What's New in Painter Essentials 4

Painter Essentials 4 New Features and Screen Shots

Corel Painter Essentials 4 features a redesigned workspace, divided into two distinct and streamlined areas--one for painting and drawing from scratch, and one for photo-painting. The two workspaces are accessible from tabs at the top of the screen, and users can easily switch between them freely. In addition, the buttons and tool controls are larger, making it easier to navigate the user interface with a pen tablet. From the Welcome Screen shown here, you can jump right into the desired workspace, open an existing file, or launch the video tutorials or guidebook.

In the Drawing and Painter Workspace, users have access to tools along the left and palettes along the right. The palettes consist of Colors, Color Mixer, Color Wheel, and Layers. Although the palettes do not tear off, users can quickly hide or reveal them like a drawer when they need to maximize the workspace.

The Photo Painting Workspace consists of the Source image palette, for choosing a photo to paint; the Auto-Painting palette for setting the cloning attributes; and the Restore Detail palette, for painting areas of detail back into a photo painting. In the Photo Painting workspace, any selected tool will act as a cloner. The source image is also saved together with the file so users can continue working on a project at a later time without having to keep track of the source photo separately.

The Brush Drawer makes brush selection much easier than in previous versions. All the painting and drawing tools have been divided into categories, and large previews help you see how the brush will look. Recently used brushed are displayed along the right side of the brush drawer for easy recall, and users can add their favorite brushes to this area. The brush categories consist of thick paint, thin paint, water, pencils & pens, dry media, blenders, effects, and photos.

The Color Palette displays a grid of 88 color blots just inviting you to dip a virtual brush in. For the more adventurous, the Mixer palette lets you dab on multiple colors and blend them together to create the precise shade you are looking for. You can sample colors from the Mixer palette by Alt or Option clicking in the palette while a painting tool is active.

The technology used in auto-painting has been greatly enhanced in Painter Essentials 4. "Smart Stroke" technology analyses the source image and adjusts brush strokes to more closely follow the detail and forms of the original photo, resulting in photo paintings that are more lifelike and natural. Within the Auto Painting palette, users can choose from a number of preset artistic styles, and customize them further by manually setting the edge effect, color effect, paper texture, and brush type. The smart blur option simplifies the source by reducing detail, and the random stroke settings allow precise control over stroke length, pressure, brush size and rotation, and the shape of brush strokes.

The RealBristle Painting system introduced in Painter X is now available in Painter Essentials 4. The 5 new RealBristle brushes, identified by the prefix "Real" in the brush name, behave more like real brushes by realistically simulating the way the hairs of a paint brush would expand and contract as the brush moves across the canvas. In addition, Essential 4 offers new charcoal brushes, pens including scratchboard and smooth edge calligraphy, sumi-e brushes, and a Sargent brush intended to simulate the style of artist John Singer Sargent.