Black Ink

"The free lifetime update, after 10 years, was a mistake..." - Devs The reason they're charging us again! :D Because you demanded more money, thank you for lying to us. So I bought a product from you, at full price, nearly a decade ago, and you've "re-released" it as a DLC, to make money off of someone who already paid? Seems like a scummy shameful way to abuse Steams market and your customers. Anyone looking to purchase this shouldn't, or should get it through "other" means that don't require you to play along with the Developers double dip scam, 8 years after release.

Really good in concept and it has matured over the years. It appears to be more stable and memory efficient than it used to be... part of the reason for the low "use time" to my name.. random crashes and save files that would not reload in the past made this far too unreliable to risk creating anything that could result in 10's of hours wasted, per artwork. BUT... aside from some of the new features clearly being locked behind the 2023 DLC update, while this has matured as a whole, so have other apps. Anyone that has actually worked on anything that is 8K + AND at least 5 heavily detailed layers + other minor-detail layers on top of that... ie a save file that is at least 1gb... GPU use is not magically going to make things smooth at that level of resource use. I know, because I have done so. Black Ink does it better than Photoshop, but Photoshop is a morbidly obese shadow of what it once was. While the specs/description says you can work up to 64K, the software will limit your maximum canvas size based on hardware constraints. Just like using iOS or Android painting apps... if your device can only handle a 6k square, that will be the literal limitation of pixels you are allowed to play with (+ a cap on how many layers you can create at the maximum size). Again, while this is a good safe guarding mechanism (and again, I know from experience when pre-subscription Photoshop, 10 to 20 years ago, would allow you to exceed your canvas-to-hardware capabilities and corrupt files)... that is not explicitly clear in the description. What makes that obfuscation worse is that the DLC upgrade product page does nothing to tell you what you are actually paying for, and just reiterates the base program's general description. For the uninitiated, the above limitations are not GPU based. The amount and speed of your system's RAM, and to a lesser extent the cache sizes/speeds of your mainboard/CPU, will be what dictates these limitations. So having said that... the funky brushes work really well. Standard brushes work really well... and access to the drop down menus is very snappy and nice in terms of smoothness. Brush customisation looks very interesting. BUT... if you are not afraid of getting into the guts of proper painting, KRITA is free, significantly more powerful (allows for actual scripting like Blender... timelapse painterly capturing, a functional animation system, fully open sourced customisable and scriptable brushes) and constantly evolving from month to month. Krita may not have the monstrous amount of natural media simulation brushes that (Corel) Painter does, but it runs much more smoothly at higher resolutions. If you aren't a hardcore pro user and just want something that is easy to understand and clean to use... Sketchbook Pro is cheaper via the Windows $tore for a one off purchase (no longer in the hands of Autodesk, and no longer a subscription model)... many, MANY practical pre-made brushes... customisable brushes... a proper flipbook animation mode (with layers)... mandala style radial tools that are very stable and matured. It is even easier to use than Black Ink and if you spring for the free (or premium unlock) Android/iOS versions, you can easily work on the broad range of file formats (excluding the flipbook animations, that's desktop only). Being that Sketchbook is one of the original ultra-powerful raster painters, originally in the hands of Autodesk (Autocad, 3DS MAX, etc.) and made for industrial design like automotive/engineering concept sketching, Sketchbook has a long, LONG history of development and is near bullet proof these days. When it comes to core painterly functions in the hands of a user experienced in thinking ahead and placing content that may need to be colour adjusted/modified/whatever in isolated layers, it can be done, but not quite to the level of the more complex nodal setup of Black Ink. Ultimately the only real "thing" that Black Ink has to offer are the node-based everything systems. If you really want a unique experience it is worth checking out to see if it is for you. It may appeal to your work style, and possibly even work into a small scale/solo project pipeline. Download the demo and do some brute force tests with the maximum sized/layered files you normally work on to see if the app is stable on your system while you get a feel for the tool layout. This can easily be done within 30-60 minutes if you are not a hobbyist. The dev has had the decency to provide us all with a Demo, so use it to your advantage. I am all for supporting unique, indie software like this, that is why I have no regrets of having bought this almost a decade ago despite not really "using it". I don'[t have an issue like some regarding the surprise paid for DLC update. I am all for supporting a world that can topple the predatory business model of companies like Adobe (what they have become is truly shameful and corrosive to the industry)... but at the end of the day, the time that has passed from this app leaving Early Access, and how much further the more-practical tools, functions and overall stability has evolved in other packages since "official release," I personally cannot recommend it over the competition. I say that with over 20 years of heavy painting from PhotoStyler and Photoshop with a Wacom 1 series mega slate in the late 1990's, down to 2024. It's not that this isn't a good painting app, but there are many low cost/free alternatives that are updated far more frequently. Practical alternatives to consider: * iOS - Procreate or Sketchbook * ANDROID - Sketchbook (is the only honest app without reams of sub-sub-DLC or subscriptions to pay for on Android)... and the Android version of Krita is simply a full Linux port, so realistically you'll need a keyboard, and it's still not as efficient as you'd want on top spec Android tablets. * LINUX - Krita * WINDOWS - Krita or Sketchbook Pro * MAC - Procreate or Sketchbook Pro

it wont even launch and read the reviews, Youre paywalling people for the upgrade? Not cool.Maybe ask for donations if people want to help you fix and upgrade the software instead of forcing people to buy the update

Same old same old. Bought when it was kinda bad, now I need to buy it again when it's good. I understand that development is costly (an understatement), but I don't see value for me or any old buyers. That said, overall progress is impressive. Nice job.

