Painter (aka MetaCreations Painter, Corel Painter, procreate Painter) has been around for many years. Over the years it has changed hands and seen new versions; It never fully matured until Corel Corporation bought it. Until then there were interface inconsistency, compatibility issues with other top programs like Adobe Photoshop and even some bugs that seems to keep popping up.

 

Corel Corporation has worked very hard to improve and standardize Painter and from what I see in Paint XI they have done an outstanding job. Compatibility with programs like Adobe Photoshop has never been better; layers have been standardized as well. Many of the interface inconsistencies have been corrected as well as many of the bugs that have been around for awhile.

 

For those that don’t know what Painter is, it is a natural media painting application. What this means is it is like having a complete art studio on your computer. You can use watercolors, oil paints, pencils, color pencils, markers, crayons, etc. to create realistic artwork digitally.

 

You also have access to different papers so you can paint on canvas, watercolor paper, vellum and more. It has cloning features that allows you to load an image say from a digital camera and quickly convert it to an oil painting or watercolor or any thing else. It has some of the most interesting filters like one that will turn a photo or other image in marbled paper. It also has one of the neatest beveling tools I have seen called bevel world.

 

In fact there are so many cool and interesting tools, filters, and options that we couldn’t possibly list them all here. To get a complete understanding of the power of Painter we recommend that you download the trial version and play with it. If you have a graphics tablet you can make full use of its capabilities as Painter XI full supports all of the features of the Wacom brand tablets and as well as the features of many of the other tablet brands on the market, though the Wacom support is the most complete.

 

Many programs like Adobe Photoshop, Paint Shop Pro and other programs have added natural media tools over the years. However, none of them but Painter have true and realistic looking natural media tools. When you want oil paints or watercolors or if you want to convert a photo so it looks like mosaic tiles Painter is your only choice and with Corel as the new owners it is only getting better.

New and Enhanced Features

 

