# Recommend a drawing program **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [March 15, 2003, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547 "2003-03-15T06:35:30Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 9\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![emolson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@emolson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emolson)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 6:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/1 "2003-03-15T06:35:30Z")
I’m looking for a basic graphics program for Windows. Something like Macpaint for Macs from 10 or 15 years ago would be fine. Any suggestions? ---
**Author:** ![pervertatoid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/f07891/32.png) [@pervertatoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pervertatoid)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 6:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/2 "2003-03-15T06:39:43Z")
Umm… MS Paint? Built into Windows? ---
**Author:** ![gotpasswords](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/g/c57346/32.png) [@gotpasswords](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gotpasswords)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 7:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/3 "2003-03-15T07:22:33Z")
If you want real basic bitmap work, “Paint” is a freebie with Windows. If you want to do something with photos, Adobe has a handful of image editing programs in their Photoshop line. One of the more basic is Album, a basic image organizer, red-eye remover and such. Next up the line is Elements, and then comes the grand-daddy of image editors - Photoshop. Corel produces a very similar app named Photo-Paint. Prices range from “freebie with your new digital camera” for Album, on up to “ya better sit down first” for Photo-Paint or Photoshop. If vector-based art is your bag, the two main choices are Adobe Illustrator and CorelDraw. Neither is cheap. ---
**Author:** ![emolson](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/5fc32e/32.png) [@emolson](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/emolson)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 7:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/4 "2003-03-15T07:36:01Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by gotpasswords \* > **If you want real basic bitmap work, “Paint” is a freebie with Windows.** That may well do it. Can I resize jpg’s with it? Thanks for the response. ---
**Author:** ![psychonaut](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/psychonaut/32/4655_2.png) [@psychonaut](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/psychonaut)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 8:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/5 "2003-03-15T08:21:56Z")
> [@](#): > > \*Originally posted by emolson \* > **That may well do it. Can I resize jpg’s with it?** Not as of the last time I used it, which was when it was bundled with Windows 95. It was only a simple paint program, not a photo editor; it had no ability to resize images, and could open and save files only in Windows BMP format (and maybe a few other simple bitmap formats). If you’re using Windows 2000 or Windows XP, things might have changed since then. Keep in mind, though, that resaving a JPG always results in image quality loss. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Goo\_Fee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Doctor\_Goo\_Fee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Goo_Fee)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 8:38am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/6 "2003-03-15T08:38:15Z")
Any image editor software bundled with your computer should do the jpeg trick. For example, Dell loaded something called “Dell Picture Studio” on my computer-- it’d work fine (but I prefer to use Adobe PhotoShop)… I’m sure Gateway and other companies include a similar deal. It’s a bare-bones editor, but it’ll do your basic jpeg fiddling around. ---
**Author:** ![Doctor\_Goo\_Fee](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/3d9bf3/32.png) [@Doctor\_Goo\_Fee](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Doctor_Goo_Fee)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 8:40am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/7 "2003-03-15T08:40:31Z")
on further review, the Dell Picture Studio only includes a trial version of Paint Shop Pro (another decent image editor); it doesn’t seem to have an editor of its own. ---
**Author:** ![ticker](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/d07c76/32.png) [@ticker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ticker)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 8:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/8 "2003-03-15T08:43:47Z")
Paint Shop Pro is a fairly full featured painting/photo editing program which can be quite cheap (the prices seem to vary wildly, at least here in the UK). The supplied documentation is awful though, so there are several teach-yourself titles available, ---
**Author:** ![The\_MacDairmuid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/a87d85/32.png) [@The\_MacDairmuid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/The_MacDairmuid)\ **Post date:** [March 15, 2003, 9:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/recommend-a-drawing-program/161547/9 "2003-03-15T09:08:54Z")
**Emolson** , you can resize jpgs in the version of Paint bundled with Windows 2000. I don’t ahve any other OS in my house, so I can’t say for others. But seriously, look into other graphics programs because Paint will not satisfy you for long.