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As competitive as the arena of software development is, I am truly surprised that no one has really tried to enter the area of serious painting and photo manipulation in the manner of Painter. Although Photoshop and CorelDRAW include painting tools, they come nowhere near the range, control or sophistication of Painter. So when Metacreations sold Painter to Corel Corporation, there were some serious grumblings in cyber land as to if Painter would share the same fate as Xara, which has since been returned to its original creators, after being allowed to just sit.
Now opinions about software, and software corporations, are as hotly debated in the digital divide as any place. People literally go to war over defending applications and creators of software and hardware. Depending on where you stand, some view Corel as the maker of great software. Others see it as a monster that destroyed Corel WordPerfect and created a unique, but seriously flawed, suite of applications that pale compared to Adobe’s string of high end graphics tools. I am not even going to attempt to tackle this subject, or debate the merits of either argument. I am simply pointing out that some have seen Corel as less than serious about developing applications of any real depth devoted to the high end user that demands power, function and stability.
I don’t know if Corel’s creation of Procreate was a way to put those fears aside, but I find it interesting that they created a separate division for Painter, KnockOut and KPT. Designed as the area of “serious designer tools,” one does wonder why CorelDRAW was not given the same treatment. It does raise some interesting questions.
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For whatever reasons, Procreate’s Painter Seven has not spelled the death of Painter. In fact, a few nice additions have been included. Namely the inclusion of KPT 5 plug-ins are welcome. Helping out in many ways are refined menus that include more visible options that help an already brimming to the top application a bit more manageable.
While they do help, these new tabs fail to make Painter any easier to use. When I first began working with computers and computer generated fine art, I learned a great deal on Painter 4. What I also learned, very quickly, was that this is an application with a major learning curve. As much fun as Painter is to use, doing anything demands going through some rather lengthy steps that are far from intuitive. Perhaps the cumbersome nature of Painter cannot be helped. Ease of use may need to be sacrificed in order to have the functionality and power of Painter, but one has to think that it could have been a bit easier.
Now painting in Painter is a fun process. One can literally start out of the box with just a basic understanding and obtain some amazing effects. However, if you want to really exploit what Painter can do, that demands some serious time with a book in hand and notes on the side. There is no way around it, Painter demands the user be aware and sophisticated enough and comfortable enough with it to make it sing. So if you are not really into an application that demands this much, you may want to rethink this program. Ironically, Painter was conceived as a means for artists to take their skills from the studio into the digital work space. Sadly, I cannot envision most fine artists, unless they really like computers, spending a great deal of time with Painter. This is sad in that this is the best software on the planet for creating a masterpiece on a computer.
While Painter has been refined a bit, I have noticed that when scanning within Painter it can hang. I also discovered that if you wait, it comes back to life without crashing your system. So if you ever scan, think again about doing it from Painter. The small bugs that make it seem like it fell asleep in mid process are still present. So just be ready to realize that for intensive operations it will look as if it is dead when in reality it seems to be playing possum.
For this reason, and many others, I do recommend that anyone using it have a PC with a good amount of memory and disk space. Like Photoshop, this application is system intensive and needs room. Ideally you want at least 512 megs of ram and a P4 running Windows XP, or something equally solid. I am sure you may get by with less, but who wants to wait for things that long? Even with a solid system running XP, Painter can be demanding.
I have noticed in some publications that Painter is classified as a photo manipulation program with Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT. My feeling is that this is a huge misnomer. If anything Painter is not really designed for photo manipulation. Even though it contains the tools to do so, Painter shines as an artist’s studio not as a photographer’s dark room. Nearly everyone that I know that uses Painter uses Photoshop as a complement to Painter. I would never substitute Photoshop for Painter or visa versa. There are limitations to Painter, and Photoshop, or Corel PHOTO-PAINT, can pick up the slack.
Even with Painter’s slick tools, one has to keep in mind that it cannot, at least now, replicate all of the subtleties of a real studio. Even with these tools there are some limitations that make it good at what it does, but not perfect. This does not mean this is not an excellent program. The abilities here are far superior to any others, which may explain why no one has dared take on Painter.
For me, Painter is an indispensable tool for the creative professional, the serious hobbyist and nearly any fine artist who wishes to extend his or her vision to the computer. For me there are no tools equal to it in any way. But do keep in mind that it is a tool on a par with Photoshop, and is extremely demanding. For those seeking an application for light design work, or just as a simple paint program, Painter is not the application for you. This is high end art creation at its best.
For those that take the plunge, Painter is a great deal of fun. The entire program begs you to play around and experiment. Even without a tablet of stylus, the tools Painter offers are simply amazing. If you have ever wanted to draw or paint on a computer, Painter is literally an artist’s studio minus paint cans and the mess.
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