Tested version - v6.0.8
Price - Timed trial, $42.30 (34 €) for Plus, they also offer a limited Free version, see comparison
Systems - Windows 7/8.1/10
Official website - https://www.artweaver.de/en
Raster or Vector - Raster
Ease Of Use - Really easy to get started, but has plenty of options. Program includes a extensive help file, and there is a official forum online.
All software is subjective to hardware installed, so with that in mind here is my current workhorse PC (A updated HP Z200 Workstation) specs I used for testing with all updated drivers...
CPU - Intel Core i5 CPU 660 @ 3.33GHz (2 Cores, 4 Threads)
Memory - 12 GB DDR3 total
Graphics - EVGA NVIDIA GeForce GTX 750 Ti SC (Superclocked GM107) 1 GB (DDR5 memory)
Space - 2.5 TB hard drive disk space
System - Windows 8.1 Pro
Program Speed - The program seems to lag, but looking in the preferences shows that by default the brush tool has Smoothing on, and most brushes use 100% smoothing too. Turning off Smoothing in the Preferences (Painting tab), or adjusting Smoothing to 50% or less in the Edit Brush options, makes the program much more responsive - and lag-free in many situations.
Noticeable Lag - When working on tabloid sized artwork (11"x17" at 300 ppi) it does have slight lag during fill, but the brush is lag-free. The same size at 600 ppi the brush is lag-free till about 100 pixels in size, and fill has much more lag.
Overall the program is much better than previous versions concerning lag, as they have been addressing memory concerns.
The program is strictly RGB with no other color options - with the exception of 8 or 16 bits per channel. There are also no crop /margin /bleed options, but does offer Guides, so you can set those for reference. Preset sizes can also be saved for faster creating new documents later on.
File Formats -
- Open - AWD (Artweaver), BMP /RLE (Windows Bitmap), TGA /VDA /LCB /VST (TarGA), PNG, GIF, JPG /JPEG /JPE (JPEG), ORA (OpenRaster), PCX (PCX Image), PSD (Photoshop Document), TIF /TIFF (TIFF)
- Export - PDF (Portable Document Format) Save - AWD (Artweaver), BMP /RLE (Windows Bitmap), TGA /VDA /LCB /VST (TarGA), PNG, GIF, JPG /JPEG /JPE (JPEG), ORA (OpenRaster), PCX (PCX Image), PSD (Photoshop Document), TIF /TIFF (TIFF)
Plug-in Support - Yes, including Adobe Photoshop compatible plug-ins. Which can greatly increase drawing aids and tools - depending on plug-ins used.
Layer properties window has several options (see 2nd image above), and right-clicking a layer itself shows other options too such as Rasterize layer and Select layer content.
The 2nd image is the Brush window options, all options however are not available for each brush. Basic settings include Profile, Anti-aliasing, Continuous time deposition, Pickup colors from underlining layers, Size, Grain, Spacing, Feature, Type, Method, Category, and various patterns. Clicking the Advanced tab on the window offers more options, but most are not available from here (but can be adjusted in the Edit brush options (below).
The 3rd image is the basic Brush options found along the top menu, and at the far right is the Edit Brush options and a peek at the advanced settings.
Common Necessities - Other tools that are primarily tools, and is surprising lacking in some software making it necessary to include them briefly.
Paint Fill - Fill type (Paper /Foreground color /background color /Gradient), Opacity amount, Tolerance amount, and Contiguous.
Eraser - Profile (Soft /Hard /Square), Size, Do not use pen pressure to control size amount, Opacity, Do not use pen pressure to control opacity, and Impasto.
Image Zoom - Shortcut controls, menu controls, Fit on Screen, Actual Pixels, Full screen, and Print size. Includes zoom in/out on the mouse scroll wheel. Zoom range 6.25% to 3200%
View Rotate - Keyboard shortcut controls possibly, but I've only found control with the Rotate view tool (press R) which then puts controls at the top menu area - also controls on Preview window if enabled. Can be rotated at any angle, using a wheel icon, or manually if wanted.
Selection Tools - Shape selection tool (Rectangle /Ellipse), Magic wand tool, and Lasso all with options.
In some user cases it may not be a large problem, but if you use OpenType as it is much more robust/newer and use paid commercial fonts (when purchased you usually get TT or OT only) you are out of luck here...
Other than that glaring problem, the text options covers many options in the Text window tab at least (2nd image). That includes Font, Style (Regular /Italic /Bold /Bold Italic), Size, Tracking, Color, Leading, Anti-aliasing, Strikethough, Underline, Kerning, All caps, and Align (Left /Center /Right).
However, it becomes clear that all the options such as Tracking, Leading, Kerning, and others apply to all the text - they can not be used for individual characters or lines as typically needed and done... So I would highly advise to do all your text/lettering/caption needs in another program.
Extras - Events (Seen in the File menu) that can be saved and played back. I know it can recreate basic drawings, but trying to use it to create a template with Guides does nothing though.
Pros -
- Docked tools/windows - I really dislike floating tools, and hate multiple windows.
- Little to no program lag with mouse or tablet in most cases (depending on Smoothing option besides page size/resolution of course).
- No monthly subscription costs
- Photoshop compatible plug-in support! Depending on the plug-ins can really add more aids, tools, and more to the program.
- Brushes look great and are highly customizable
- Mirror painting tool and Perspective grid tool are great
- Artweaver only supports TrueType fonts, and does not support OpenType fonts.
- Tracking, Leading, Kerning, and others font options apply to all the text - can not be used for individual characters or lines as typically needed or done. Which makes the options pointless...
- RGB color mode only
- Brush smoothing causes the program to lag (or to freeze).
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