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The redesigned Corel Painter 12 user interface. View larger.
Corel Painter 12
Corel Painter 12 is the finest professional digital art software in the market. Internationally recognized for its RealBristle Painting system, it lets users control brush behavior, pressure and color intensity more realistically than anything else when paired with a graphics tablet such as the Wacom series.
Painter comes with hundreds of brushes and dozens of paper textures, watercolors, paints, oils, pastels and more. Customers also have the option to create their own brushes at the click of a button, and customize their workspace and color palette for the best fit.
The new Navigator panel makes it easier to maneuver your way around large canvases.
Painter supports Adobe Photoshop files and should be considered a complement to not a replacement for Photoshop. Painter has a high-performance brush engine and the most realistic digital art tools available. Of key importance, it was developed for artists by artists, with tools that look, feel and move just like the real thing, allowing Painter to deliver the most authentic digital art experience. Start changing what's possible in art!
Ideal for:
- Concept artists
- Designers and illustrators
- Fine artists
- Professional photographers
- Students and teachers of art and design
Painter 12--Reasons to Buy
1. High-value, built-in content
Painter comes with a broad array of pre-installed paper textures and brushes, such as watercolor media, acrylic paint, oil, pastel, chalk, pencil, marker and more. Choose a brush or create your own on the spot to produce unique brushstrokes and effects never seen before!
The new Kaleidoscope Painting mode lets you create wonderful concentric patterns. View larger.
2. Exclusive to Painter! RealBristle Painting
Reproduce the movement and feeling of traditional paint on canvas with your pen and tablet! Painter's RealBristle brushes represent a major milestone for digital painting because they are designed to be as responsive as real-life brushes when used with a graphics tablet, delivering the most realistic painting experience.
3. Adobe Photoshop support
Correctly preserve colors and layers when transferring files between Photoshop and Painter. Plus, the Painter 12 workspace offers brush blending, layers, libraries, docking panels and image set-up options that will be familiar to Photoshop users.
In Mirror Painting mode, the green line represents the mirror plane, which you can display vertically, horizontally, or both at the same time. View larger.
4. Exclusive to Painter! Kaleidoscope painting (New!)
Go where traditional painting can't! This exciting new tool exists only in Painter, and allows you to create beautiful kaleidoscope effects on canvas. Use your choice of media to paint electrifying patterns and colors, and see amazing results when you add a blending tool to the mix. No other painting software in the world can produce such a 'wow' reaction!
5. Mirror painting (New!)
With Mirror painting, every stroke you make is copied onto the opposite side of your canvas. Not only does this new tool greatly increase your precision and accuracy when painting symmetrical objects, it also saves you a lot of time!
Water color settings for enhanced control. View larger.
6. Exclusive to Painter! Real Watercolor (New!)
This unique wet media blends and dries more realistically than any other watercolor brush! Control wind direction for drying, and watch colors interact with the paper grain and change pigmentation in the most lifelike way. Also customize your paper texture settings to control how paint flows and pools on.
Choose from a variety of brush styles. View larger.
7. Exclusive to Painter! Real Wet Oil (New!)
All of the fun, none of the mess or smell! Add this solvent to your oil paints to transform their look and texture. With 12 new tools, the Real Wet Oil category offers the perfect solution for blending and painting flowing colors. As the most realistic digital oil paint on the market, this new tool helps to further close the gap between traditional and digital painting.
8. Real Dry Media
Realistic chalk, marker, pen and pencil media (within the RealBristle system) lets you control opacity, color intensity, ink deposits and shading simply by changing the pressure, speed and angle of your pen on the drawing tablet--just like in real life!
9. Smart photo-painting tools
Transform photos into paintings by hand or let the Auto-Painting palette paint a photo for you using your choice of brush and media. The SmartStroke brush technology follows lines and contours in your picture just like a real artist would.
10. Agile brush control (New!)
Change settings, such as brush size, opacity, squeeze and angle, using interactive controls that let you make rapid adjustments from one centralized location. Scalable resizing lets you preserve correct brush proportions, and you can use shortcuts to access brush settings even faster!
