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If you are like me, the release of the new Corel Painter 8 is a much anticipated event. Having worked with the program from its days with Fractal Design, I have seen the program evolve, change hands and grow through the years. Having had homes with three different companies, the fate of Painter seemed doomed. The good news is that Corel has kept the program alive, well and have much improved a program in need of both a facelift and some greatly improved fuctionality.
For those not familiar with Painter, let me provide just a brief outline. Painter is what I like to call an Artist Painting program. While Adobe Photoshop and Corel PHOTO-PAINT are excellent digital image manipulation programs, Painter is more of an image creation program. Rather than simply editing existing images, you can create entire visual images within the program without needing another application. In short, Painter is an artist studio minus the mess. Although there are many other applications that are as effective as Painter, few have the brushes or power that Painter has as an artistic tool. It is a unique program that fills a void no other program has yet to fill, or really try. As a professionally trained visual artist, I can tell you that this is as close as computing has ever come to putting a studio inside of a computer. Hands down, Painter is the best at what it does.
What Painter is not is a photo image manipulation program. If all you need to do is alter images, such as cropping, changing color etc, Painter is not the program to fit the bill. Painter is certainly a perfect tool to augment graphics programs like Adobe Photoshop, CorelDRAW and even Web programs like Macromedia Dreamweaver, but it is not intended to be an all purpose editing tool. Think of Painter as part of a larger arsenal of tools with a specific function in your graphics tool kit. Although Photoshop has considerably "beefed up" the painting tools in version 7, no program has yet to offer the options, scope and power of Painter when it comes to using brushes or brushed effects in the digital divide.
Painter now bears the name Corel Painter 8. For those that wonder what happened to Procreate, that label no longer exists. With this rendition, Painter now shares the same brand name as Corel Graphics Suite 11. While the name has undergone a slight change, the program Painter has remained consistent from version to version. What has changed are features and thankfully system stability.
The system instability issues that seemed to plague every version of Painter are a thing of the past. Running on Windows XP, unfortunately Painter 8 only runs on Windows XP and Windows 2000, is a much more robust, stable program. When you fire it up, Painter is far speedier than recent incarnations. The difference in speed is so noticeable that it puts previous versions to shame. In the time I have operated the program, I have never seen it load so fast, or look so smart.
One of my biggest problems with Painter has always been the interface. Sure, Painter was always attractive, but it was also way too busy. Figuring out where everything is was an issue as well as watching your screen real estate shrink because of fly-out menus and palettes that seem to over run the program. Thankfully, Corel has done an admirable job of keeping the clutter down. If you recall Painter 7, Painter 8 is a vast improvement in many key areas. If you are familiar with Photoshop 7, the new face lift of Painter 8 will make you feel right at home.
For those that recall the older Painter, much has remained the same. You will not feel totally left out as Corel has wisely left many menu items in their previous locations. So if you know Painter from as far back as version 4, it should not take too long to figure out where you are. This is great since Painter has something of a steep learning curve. However, with version 8's refinements, this may not be as steep as it once was in the past.
Now Corel has not made a huge point of this in their PR materials, but I do feel it is worth pointing out that the scan feature has been seriously improved. Again, most people may never scan directly into Painter, but it is nice to know that you can without the system sitting idle. One of the biggest problems with Painter in the past was that it took forever to scan directly into the program. This time that issue has been effectively solved. Painter 8 now scans as well as other programs. Not only that, but Painter is appreciably faster than I recall.
Perhaps as a result of limiting the program to operating only on Windows XP and Windows 2000, which at the core are very similar, the new Painter gains in speed and stability have been achieved. No doubt users of older Windows platforms will be disappointed, the good news is that upgrading to either Windows XP or 2000 is the big move to make particularly if you are working with intensive graphics. XP has a great deal more to offer. So do make the upgrade if you feel Painter is an essential part of your arsenal.
A big selling point with Painter is the brush creation palette. What this feature allows you to do is create your own customized brush using a variety of options. Once created you can see your brush without having to wait in real time. The added feature adds not only a great way to use brushes, but a near flawless way to work with brushes. Another big feature being touted is the Sketch option. This effect allows you to quickly turn bitmap images into sketch like creations. There are many programs that can perform this function, but Painter 8 does it with a certain flair that belongs to Painter.
The real power of Painter is in brushes and effects. Offering a plethora of options, textures and brushes, Corel ships Painter 8 with a plentiful supply of "goodies" like brushes and many other extras. This version of Painter permits the same latitude and expressiveness as previous versions. As you can see from this image created in Painter 8 the brush effects are subtle, and not totally unlike what you can achieve in a traditional studio. Also, you can now mix colors in Painter as you would in real life. Instead of picking a color, you can actually mix them interactively to create a custom value.
For those with artistic inclinations, designers that want something extra in their graphics, and serious artists, Corel’s Painter 8 is the perfect answer for difficult design problems in two dimensions, as well as traditional artists who want to create works that have that "studio" feel. Having been around for some time, no one has really tried to create a program like Painter. While Adobe Photoshop has had and continues to have stiff competition, the area that Painter rules is still wide open for competition.
Having few contenders, Corel has done an admirable job of keeping an excellent program alive and well. Rather than rework the program from scratch, Corel has wisely implemented carefully well thought improvements that add ease of use and detail to a very complete program. The key areas that may very well inspire upgrades are the following:
Clearly Painter is a professional application, there is much here that I can see budding artists and those that just want to play around having fun with Painter 8. For those with more demanding needs, Painter adds that touch of creativity that makes it a special program. While Painter has always been a much needed program, from my experiences it seemed a bit unstable. With version 8, Corel has perfected a well loved program making it fun to work with and a pleasure to explore.
The only downside is that Painter 8 is still a bit of a bear to learn. Not unlike Photoshop, with so much power, one does need to spend time with a manual to get the most bang for the buck.
For those that want to paint, have fun, or create fine art on the PC or Mac, Painter 8 is a must get application hands down. For those concerned about price points, Corel does have a rather inclusive upgrade program and reasonable price points for students and educators and upgraders.
If you are not familiar with Painter, do yourself a favor and give it a test run.
Talk to Kurt in Graphics Unleashed Forums
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