Photoshop and Painter may be the best known art applications on the Windows platform, but they’re by no means the only ones available.

Surface Pro and Windows tablet PC users have an amazing array of great software at their disposal and most of it costs only a fraction of what you will pay for a license from Adobe or Corel.

Several of these applications have been around for years while at least one of these is under a year old, but I assure you most of them are worth getting to know. And they each reinforce what we’ve known since the release of Windows 8 and the first generation Surface Pro: the creative options offered by this OS, coupled with innovative hardware and unique software, are second to none.

Click a tile below to read some of the highlighted features of each application. The first three items are Windows Store apps and the remainder are desktop tools.

Did I miss any? Which of these are your favorites? Do any major hurdles show up after significant use? Please leave your thoughts in the comments section below.

And if you have any tips or tricks that you'd like to share regarding a specific tool, leave a comment in the new Muut commenting system I've implemented on each individual application's page. It's new and I'm unsure how it will interact with the blog's comments, but hopefully the new functionality will help everyone get a better understanding of all the options available here.

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16 art tools under $60 show off robust Windows ecosystem

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