Product Description
Painter 12 EN PCM
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Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
24 of 24 people found the following review helpful
Access Method:Box|Platform for Display:PC
This review is broken into 2 parts 1st paragraph, for everyone, 2nd for diehard painter/photoshop folks.
(my background: I'm a professional game developer for Blizzard and I make my entire living using these programs.)
Until the release of painter 12 I thought that Corel was really polishing up a program that I have used since version 6! Then 12 came out, I think Corel is trying to distinguish their look from Adobe's programs and made it look like crap. The user interface has become more difficult to read and some real basics got harder to use and more intimidating for beginners. Look up painter 11 here on amazon, it's probably only for a limited time, but you can get it for about 70 bux! WOW! that is a deal and it's the right version to get.
OK, now for everyone who's been using the program for a while and is wondering what is new in version 12. Let me start by saying that all the UI elements - your tool menus, your palettes and everything got a pass with a fatter 'inkier' looking line that makes reading the actual icons more difficult and the entire program looks more juvenile, when in fact it is a beautiful piece of work. The custom brush palette (you know the one that you make by docking the brushes you use most often all together in one place..) no longer shows your custom colored icons that made it so easy to pick your familiar tools, now by default it displays them in black and white until moused over. Then you have to mouse over them all till you see that little visual que (color) that helps you recognize it so easily. It's not a total deal breaker, but personally I think that sucks. Next is the brush creator - No longer do we have a concise looking UI that just pops up and lets you edit brush properties, instead we regress to the stone age and have 48.5 windows pop up all at once to make sure and scare away any new users to the program for ever. Granted the brush creator took a while to pop up sometimes and could cause some of the other UI elements to be a little glitchy, but seriously, it was approachable, and you only had to expand those parts of it that you wanted. I think it's a much better approach than individual windows - especially because there are so many intricate ways to edit and manipulate brushes. Now I could list a lot more little details that bug me, but using Painter 12 daily at work to make video games, and Painter 11 at home to do my freelance and recreational art, I don't have to look any further to know for a fact that I could CARE LESS if some amazing new feature came with version 12 or if it even rendered the brushes faster... the things I have already mentioned are enough to keep me with version 11. GO BUY PAINTER 11. If any one begs to differ or COREL if you are listening, please respond in a constructive manner and let me know what you think the positives are in v12.
-Hogan
(my background: I'm a professional game developer for Blizzard and I make my entire living using these programs.)
Until the release of painter 12 I thought that Corel was really polishing up a program that I have used since version 6! Then 12 came out, I think Corel is trying to distinguish their look from Adobe's programs and made it look like crap. The user interface has become more difficult to read and some real basics got harder to use and more intimidating for beginners. Look up painter 11 here on amazon, it's probably only for a limited time, but you can get it for about 70 bux! WOW! that is a deal and it's the right version to get.
OK, now for everyone who's been using the program for a while and is wondering what is new in version 12. Let me start by saying that all the UI elements - your tool menus, your palettes and everything got a pass with a fatter 'inkier' looking line that makes reading the actual icons more difficult and the entire program looks more juvenile, when in fact it is a beautiful piece of work. The custom brush palette (you know the one that you make by docking the brushes you use most often all together in one place..) no longer shows your custom colored icons that made it so easy to pick your familiar tools, now by default it displays them in black and white until moused over. Then you have to mouse over them all till you see that little visual que (color) that helps you recognize it so easily. It's not a total deal breaker, but personally I think that sucks. Next is the brush creator - No longer do we have a concise looking UI that just pops up and lets you edit brush properties, instead we regress to the stone age and have 48.5 windows pop up all at once to make sure and scare away any new users to the program for ever. Granted the brush creator took a while to pop up sometimes and could cause some of the other UI elements to be a little glitchy, but seriously, it was approachable, and you only had to expand those parts of it that you wanted. I think it's a much better approach than individual windows - especially because there are so many intricate ways to edit and manipulate brushes. Now I could list a lot more little details that bug me, but using Painter 12 daily at work to make video games, and Painter 11 at home to do my freelance and recreational art, I don't have to look any further to know for a fact that I could CARE LESS if some amazing new feature came with version 12 or if it even rendered the brushes faster... the things I have already mentioned are enough to keep me with version 11. GO BUY PAINTER 11. If any one begs to differ or COREL if you are listening, please respond in a constructive manner and let me know what you think the positives are in v12.