• Increasing the overall speed, performance and stability of Corel Painter IX was Corel's top priority. Working closely with Apple, Intel and AMD, Corel engineers created improvements wherever possible. The result: Corel Painter has never been a more efficient and powerful application. This is the fastest version of Corel Painter yet, with some brushes performing up to 10 times faster than in previous versions, and all brushes working, on average, twice as fast. In addition, you can now change the default scratch disk location in the Preference settings.
• Getting down to the job at hand has never been easier, thanks to the Corel Painter IX Welcome screen, which launches at startup. Divided into four sections, the Welcome screen gives quick access to recently used files, tutorials, brush and color-management settings, and artwork from renowned Corel Painter masters.
• Brush Control palettes provide easy access to all brush settings and controls. Making on-the-fly changes to brush settings and variables is as simple as dragging a slider—without any disruption to workflow. For example, the new Boost slider, found in the General palette of the Brush Controls, instantly enhances brush speed. Just drag the slider and see brush performance accelerate.
• Animators can now test frame rates directly in Corel Painter. With the new Frames-per-Second Control, you can set frame rates and preview them in a range of 1 to 40 frames per second.
• Now you can easily rotate or flip entire images directly in Corel Painter. You can also verify image composition at the touch of a button.
• Corel Painter now offers you an unprecedented level of control over your workflow by enabling you to completely customize shortcut keys. Corel Painter IX also includes a handy printable template for quick reference.
• Corel Painter now supports multiple users on both Mac and Windows platforms. User files are stored in the user file directory, ensuring that users in a networked environment can retain individual settings and preferences. In addition, all settings are easily reverted to the default without having to reinstall the application.
• The Tracker palette stores historical information about every brush stroke that is applied to the canvas. Acting as a "virtual brush diary," the Tracker palette tells the story of an image created with Corel Painter IX brushes. Brushes used in the last session can be recalled in the next, and favorite brush variants can be locked so that they are always readily accessible.
• Iterative Save lets you quickly save sequentially numbered versions of an image with a simple menu command. The first time you use Iterative Save, "_001" is appended to the file name. Each subsequent time the number increments by 1, and a new sequentially numbered file is created.
• When Corel Painter IX launches, it displays settings—such as color sets, paper textures and last color used—from in the previous session. Corel Painter IX also remembers the last folders in which you opened and saved files.
• Enhanced color sets can be appended to each other, and any color set can be loaded in the Mixer palette.
• Area-averaging zoom control gives you higher-quality zoomed-out views.
• The Artists' Oils Painting System is a milestone in the evolution of digital art. This new painting system enables you to apply paint blends created in the Mixer palette directly onto images in the document window. Each brush dab loads the brush variant with a finite amount of oil. As the oil runs out, the brush stroke becomes fainter. Plus, brush strokes interact with any paint already on the canvas just as they would with natural media.
• When you need to create a perfect curve or shape, Snap-to-Path Painting is a great time saver. It makes it possible to constrain a brush stroke along a path or a shape by clicking a button or using a keyboard shortcut. With a simple click, you can now create a precise brush stroke that reflects the attributes typically found in a Corel Painter stroke, such as pressure, tilt and bearing.
• Digital Watercolor has been significantly enhanced in Corel Painter IX. Paint stays wet between sessions, allowing you to start one session where the last one ended. The wet fringe of digital watercolor brush strokes can now be changed dynamically, enabling experimentation after the brush stroke has been applied.
• Quick Clone is ideal if you're a photographer because it enables you to transform your photos into paintings. This new feature speeds up the image-cloning workflow and reduces five steps to one. You can define Quick Clone settings on the General page of the Preferences dialog box.
• KPT filters are renowned, powerful plug-ins that creative professionals rely on to produce stunning effects quickly and easily. Seven powerful KPT filters are included in Corel Painter IX: KPT Gel, KPT Goo, KPT LensFlare, KPT Lightning, KPT Pyramid Paint, KPT Reaction and KPT ShapeShifter. These plug-ins are valuable additions to the impressive array of effects available in Corel Painter IX.
• Moving between Adobe Photoshop and Corel Painter IX is simple. Files saved to the Adobe Photoshop (PSD) file format open in Corel Painter IX, with layer masks, alpha channels and layer sets (layer groups) maintained.
• Layer behavior in Corel Painter IX is very similar to layer behavior in Adobe Photoshop. New layers are added above the selected layer, layers with different merge modes are collapsible, and it is now possible to hide or display multiple layers by simply clicking and dragging. In addition, Corel Painter IX supports Adobe Photoshop plug-ins for Mac OS X.
• Corel Painter IX features support for Wacom's newest pen tablet model—Wacom Intuos3—and the entire Wacom tablet product line. Wacom Intuos3 has touch strips that can be configured to control brush size, zooming and many other functions, eliminating the need for a keyboard while painting. In addition, tablet keys can be used as modifier keys, such as Command, Option, Shift or Spacebar on a Mac; or Ctrl, Alt, Shift or Spacebar on a PC.
• Corel Painter IX includes an enhanced Color Management System that ensures accurate color reproduction when images are printed. Supporting industry-standard ICC4.0 profiles, Corel Painter IX Color Management enables color matching between on-screen and printed colors. A color-management tutorial helps you configure your system for optimal color reproduction.
• A revised User Guide and Help system provide information and fast solutions. The Corel Painter IX Handbook, which is included with Corel Painter IX Full and Upgrade versions, offers a collection of step-by-step tutorials created by well-known creative professionals.
• Corel Painter IX includes access to a selection of training videos created by lynda.com—one of the world's most renowned graphics training companies—to guide you through the Corel Painter workspace, tools, features and techniques.
• Corel Painter academic courseware consists of complete lesson plans and exercises for 10 classes on a variety of subjects.

 

Other Improvements:

• Choose from a range of cursor icons, including the popular Triangle Cursor.
• Select your background color as you work.
• Use Enhanced Selections on layer masks.
• Hide or display multiple layers with a simple click and drag.
• Experience more intuitive brush profile icons in the Brush Creator.
  

 

Mac OS X Enhancements:

 

• Support for Mac OS X Adobe Photoshop plug-ins
• Improved function inlining and memory usage
• Enhanced for G5 (square root function calculations)
• Numerous application-specific optimizations