Four: Program

First off, something I cannot stress enough: Don't blame the program you use for your own failures, or think that having a particular program will automatically make you good at making comics. MS Paint is not a handicap; Photoshop does not magically make your comic good. Paint is perfectly acceptable for comics. (Most of my comics are made completely in Paint. Sometimes I use GIMP if I need a certain effect, though.) It has everything you need to sprite and put together a comic: pencil, line, rectangle, selection, and text tools. (The spray can in Paint is absolutely useless. Don't go anywhere near it.) Photoshop has all this, plus layers, filters, and a price tag steeper than some used cars.

Of course, other graphics programs are available. If you absolutely must have something more advanced than Paint, I highly recommend the GIMP. It's free, open source, and has most, if not all, of Photoshop's functionality. There's also Paint Shop Pro, which is less expensive than Photoshop (not that that's hard to do). I haven't used PSP, so I can't evaluate it. The same goes for Paint.NET, which looked good when I tried it but kept crashing when I tried to open files with it. Paint.NET only works on computers running Windows XP. IrfanView is good for converting images from one format to another, and adding a few effects. It's free. OpenCanvas and other oekaki (drawing on the computer) type programs are largely useless for sprite comics and spriting. I've probably missed a few; these are what's popular, or what I have on my computer.

Don't go out and buy a program just for sprite comics. Chances are, you'll never be able to make the money back, and $800 for Photoshop is a lot of money, especially when there are free alternatives available, like the GIMP. It's possible to steal Photoshop and PSP, but that's, well, stealing, so don't do it. There are free, legal programs available. You don't need to steal.

There are several links to free image editors on the Useful Links page.

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