-Hogan
29 of 31 people found the following review helpful
Access Method:Box|Platform for Display:PC
I have to preface that I was a beta tester for this release and I cannot discuss anything during that time. My review is for the final product. So please do not ask about the betas, I will disclose.
This may be a lengthy review so the tl;dr (Too Long Didn't Read Version) is up top - more thorough after.
Edit- August 18th 2011: - Corel released their first patch and it also helps with multicore and performance improvements. It also seems that they're listening to customers where they'd like to see more releases and updates to the program.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Painter gets an overhaul with its new release. While there are bugs that were present in past versions, along with new ones !boo! - The good does seem to outweigh the bad compared to past Painter releases that seemed more like patches to previous versions.
The Real Watercolors is a definite seller for me - to finally see watercolors that behave like watercolors for the most part. However, there is issues with lag.
The new interface and navigator window are definitely great. I also like the Brush category cleanup with some reservations. Like what happened with the Artist Oils?
The zooming has improved a lot in this version, and despite the bugs, thinking it over - I'd recommend this version because it's finally more of an update than a patch.
The New:
Overhauled GUI
Customization of your workspace including custom icons/jpegs for your entire workspace including brushes
Navigator Window
Windows 64 bit multicore support
Mirror Mode
Kaleidoscope Mode
Real Watercolor Brushes
Real Oil Brushes
Online Help with Video Tutorials
The longer review is below
------------------------------------------------------------------
The last two Painter releases had left me a bit frustrated with the bugs, and I'll be honest this release is definitely not bug free. I will get into this later in the review. However, after thinking about how to review this product I felt it best to look at what this release does for Painter especially since the last two versions. I've been a long time Painter user and I also wanted to think if it helps newer users that are afraid of Painter's interface.
I am happy to see Corel finally working at listening to many complaints Painter users had.
Painter gets a brand new interface. I have to admit, I'm not completely warm to the icons - some of them seem silly or kiddie to me, but the new look is a welcome. The biggest reason is the vast amount of customization I can make to the workspace. Gone is the old Windows 2000 look. Now I have panels where I can group what I need together. I'll provide some screenshots to help users too (unless Corel updates product info and it's not necessary). Panels are collapsible and detachable. You can change the order of what panel you want up front.
Want a custom icon for a shortcut or brush you use because previous versions of Painter just used the same category icon? Now it's possible!
You can dock your panels on the top or bottom of the screen. You can even change the toolbox into a horizontal layout if you don't like the Photoshop vertical one. Double Row? Sure!
Brush Library gets an overhaul too, it's a lot easier to read instead of the previous scroll of doom. No more buggy thumbnails on how a stroke is supposed to look. The new interface puts that right down at the bottom of the Brush Selector. Have a brush category you like going into you can now drag it up to the top of your brush list. Want to hide ones you don't use without opening cumbersome dialog windows? That's also possible.
Another better feature. Finally a separate dynamic re-sizable Navigator Window. This makes workflow so much easier.
Remember that nasty jaggy zooming? That has also improved. Zooming is much more smoother - but you may need to update your graphics card.
Help Topics are now online along with a PDF file, so this means possibly better updates to topics when things aren't clear. Believe me, even in this release Painter does need it. There's still parts of the manual that need fleshing out. This now makes it easier to correct. Corel even has video tutorials for the uninitiated!
So, any new brushes? Yes, and in fact as the brush selector got an overhaul, so did the crazy amount of brushes. Gone are the Oils 30, 10 and other sizes. Categories got cleaned up. With the exception of how the Artist's Oils category was handled - it was a much needed revamp. Without the "Artist's Oil's" prefix, it's hard to know it was an artist Oil without looking at the Brush customization panels. You can however switch between the new library and Painter 11 to get it. Windows users will also have multicore support - sorry Mac users not this round.
