DIGITAL ART EDITORS
What's the difference between digital painting and digital drawing?

Let's face it, both are easiest with a touch screen or tablet, scribbling with a stylus or your finger. Vector drawing is marginally easier with a mouse, but if you're going to do much painting on your desktop computer, you'll find a graphics tablet will transform a frustrating chore into a delight. Drawing on an iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch is even easier. Pick up your screen and scribble on it just like a notepad.

...But what exactly is this difference between digital painting and digital drawing?

With vector drawing, instead of tracing a fine line, you're dotting down points and pushing and pulling at little handles to alter angles. That's why it's not too difficult to do with a flat-footed mouse.

Vector drawing feels more like sculpture than painting.

...BUT WHAT'S WORRYING THIS OWL?

Vector drawing may be less frustrating to do with a mouse than bitmap painting, and may even have been evolved with that blunt instrument in mind. But sometimes you can get some strange results.

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A Pocket PC I had in the heyday of the PDA used vector type processes for handwriting recognition. Vector drawing is included in many word processing applications. Graphics tablets and styli aren't too common in an office setting, but vector graphics are good for lettering, diagrams and charts you can fix with a mouse.

Major desktop paint and photo apps like Photoshop and Painter are bitmap editors. They handle photos and provide inspiring simulations of art materials. However, they also allow you to do some vector drawing. Even if you have the latest Wacom tablet, this is still handy for making circles that don't look like potatoes, squares that are square, and fancy type.

Vector artwork can look a little stilted, but it does stay sharp at any magnification,

Digital art editors. Stylus, finger or mouse?

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