I don't know what's going on but the forum edits my post to a single sentence! Anyway, that was a joke, and I wonder if you can elaborate on your comment that the painting tools aren't brilliant please?
The painting tools in v19 have seen some important improvements. For example, the blend mode can now be set - something so fundamental, and it was not available before this latest release. That does make it more viable for painting now. It also loads up Photoshop brushes, although the painting capability is comparable to Photoshop before the overhauled paint engine - which means it is not bad, but not great either.
Brush options include scattering, jitter controls, precise curve control for the brush shape/smoothness. Photoshop brushes can be loaded up. Interestingly enough, not only basic colour can be chosen to paint with, but also any gradient, texture, or pattern. Photoline has a built-in procedural texture generator, and those textures can also be used to paint with.
Another useful option are the channel buttons: you can paint in any channel of your choice. Even HSV, Lab, or in the transparency channel. This last bit can be quite useful, since the eraser tool does not actually erase the layer contents: it is a non-destructive action, and areas that were erased can be displayed again by painting in the transparency channel only. Sounds weird, but is actually quite useful - for example, the transparency in a PNG file can be removed, and the hidden information displayed, if any (there often is).
One thing I and other users requested was a smooth stroke option - comparable to Krita's and Gimp's smooth stroke. The reason for this was that I noticed that when I drew a thin line on a zoomed out canvas in either Photoshop or Photoline, the line would be very jaggy and curves would be flattened - quite unusable, actually. The devs implemented the smooth option, which works very well. It is not on par with the options in either Krita or ClipStudio (Manga Studio), but still extremely helpful, and the quality of thin strokes is very good now. Much better than Photoshop, unless Lazy Nezumi Pro happens to be installed.
The clone stamp tool in Photoline ("Copy Brush A") is also very good in this new version. Photoline's layer concept of the active layer and selected layers is helpful, and it remembers which layer you clicked as a source.
A "filter brush" is also available. With that certain filter effects (gaussian blur, sharpen, soften, and eleven others) can be painted in your work.
Of note is the stamp tool. This can behave as a coloured brush tool - comparable to Deluxe Paint's brushes (if you remember the Amiga
, and it allows for full coloured brushes to be used while painting. Even Photoline files can be used as a coloured brush, and the layer ordering allows for "animated" effects while painting. The settings are separate from the normal brush settings, unfortunately - the usability could be improved a lot.
Still, it is kinda cool to be able to load up a fully layered file which you have worked on previously, and start spraying it all over the canvas
Anyway, it does not even come close to Krita in terms of painting tools, and neither does Krita even compare to the compositing tools in Photoline, which is why they make such a great combo.
To learn more about the painting tools in Photoline, try them out!