So we have Brushes that now respond to blending modes just like Photoshop - a much requested feature. In addition we have the Real Oils and Watercolor brushes. If a brush seems slow - open up the Brush Panels and uncheck the multicore option.
I have to say, the Real Watercolors are a major seller for me along with the other goods Painter put into this product. However, after a while they tend to lag.
There are some complaints though. Painter needs to get with the program and make brush customization import and placement easier. Often times users are messing with hidden system files of their user data to import new brushes. Painter needs to make it easier for users and not have them go into those files.
Copy and Paste is still a pain. I don't understand why this is easy with other image editing programs (illustration ones are included) and this function is such hit and miss for Painter.
Painter is a bit slow to launch at times and is fussy. This program is not crash free. I was hoping for more stability this time but alas not so. Hopefully Corel will work faster at getting patches out for the bugs.
I also don't know why the color tools are somewhat broken. The color wheel no longer slides to a perfect white or black. Just look at the HSV/RGB sliders when moving to Black or White to see what I mean.
Mixer Palette seems to have taken a step back with lack of hotkeys and more confusing buttons. It wasn't that broken (other than a lack of undo/redo) so this "fix" made it more harder to work with.
Dual Monitor settings don't seem to set in as well and there are bugs with that setup.
There is an issue of getting random strokes. This is not limited to the intuos lines of tablets.
Transformation tools can still use some work. Although it is nice that Painter plays with well with Photoshop - I'd really like to be able to transform items with much more ease so that Photoshop is my image optimizer and final touchup program - than having to work between programs in the middle of a painting.
Some decisions are just bizarre. Why, for example does the Welcome Screen links launch in Internet Explorer instead of your default browser? The Online Help Topics launch in your default browser just fine - but slow for XP users.
While I was hand-wringing over the bugs. I do have to concede to this being a big overhaul that's worth an upgrade or purchase.
The new features are actually NEW features than "here's some minor update but let's throw in a bunch of new brushes you won't use to keep you distracted".
I do hope the bugs get fixed and I give a nod to Corel and its team for this release.
If you have any questions or need help with Painter feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply with more information on how to work certain features of Painter.
This may be a lengthy review so the tl;dr (Too Long Didn't Read Version) is up top - more thorough after.
Edit- August 18th 2011: - Corel released their first patch and it also helps with multicore and performance improvements. It also seems that they're listening to customers where they'd like to see more releases and updates to the program.
----------------------------------------------------------------
Painter gets an overhaul with its new release. While there are bugs that were present in past versions, along with new ones !boo! - The good does seem to outweigh the bad compared to past Painter releases that seemed more like patches to previous versions.
The Real Watercolors is a definite seller for me - to finally see watercolors that behave like watercolors for the most part. However, there is issues with lag.
The new interface and navigator window are definitely great. I also like the Brush category cleanup with some reservations. Like what happened with the Artist Oils?
The zooming has improved a lot in this version, and despite the bugs, thinking it over - I'd recommend this version because it's finally more of an update than a patch.
The New:
Overhauled GUI
Customization of your workspace including custom icons/jpegs for your entire workspace including brushes
Navigator Window
Windows 64 bit multicore support
Mirror Mode
Kaleidoscope Mode
Real Watercolor Brushes
Real Oil Brushes
Online Help with Video Tutorials
The longer review is below
------------------------------------------------------------------
The last two Painter releases had left me a bit frustrated with the bugs, and I'll be honest this release is definitely not bug free. I will get into this later in the review. However, after thinking about how to review this product I felt it best to look at what this release does for Painter especially since the last two versions. I've been a long time Painter user and I also wanted to think if it helps newer users that are afraid of Painter's interface.
I am happy to see Corel finally working at listening to many complaints Painter users had.
Painter gets a brand new interface. I have to admit, I'm not completely warm to the icons - some of them seem silly or kiddie to me, but the new look is a welcome. The biggest reason is the vast amount of customization I can make to the workspace. Gone is the old Windows 2000 look. Now I have panels where I can group what I need together. I'll provide some screenshots to help users too (unless Corel updates product info and it's not necessary). Panels are collapsible and detachable. You can change the order of what panel you want up front.
