program has also not been updated in several years so newer tablets often have problems working with it due to the program not reading the updated drivers correctly. In keeping the old drivers, sometimes you will randomly lose pen pressure and will need to reboot the program. Review collected by and hosted on G2.com.