Corel Painter
Encyclopedia
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. The current version is Painter 12, released on May 11, 2011.
the user is able to reproduce the effect of physical painting and drawing media such as watercolor, oil, chalk, charcoal and color pencil. There are also a few non-traditional items such as the Image Hose, pattern pens, F/X, Distortion and Artist tools to allow artists to apply less conventional elements to an image.
Painter emulates the visual characteristics of traditional media such as oil paint, pastel sticks, air brush, charcoal, felt pens, and other traditional artists' materials on various textured surfaces. Many of these emulated media types work with the advanced features of Wacom tablets, for instance, the airbrush tool in Painter responds to pressure as well as tilt, velocity and rotation.
Painter and Photoshop have many similarities such as layered editing. The two products have developed as contemporaries, introducing innovations that are now considered standard in bitmap image editing software. For example, "Floaters" were released with Painter 2.5, around that time Photoshop released "composite elements". Over time Painter's user interface has been transformed to match Photoshop's UI.
. 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 graphic applications. Painter is now wholly owned and marketed by Corel.
; a scaled-down version of Painter developed for beginners called Dabbler
(later renamed Art Dabbler after the MetaCreations merger); and a grayscale-only clone called Sketcher
. After the Corel acquisition, Art Dabbler 2 was reintroduced as Corel Painter Essentials
, now in its fourth incarnation.
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.
, and have many of the same tools and functions. For professional artists Essentials will offer fewer tools and variants, and considerably less control.
Raster graphics
In computer graphics, a raster graphics image, or bitmap, is a data structure representing a generally rectangular grid of pixels, or points of color, viewable via a monitor, paper, or other display medium...
digital art
Digital art
Digital art is a general term for a range of artistic works and practices that use digital technology as an essential part of the creative and/or presentation process...
application created to simulate as accurately as possible the appearance and behavior of traditional media
Media (arts)
In the arts, a media or medium is a material used by an artist or designer to create a work.-Architecture:In the art and science of architecture, the design and construction of buildings and interiors, infrastructure and other physical structures are created...
associated with drawing
Drawing
Drawing is a form of visual art that makes use of any number of drawing instruments to mark a two-dimensional medium. Common instruments include graphite pencils, pen and ink, inked brushes, wax color pencils, crayons, charcoal, chalk, pastels, markers, styluses, and various metals .An artist who...
, painting
Painting
Painting is the practice of applying paint, pigment, color or other medium to a surface . The application of the medium is commonly applied to the base with a brush but other objects can be used. In art, the term painting describes both the act and the result of the action. However, painting is...
, and printmaking
Printmaking
Printmaking is the process of making artworks by printing, normally on paper. Printmaking normally covers only the process of creating prints with an element of originality, rather than just being a photographic reproduction of a painting. Except in the case of monotyping, the process is capable...
. It is intended to be used in real-time
Real-time computer graphics
Real-time computer graphics is the subfield of computer graphics focused on producing and analyzing images in real time. The term is most often used in reference to interactive 3D computer graphics, typically using a GPU, with video games the most noticeable users...
by professional digital artists as a functional creative tool. The current version is Painter 12, released on May 11, 2011.
Arts Media
The application offers a wide range of traditional artists' materials and tools. With the aid of a graphics tabletGraphics tablet
A graphics tablet is a computer input device that enables a user to hand-draw images and graphics, similar to the way a person draws images with a pencil and paper. These tablets may also be used to capture data or handwritten signatures...
the user is able to reproduce the effect of physical painting and drawing media such as watercolor, oil, chalk, charcoal and color pencil. There are also a few non-traditional items such as the Image Hose, pattern pens, F/X, Distortion and Artist tools to allow artists to apply less conventional elements to an image.
Painter emulates the visual characteristics of traditional media such as oil paint, pastel sticks, air brush, charcoal, felt pens, and other traditional artists' materials on various textured surfaces. Many of these emulated media types work with the advanced features of Wacom tablets, for instance, the airbrush tool in Painter responds to pressure as well as tilt, velocity and rotation.