Okay, it's on sale now but so is clip studio paint for 23 bucks on the one time purchase that's usually 50, lasts until the 18th of march. Black ink is great for sketching, it's very solid on the basic stuff, but the moment you go beyond that it implodes on itself, and the worse part is, if you keep trying, it'll eventually crash and then glitch out forever, like a scratched disk. The support is immensely slow and unreliable, i say this out of experience. Yes, there's only one developer, and to keep up with it all is no easy task, but it sucks being on someone else's peril. Ya wanna draw on it, you paid for it, but it no longer works, and you'll sit there for an indefinite amount of time. I'm still currently waiting on the developer to fix an issue I've been having for weeks, and I reached out on all available platforms. steam, the discord server, and the crash report that appears every time i try to boot it up, and even by email. If ya like the software, good for you, happy that you're drawing the art you love, but do be careful with it. If ya don't wanna risk it, like i said, Clip studio on sale until the 18th.

Every time. - "BlackInk Steam has stopped working" the perfect drawing software! I recommend it to everyone! (NO)

[b] tl;dr [/b] - Recent negative reviews are aimed at the developers and not the program, and do not take into account how important it is to support developers who legitimately try to steer away from subscription models. There is a lot that can be said of Black Ink, most of which I would say is positive - and what criticism I do have couldn't be called a deal-breaker. Most of the recent negative reviews that you will see stem from disagreement within the community regarding the 2023 paid update, as Black Ink said they would provide free updates throughout their early access. I can understand why people were upset, but given the general state of digital art software subscription hell, I would suggest comparing lifetime costs between this software and something like Adobe PS. I purchase Black Ink in 2016 for maybe ~$30 or $40, and received free updates until I pruchased the update for $9.99. All told, the software has cost me maybe $7-8 per year. If I was hooked up to the Adobe suite, this would be an entirely different story, and I couldn't even use their product if I stopped paying the subscription. This doesn't even take into account the software itself, which, while it does have a bit of a learning curve (especially regarding the use of their shader language), is generally pretty intuitive, to say nothing of how much time you can put into simply tweaking the different parameters and operators for your brushes. I won't speak to every facet of the software, but a node-based, dynamic, and procedural workflow that feels and works like a regular painting application is fantastic for spurring creativity. My only real criticism was addressed within a day of posting it to the discussion board. There is a real lack of documentation for working in the program, so you're left to a lot of trial and error, and brush customization is essentially closed off if you aren't familiar working with shader language - but the developers have assured me they will be putting together tutorials to cover all of this. Even still, trial and error is a good thing when it comes to art, but it can be frustrating when you can't fully utilize a central feature for a program. _2/4/24 Edit_ Some time after writing this review, I was able to find the brush controller panel, effectively negating my main criticism of the software. It moved from where I remembered in older versions of the software. You are fully able to customize your brushes in the controller panel, although you can also write your own custom shaders to apply to any brush you like.

Sadly I dont recommend this pogram, its not very friendly for new artists + I have big issue the pogram need take long time, to delete the line/backwards. When in Pain Tool Sai theres no such thing, its work immediately. Also the whole gui is complicated for me as well.

I bought Black Ink when it was still in beta on my different Steam account, back in 2013. It was rough but it wasn't something you see daily like Photoshop or Clip Studio Paint which everyone is talking about, Black Ink is something unique and so innovative that you have to unlearn all the not-very-intuitive habits just to gradually see the potential the more time you spend with it. I haven't used it as much compared to some other software because of work requirement, but there's something so elegant about it when I open a new document. I'll be using more and more from now on! I see people complaining about the extra charge of the new 2023 update. Personally, I think it's fair to do so. You have your options, either you stay with the old version which isn't perfect but it works just fine, or you pay a little extra to upgrade to a better newer iteration of the tool. If you ever use Adobe services, like Photoshop subscription-based payment kinda thing, you will appreciate Bleank - Black Ink developer even more. They are a very small team working really hard for their vision of high-end creative software with cutting-edge realtime graphics technology. To be fair, I think the upgraded version is very worthwhile.

Love the app. An interesting UI with lots of power for brush creation. I don't mind paying for updates. But never use subscription.