Want a custom icon for a shortcut or brush you use because previous versions of Painter just used the same category icon? Now it's possible!
You can dock your panels on the top or bottom of the screen. You can even change the toolbox into a horizontal layout if you don't like the Photoshop vertical one. Double Row? Sure!
Brush Library gets an overhaul too, it's a lot easier to read instead of the previous scroll of doom. No more buggy thumbnails on how a stroke is supposed to look. The new interface puts that right down at the bottom of the Brush Selector. Have a brush category you like going into you can now drag it up to the top of your brush list. Want to hide ones you don't use without opening cumbersome dialog windows? That's also possible.
Another better feature. Finally a separate dynamic re-sizable Navigator Window. This makes workflow so much easier.
Remember that nasty jaggy zooming? That has also improved. Zooming is much more smoother - but you may need to update your graphics card.
Help Topics are now online along with a PDF file, so this means possibly better updates to topics when things aren't clear. Believe me, even in this release Painter does need it. There's still parts of the manual that need fleshing out. This now makes it easier to correct. Corel even has video tutorials for the uninitiated!
So, any new brushes? Yes, and in fact as the brush selector got an overhaul, so did the crazy amount of brushes. Gone are the Oils 30, 10 and other sizes. Categories got cleaned up. With the exception of how the Artist's Oils category was handled - it was a much needed revamp. Without the "Artist's Oil's" prefix, it's hard to know it was an artist Oil without looking at the Brush customization panels. You can however switch between the new library and Painter 11 to get it. Windows users will also have multicore support - sorry Mac users not this round.
So we have Brushes that now respond to blending modes just like Photoshop - a much requested feature. In addition we have the Real Oils and Watercolor brushes. If a brush seems slow - open up the Brush Panels and uncheck the multicore option.
I have to say, the Real Watercolors are a major seller for me along with the other goods Painter put into this product. However, after a while they tend to lag.
There are some complaints though. Painter needs to get with the program and make brush customization import and placement easier. Often times users are messing with hidden system files of their user data to import new brushes. Painter needs to make it easier for users and not have them go into those files.
Copy and Paste is still a pain. I don't understand why this is easy with other image editing programs (illustration ones are included) and this function is such hit and miss for Painter.
Painter is a bit slow to launch at times and is fussy. This program is not crash free. I was hoping for more stability this time but alas not so. Hopefully Corel will work faster at getting patches out for the bugs.
I also don't know why the color tools are somewhat broken. The color wheel no longer slides to a perfect white or black. Just look at the HSV/RGB sliders when moving to Black or White to see what I mean.
Mixer Palette seems to have taken a step back with lack of hotkeys and more confusing buttons. It wasn't that broken (other than a lack of undo/redo) so this "fix" made it more harder to work with.
Dual Monitor settings don't seem to set in as well and there are bugs with that setup.
There is an issue of getting random strokes. This is not limited to the intuos lines of tablets.
Transformation tools can still use some work. Although it is nice that Painter plays with well with Photoshop - I'd really like to be able to transform items with much more ease so that Photoshop is my image optimizer and final touchup program - than having to work between programs in the middle of a painting.
Some decisions are just bizarre. Why, for example does the Welcome Screen links launch in Internet Explorer instead of your default browser? The Online Help Topics launch in your default browser just fine - but slow for XP users.
While I was hand-wringing over the bugs. I do have to concede to this being a big overhaul that's worth an upgrade or purchase.
The new features are actually NEW features than "here's some minor update but let's throw in a bunch of new brushes you won't use to keep you distracted".
I do hope the bugs get fixed and I give a nod to Corel and its team for this release.
If you have any questions or need help with Painter feel free to leave a comment and I'll reply with more information on how to work certain features of Painter.
