Customer Reviews

Corel Upgrade Painter 11 [OLD VERSION]

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(0)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

Corel Painter is in a category all its own. While photo manipulation software comes in all sorts and layout programs abound for every skill set, Painter is a unique program that allows real art to be made directly in a digital format.

This could easily be quite a cheesy goal and a sub-par result meant more for play than serious work. Could be, but Painter does the task so well it is really astounding.

I could have said the exact same words, and have, about Painter IX, a program I have owned since it was released.

I've found that program unsurpassed in all kinds of creative goals for both web and print use, for both serious work and for creative exploration.

I was familiar with Painter IX, and yet I'm still a bit blown away by Painter 11.

It's an easy transition. Everything looks the same and so there's no major transition from the older to the newer. The main difference is in feel. Painter 11 just feels more natural. It has better response, better control, better overall simulation of the various media. Even on the Intuos3, I could always feel a strong bit of distance, and artificiality, on Painter IX. In Painter 11 I just feel so much more connected to the canvas on the screen.

Some have noted some issues with their graphics pad. I've not seen any problems at all. Perfect and easy use, even better than Painter IX in every respect.

Often, new programs try to add so much they become slower, or more complicated, or otherwise a step down in performance for the steps up in function. Painter 11 adds a whole list of new brushes and capabilities, all functioning perfect as I try them out. It does this while speeding up all the various interactions. Everything just seem so smooth. So not only are the brushes and pens feeling so much more natural, the whole experience is sharpened and quick.

The integration with the Adobe products is likewise quite good. One thing I've appreciated about the various Corel products is their ability to 'play well with others'. Instead of trying to mark out its territory by ignoring the major players, Corel enables functions that takes seriously the probable software use of real designers and artists.

Painter has always been a program in its own class, and that sometimes means a company doesn't continue to innovate with it. Corel keeps pushing the edge, making a five star product much better, by making better what it already did great and adding quite useful capabilities on top of this.

Extremely pleased with Painter 11. Well worth the cost, and if you have an older version it is indeed worth an upgrade.

Some reviewers have noted this version seems slower. I just can't see what they mean. Indeed, not only does this program feel quite a bit faster it also seems to work well on a variety of systems. My main computer is a XPS710 with a quad core processor, a nice video card. Of course Painter flies on that one. But, surprisingly, it also works quite smoothly on my laptop, a Dell e1405, that has no separate video processor, is one of earliest dual-core, and only has 1gb of memory. If I do particularly processor intensive tasks it does lag a bit, but significantly less than my Adobe programs. It works better than Painter IX did on the same computer.

As far as operating systems, I've run this on Vista premium (my main computer), XP media edition (my laptop), and Vista home (my wife's laptop). Runs great on each.

I heartily do recommend downloading the 30 day free trial Corel offers to see how the program works on your computer and if you see the worth of an upgrade as I did.

If you're a digital artist, you already have some version of Corel Painter. I began with Painter 7 and have bought every upgrade. If you're not a digital artist and have never used Painter, get ready for a steep learning curve. I've known many who have purchased it and never really used it, but if you're willing to commit to the learning process, it's well worth your time and effort. This is the closest you'll ever get to traditional painting media effects. I began in traditional watercolors, acrylics, oils, etc., and the realism here is awesome! But, since you're looking @ an upgrade, it's safe to assume that you already know Painter, and how current you stay with the upgrades depends on just how much you use it. If I weren't working as a digital artist, I'd still be happy as a clam with Painter 7, but maybe that's just me, and now that I have Vista, I'm not sure how far back the versions will work with it.

Some have had issues with installing Painter 11, but mine went smooth as a whistle. After it was released, I waited a few months for them to work out the bugs.

Painter 11 has added new Brushes and Brush Controls for an even more realistic painting experience. It wouldn't be an exaggeration to say that Corel Painter has changed my life, so for me, there's no down side to owning this software.

I've upgraded from Painter X, which I used for a year a or two. I was plagued by crashes with the old version. I'm very happy with painter 11, smooth, quick, doesn't crash... Also I use Photoshop, Painter is in a class by itself. Photoshop artwork looks "photoshopped", painter creates digital artwork. However I still use photoshop alot, and I do run into times when I wish painter was able to do certain things that photoshop can already do. But I'm very happy I upgraded.