A graphics program is a piece of computer software that enables a user to modify or view graphics files. Computer graphics can be classified into two distinct categories: raster graphics and vector graphics. Before learning about computer software that manipulates or displays these graphics types, you should be familiar with both.

Many graphics programs focus exclusively on either vector or raster graphics, but there are a few that combine them in interesting and sometimes unexpected ways. It is simple to convert from vector graphics to raster graphics, but going the other way is harder. Some software attempts to do this.

Most graphics programs have the ability to import and export one or more graphics file formats.

Several graphics programs support animation, or digital video. Vector graphics animation can be described as a series of mathematical transformations that are applied in sequence to one or more shapes in a scene. Raster graphics animation works in a similar fashion to film-based animation, where a series of still images produces the illusion of continuous movement.

Popular raster graphics programs include:

• Paint Shop Pro
• PhotoImpact
• Photoshop
• Photo-Paint
• Picture It!
• The GIMP (Free Software)

Popular vector graphics programs include:

• Adobe Illustrator
• CorelDraw
• Inkscape (Free Software)
• Macromedia FreeHand
• Xara X

Popular vector graphics animation programs include:

• Adobe LiveMotion
• Macromedia Flash

Software for managing graphics include:

• iPhoto made by Apple Computer
• iView Media made by iView Multimedia
• CodedColor

Software for creating graphical displays of data include:

• Gnuplot
• Gri
• R programming language
• GNU Octave

Software for automatically converting from raster graphics to vector graphics include:

• Draftsman
• GTXRasterCAD
• potrace
• TracTrix (also does vector to raster conversion)

This process is often referred to as 'raster to vector conversion'.

See also Computer Painting.