Corel Painter
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
| Painter | |
|---|---|
 Corel Painter IX |
|
| Developed by | Corel |
| Latest release | X / 2007 |
| OS | Microsoft Windows, Mac OS X |
| Genre | Raster graphics editor |
| License | Proprietary |
| Website | www.corel.com |
Corel Painter is a raster-based digital art application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media associated with drawing, painting, and printmaking. It is intended to be used in real-time by professional digital artists as a functional creative tool.
Contents |
[edit] Arts Media
The application offers a wide range of traditional artists' materials and tools. With the aid of a graphics tablet the user is able to reproduce the effect of physical painting and drawing media. There are also a few non-traditional items such as the Image Hose, pattern pens, F/X, Distortion and Artist tools to allow beginners to use or for applying less conventional effects to an image or a piece of work.
In essence, Painter works in much the same way as the brushes in Photoshop with similar support for pressure sensitive tablets. However, Painter also tries to emulate the texture of traditional mediums and the effects of paint etc..
[edit] History
Painter was initially developed for the Macintosh system by Mark Zimmer and Tom Hedges, founders of the Fractal Design Corporation. Zimmer and Hedges had previously developed ImageStudio and ColorStudio, both image-editing applications, for Letraset. John Derry joined Zimmer and Hedges during the release cycle of Painter 1.2. Derry had gained previous paint software expertise at Time Arts, a developer of the early desktop-based paint applications Lumena and Oasis. Fractal Design later merged with RayDream, then with MetaTools to become MetaCreations. Metacreations sold off all their creative interests and Painter was acquired by Corel Corporation where it was temporarily rebranded "Procreate" Painter during its transition into the Corel Suite of applications. Painter is now wholly owned and marketed by Corel.
[edit] The Painter Series
At one point Painter had three companion applications. A vector-based natural media twin called Fractal Design Expression, a scaled-down version of Painter developed for beginners called Art Dabbler, and a grayscale-only clone called Sketcher. After the Corel acquisition, Corel Art Dabbler 2 was reintroduced as Corel Painter Essentials[1], now in its fourth incarnation. The much evolved Expression application is today known as Microsoft Expression Design and is available as a part of the Microsoft Expression Studio [2] suite.
In 2007 Corel released version Painter X, which was at first available in a limited edition paint can, a nod to the packaging for early releases of the software. [3] [4]
[edit] Painter Essentials
Corel Painter Essentials is a less complex version of Painter designed for casual users. Multimedia tutorials, a more intuitive workspace, additional automated tasks and emphasis on photo retouching are some of the features included to appeal to beginners. Painter and Painter Essentials share much of the same underlying code, and have many of the same tools and functions. For professional artists Essentials will offer fewer tools and variants, and considerably less control.
[edit] References
- ^ Corel product info.
- ^ Microsoft product info.
- ^ Corel Corporation. Corel Painter X - Limited Edition Paint Can. Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
- ^ Corel Corporation. The Corel Painter X Limited Edition Paint Can. Retrieved on 2007-07-13.
[edit] External links
- Corel Website
- Painter at the Open Directory Project
- Official Corel Painter Magazine
- Corel Painter X Master's Gallery
- Discussion of Apple's resolution-independent interface patent from Cabel Sasser of Panic Software (PDF copy of patent filing included)