Painter and Photoshop have many similarities such as layered editing. The two products have developed as contemporaries, introducing innovations that are now considered standard in bitmap image editing software. For example, "Floaters" were released with Painter 2.5, around that time Photoshop released "composite elements". Over time Painter's user interface has been transformed to match Photoshop's UI.
History
Painter was initially developed for the Macintosh system by Mark Zimmer and Tom Hedges, founders of the Fractal Design CorporationFractal Design
Fractal Design was a US software company, originally known as Fractal Software and founded in 1985. It merged into MetaCreations in 1997. It was initially known as Fractal Technology, and produced several best-selling creative software packages for the PC and Macintosh platforms. Its initial...
. Zimmer and Hedges had previously developed ImageStudio and ColorStudio, both image-editing applications, for Letraset
Letraset
Letraset is a company based in the Kingsnorth Industrial Estate in Ashford, Kent, UK.It is known mainly for manufacturing sheets of artwork elements which can be transferred to artwork being prepared. The name Letraset was often used to refer generically to sheets of dry transferrable lettering of...
. 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
MetaCreations was a computer software company founded in 1997 by the mergers of MetaTools, Fractal Design Corporation, Ray Dream, Specular, and RTG...
. Metacreations sold off all their creative interests and Painter was acquired by Corel Corporation
Corel
Corel Corporation from the abbreviation is a computer software company headquartered in Ottawa, Ontario, that specializes in graphics processing, similar to Adobe Systems...
where it was temporarily rebranded "Procreate" Painter during its transition into the Corel Suite of graphic applications. Painter is now wholly owned and marketed by Corel.
The Painter Series
At one point Painter had three companion applications: a vector-based natural media twin called ExpressionCreature House Expression
Creature House Expression was a vector graphics editor initially developed by Creature House in Hong Kong, then Ray Dream, then Fractal Design Corporation and later MetaCreations as a companion to then-Fractal Design/MetaCreations Painter. At the time, Creature House was an independent Hong Kong...
; a scaled-down version of Painter developed for beginners called Dabbler
Dabbler
Dabbler, is a natural media drawing software aimed at beginners. It was initially developed by Fractal Design. It is a simplified version of Fractal Design Painter, and included multimedia tutorials and a fullscreen interface. Dabbler was released as "Art Dabbler" after the MetaCreations merger,...
(later renamed Art Dabbler after the MetaCreations merger); and a grayscale-only clone called Sketcher
Sketcher (software)
Sketcher was one of the earliest "natural media" raster graphics software applications. It was released in the early 1990s by Fractal Design Software for the Apple Macintosh....
. After the Corel acquisition, Art Dabbler 2 was reintroduced as Corel Painter Essentials
Corel Painter Essentials
Corel Painter Essentials is a home software studio for sketching, painting and turning photographs into paintings. Corel Painter Essentials is now in its fourth incarnation.-Workspaces:...
, now in its fourth incarnation.
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.
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 codeSource code
In computer science, source code is text written using the format and syntax of the programming language that it is being written in. Such a language is specially designed to facilitate the work of computer programmers, who specify the actions to be performed by a computer mostly by writing source...
, and have many of the same tools and functions. For professional artists Essentials will offer fewer tools and variants, and considerably less control.
Painter Sketch Pad
Corel Painter Sketch Pad, launched in January 2009, is the newest member of the Painter product series. Sketch Pad focuses on the conception and early design phase of image creation. It has 13 drawing tools compared to Painter's almost 900 brushes, and a simple user interface that supports quick capturing of creative ideas. It is designed to work with a pen and drawing tablet.External links
- Corel Website
- Interview with Mark Zimmer for german public radio, 1996
- Painter at the Open Directory ProjectOpen Directory ProjectThe Open Directory Project , also known as Dmoz , is a multilingual open content directory of World Wide Web links. It is owned by Netscape but it is constructed and maintained by a community of volunteer editors.ODP uses a hierarchical ontology scheme for organizing site listings...
- 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)
See also
- List of raster graphics editors
- Comparison of raster graphics editorsComparison of raster graphics editors- List :- General information :Basic general information about the editors: creator/company, license etc.- Operating system support :The operating systems on which the editors can run natively , meaning which operating systems have which editors specifically coded for them - List :- General...