11 of 11 people found the following review helpful
Access Method:Box|Platform for Display:PC
I've been using Painter since it was sold in a paint can. This program does what others only attempt. I frequently use Photoshop, and other graphics programs, but painter stands alone. My only beef is the occasional crash, I can't remember ever having a crash in Photoshop, but painter does maybe once a week... I couldn't see giving it 5 stars with the crashing. But still this program does some pretty cool stuff.
I also want to mention the new watercolor brushes. I use to do water color with brush and paint. Painter 12 has revamped their watercolor brushes, on previous releases I haven't bothered with them because they never seemed to work realistically. However in Painter 12, It's looking very realistic. The "light Fringe Real Watercolor" Brush lays down color great. It has a "drying" effect that pushes pigment to the edges and also into the deep spots on the texture of the paper. Very cool! You have to wait a moment to allow the strokes to dry, but in the old days I worked with a hair dryer, and had to wait a couple minuets to dry areas, so waiting 10 seconds isn't really that big of deal (it would be nice if it was instantaneous though).
Another great feature is cloning now puts the source picture into the project picture file, so if you like to work on a piece on multiple sessions, you wont have to go hunt down the source file again.
All in all, a great program. some real nice refinements on this release. But please Corel stabilize this program. The price is a premium, the program should be able to stand without stumbling all the time.
I also want to mention the new watercolor brushes. I use to do water color with brush and paint. Painter 12 has revamped their watercolor brushes, on previous releases I haven't bothered with them because they never seemed to work realistically. However in Painter 12, It's looking very realistic. The "light Fringe Real Watercolor" Brush lays down color great. It has a "drying" effect that pushes pigment to the edges and also into the deep spots on the texture of the paper. Very cool! You have to wait a moment to allow the strokes to dry, but in the old days I worked with a hair dryer, and had to wait a couple minuets to dry areas, so waiting 10 seconds isn't really that big of deal (it would be nice if it was instantaneous though).
Another great feature is cloning now puts the source picture into the project picture file, so if you like to work on a piece on multiple sessions, you wont have to go hunt down the source file again.
All in all, a great program. some real nice refinements on this release. But please Corel stabilize this program. The price is a premium, the program should be able to stand without stumbling all the time.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
Excellent- slightly buggy, but excellent!
Right, so most people here have reviewed this already, so I'm not going to repeat what they said. Basically, Corel Painter 12's AMAZING. Read more
Published 24 days ago by Saachi
Many Improvements, still a bit buggy
This version does have a good number of new features, improvements, etc. But it suffers from the 'change just for changes sake' syndrome that a lot of software also falls victim... Read more
Published 1 month ago by M. Jobbagy
Great Program for the Price!
Painter 12 is a great program for digital painting. The interface is easy to navigate and is similar to Photoshop, so it is easy to transfer from program to program. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Iris
An amazing tool and creative companion
For those unfamiliar with Corel Painter, this program is the leading digital tool choice of artists looking for an application that emulates the natural media tools. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Iris Yoffa
Amazing program! Overpriced but still quality
I absolutely love this program, with that said I still prefer using my old adobe photoshop 7 for editing and mixing my media. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Biledemon3
A big step forward
Corel Painter 12 improves upon a long line of successful predecessors. Personally, I really like the way it can simulate real-life mediums like water colors, oil paints, charcoal,... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Michael G. Lustig
MY FAVORITE PAINTING PACKAGE!!!
I have both Photoshop and Corel Painter 12. Corel Painter 12 is my favorite CG program. It is frat for sketching all the way to finishing a piece of CG art. Read more
Published 2 months ago by PersonReviewing
Beautiful Program for Professionals
Note: I am not a professional graphic designer, I am someone who loves to do it my spare time. So this is a review from the point of someone who is a hobbist, home artist and... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Rhiana Jones
no real alternative to Painter, but Corel product support is awful
I'm a professional storyboard artist. I use Painter every day. There is no real viable competition to Painter when it comes to simulating brushes, pencils, etc, digitally. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Ivan Cat
fun to play with
Okay, first off I am in love with the packaging of this software. It's beautiful and sets the tone for the user experience. Read more
Published 3 months ago by L. Knights
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