As an artist and designer I must say this software is perfect for what I needed it for which is digital inking and illustrating. Keep in mind this software is for tablet owners as I just don't see how you could use pen pressure sensitivity adequately with a mouse. Some artist use Photoshop for their digital illustrations which is perfectly fine but manga studio 5 offers a sense of convenience, it's really easy to pick up and use and it's features are very direct and straight forward and also well put together that I found myself preferring to use this software for all of my illustration and line work. Also, you just can't beat this price and the software packs a punch! Very satisfied! I

I love this software. Compared to Photoshop, this is much better suited to a "traditional" drawing/painting experience. It's similar to another program I've used called ArtRage, which was slow and buggy. It's all the best things about ArtRage without all the bugs. Also, if you are using any sort of Wacom drawing tablet or screen, you've probably had driver issues with Photoshop from time to time. None of these issues happen with Manga Studio. I have barely scratched the surface of all the tools available, and I already like what I see.

Pirating software never sat right with me, and I could never afford Photoshop, so ever since I began doing digital artwork I've used GIMP. Now for a completely free program GIMP is fantastic, and I made some decent (at least for me) art with it. But then someone suggested Manga Studio 5.

I decided to give it a try. I was immediately pleased to find out that it worked with my Parblo Coast 10 artist tablet right off the bat, with no need to fiddle with settings or calibrations. The pressure sensitivity and even tilt sensitivity are spot on. The next thing I noticed was just how smooth the lines are. I've uploaded 2 pictures. The picture that shows me practicing folds was done with GIMP. you can see how choppy the lines are. in comparison to the picture drawn with Manga Studio.

The program is very intuitive. If you are familiar with Photoshop, GIMP or probably any other artwork software that utilizes brushes, pens/pencils, layers, wand and lasso tools and so forth, you will get the hang of this right away. I've only had time to do a couple of quick sketches since getting it but I really look forward to sinking my teeth in with a finished piece.

I highly recommend Manga Studio 5, even now that Photoshop is a bit more manageable as a subscription base, this program works just as well, perhaps even better as it is tailored entirely to digital art work (whereas Photoshop is also for photo-manipulation and touch up work). This program is NOT a poor man's Photoshop, it is excellent and I don't know how I ever lived without it.

Occasionally I've seen it on sale, so if you can bare to wait around and snatch it up for $25 or so then it's an amazing deal, but even at it's full price it is worth ever penny!

Pathetic. Twice I have tried to install this software, on up to (4) different machines, including (2) different external USB DVD players. NONE of the computers even recognize that there is even a CD in the drive. In fact, it crashed Windows Explorer each and every time (on every machine) I have tried just putting the CD in. [force closing via Task Manager] I went to the company's website - they don't even have a link or information on this software. They are selling "newer" updated version under a different name.

Skip this product. I don't know if I'm getting defective CD's or fakes, but it's not worth it. I'll go with Corel or something else.

I've used this product for a few years now and absolutely love it as a digital comic artist and freelance graphic designer. I mostly use this program for inking as the brush engine is far superior to anything Photoshop or Illustrator can do. I would also highly suggest that you look up Ray Frendan (a commercial artist in Austin) and purchase his Manga Studio 5 brushes as soon as you get this software. If you can catch Manga Studio 5 (Also being rebranded right now as Clip Studio Painter Pro) on sale and pair this with a good Huion drawing tablet (H610Pro for example) you can get an insanely good art creation set up for less than or right at 100 bucks if you already have a computer. .

Pros
+Brush Engine
+Templates
+3D posing software for references (or tracing)
+Installable Materials
+High Quality Color Blending
+Saves time if paired with Illustrator by 10 fold (take the raster inks from Manga Studio, load them into Illustrator, then run the Image-Trace functions using black and ignoring white)
+Works wonderfully with drawing tablets
+They just added animation on the new update!

Negatives
- Vectors are not transferable to Adobe Illustrator (one color auto-tracing is fine but if you do any blending in vector it will not translate well)
-Color picker could have better schemes like Photoshop or Illustrator (minor issue)
-Occasional crashes (save often)
-Clip Studio Painter Rebranding is somewhat confusing.

Overall: This is the best product you can buy if you are either a budding illustrator/comic artist or are wanting something more natural than what Photoshop or Illustrator can give you. I give 5 stars because of the combination of price, features, and brush engine far outshine software over 10 times its price.

Attached is the first piece of artwork I did 100% digital with this software for my school's yearbook using Manga Studio 5 for the inks/color and Adobe Illustrator for the background/lettering. My main job is Fine Arts education but I also do various other comic writing/illustrating and graphic design jobs.
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