Clip Studio Paint

I have experience using this software for about 2-3 years.

Overall, my impressions are mixed.

• Performance-wise, Clip Studio Paint is faster than Photoshop, but slower than Krita.
• The software itself, its interface, and settings seem quite user-friendly, similar to Photoshop, and better than Krita's.
• The brush engine felt better than Photoshop's, but worse than Krita's Pixel Engine. Generally, the feel when applying lines and strokes seems less natural – less like traditional media – than in Krita. But again, the brush customization process itself is easier and more comfortable due to a better interface design compared to Krita.
• Photo manipulation capabilities – various filters and such are present, but they are very basic; Photoshop and Krita handle these better and offer more options. However, the basic functionality is there, and considering Clip Studio Paint is software for digital drawing and painting, not image editing, it seems perfectly adequate.
• One thing I didn't like is that Clip Studio Paint comes with a lot of pre-installed content by default that is completely unnecessary for drawing and painting. You have to manually "declutter" the software to get rid of it all.
• Over 2-3 years of almost daily use, I didn't encounter any bugs, but I haven't run into them in Photoshop either, whereas I did find a couple in Krita.
• Contacting the developers for feature requests is very inconveniently set up, and you really don't get the feeling that user suggestions are taken into account by the developers.
• Clip Studio Paint features realistic color mixing (Mixbox). I don't know if Photoshop has it now, but it seems Krita still doesn't.
• Clip Studio Paint, like Photoshop, lacks native Linux support. Krita has it.
• One of the most critical drawbacks of Clip Studio Paint is its development direction. The software is increasingly incorporating unnecessary 3D functionality that artists don't need, which is largely inferior in absolutely every aspect even to Blender's capabilities, should anyone actually need it. And instead of adding features truly necessary for 2D artists, the software gets stuffed more and more with 3D functionality.
• The latest Clip Studio Paint updates can't even be called proper updates – nothing significant or genuinely good is being added, yet the developers market them as full updates and demand separate payment for them.

Overall, the software serves its purpose – it's perfectly suitable for digital drawing and painting. But I see absolutely no reason why I should buy it instead of supporting the Krita developers, who, at least, aren't stuffing software for digital drawing and painting with 3D editor features instead of introducing genuinely meaningful and needed updates. And if one wants to support the digital drawing and painting software industry, I think it would be much more sensible to support Rebelle rather than Clip Studio Paint.

It's sad that software with such good potential is heading in such an... utterly unnecessary direction.

Bought "Lifetime" license just month before they switched to subscription model. Feel scummed.

quick note: It should be noted that Clip Studio can be used for free after the 30 days trial although you are unable to save the image as a file.

My opinion: I've used it for approximately 4 years and I absolutely love it! I've tried photoshop, kirita, medibang, ibispaint, and I think Clip Studio is far superior due to its brush customization, 3D modeller program and online shop - where you get access to free high-quality brushes.

Tip to new artists that haven't used Kirita/Photoshop prior to installing Clip Studio (not related to this review): Please watch YouTube videos about how to use Clip Studio!! They give a wonderful overview of all the features.

Its amazing! Really cheap and easy to get due to hardware bundles, lots of features for the average artist and advanced artist even in it's base editor and tons of features for animators in other distributions!

I've used Photoshop and Gimp before I used Manga Studio/Clip Studio Paint Pro. ...I find CSPP far superior to them both.