openCanvas is a painting application from Japan. The program is particularly popular among manga draughtsmen, but not only for them. Its functions can be successfully used to draw in any style.

Here you will find classic tools such as pencil, calligraphy feather, watercolours, pastels and oil paints. You can also create your own brushes by changing the parameters of those supplied with the program or using the bitmap as a brush. Interestingly, this program can be coloured in a comic-like way, i.e.

with a raster pattern typical of printing. openCanvas offers a wide range of raster shape configuration options, including unusual patterns such as circles, and quite a large selection of standard ones: rhomboids, dots, circles, chessboard, mesh, lines, etc.

openCanvas works very well with a pen tablet. The tools used in the program are pressure sensitive, so drawing in the program is very natural. When drawing with the mouse it is worth to use the system introduced in version 5 which makes it easier to draw curves (it is activated with brush settings).

Among the editing tools are, of course, different types of selection (rectangle, ellipse, polygon and lasso), the magic wand known from other graphic programs, fill, gradient, and the combination of selection and fill, which allows you to automatically fill the area as soon as you select it. There is also a text tool, magnifying glass, mask (cropping) and colour sampler. A great advantage of openCanvas is the ability to work on layers and use masks.

The whole is complemented by a set of basic effects (noise, blur, mosaic, etc.) and filters modifying the image (levels, color balance, brightness, contrast) and classical distortions. If you are looking for inspiration, visit the openCanvas user gallery. You can also find program-specific "Event" files - files with the recorded progress of the creation of a given illustration.

It can be an invaluable help in learning to draw. Of course, each user can record and share their own Events. In addition, the playback progress can be viewed on users' websites via the Flash player.

openCanvas can be tested for 30 days after installation or run 300 times. During this time, the user does not have access to the collection of brushes, gradients and toning textures. At the end of the trial period, access to file saving, saving layers and copying images to the clipboard is blocked.