Corel Painter 6.0

For a traditionally trained artist or someone simply drawn to experimenting in different media such as charcoal, oil, or watercolor, Painter is the tool of choice when it comes to painting or drawing digitally. On a reasonably fast PC or Mac with a fair amount of RAM (i.e., a 200 MHz processor with at least 64 MB of RAM allocated to Painter), Painter is a joy to use.

Painter is not just for painting still images, though. It also supports what MetaCreations calls "frame stacks" and onion skinning for animation. A frame stack is a single document with many frames (determined by you), where each frame can be treated with any or all of Painter's brushes, pencils, or crayons.

Onion skinning is an animation term. In Painter's usage, it means you can see past and future frames in a "ghost" mode while working on a current frame. This allows the animator to see where lines should be placed when drawing movement or to see the direction of movement based on the frame history.

The latest version, Painter 6, offers many new features and some substantial improvements. The most notable visible change is the inclusion of new expandable palettes. MetaCreations has done away with the plethora of palettes that littered the screen in earlier versions. All tools and options are now available from a small number of expandable palettes that look much less stylish than before, but also take up far less space. It is a simple interface change that makes the whole program feel more accessible.

Painter now uses the term "layer" instead of "floater," making it easier for users with experience in the market-dominant Photoshop quickly relate to Painter. Layer behavior is now more intuitive, too, since painting on a layer is now the default behavior for any brush variant.

Painter 6 features "computed brushes" for some of its tools. These are essentially vector-based brushes, which render to a bitmapped image almost instantly when the stroke is done. They feel much more responsive and have a very smooth look, yet still retain that natural quality.

The most important new feature is "Impasto brushes." Impasto refers to the painting technique of applying thick paint to a canvas, using the height of the paint to create highlights and shadows. Painter's Impasto brushes look stunningly real and are a pleasure to work with.

One important note: using Painter without a graphics tablet (like a Wacom Intuos or their newer Graphire tablet) should be against the law. A pressure-sensitive graphics tablet brings out the best in Painter's brushes, and it makes the whole program feel more natural. Using a mouse with Painter is like trying to draw with a pencil the size of a block of wood. It can be done, but it's a real handicap.

Painter 6 is not without a few glitches. Some system freezes occurred while working with it, and after one crash, a file was corrupted and the application had to be reinstalled. At the time of this writing, MetaCreations has announced a corporate restructuring and refocusing. I can only hope that Painter doesn't get lost in the shuffle, and that tech support and patches will soon be available.

Still, Painter 6 should hold a place on every artist's shelf. It's not as straightforward to use as Photoshop, but the joy and imagery brought forth by using Painter's brushes on a textured paper is worth the effort of scaling the learning curve. --Mike Caputo

Amazon.com Product Description
MetaCreations Painter 6 offers an exclusive toolset with an extensive array of brushes, textures, canvas choices, and art materials to faithfully capture the subtleties of an artist's style for print and the Web. The artist can now create his or her finest work using the next generation of brush-engine technology. New features include the ability to place text along a curve and layer vector and bitmap images together. Painter 6 also has improved performance, better memory handling, and an easier-to-use interface. Among the new features with Paint 6: Brush loading allows you to pick up color on each individual bristle of a brush, letting you paint multicolor strokes on scanned images or creations started from scratch. Interactive Image Hose sprays rotated and scaled images onto your image, based on the bearing, tilt, and pressure of your hand. Painter 6 includes hundreds of new Image Hose nozzles and lets you create and manipulate an unlimited number of industry-standard extensive layers in an image, each with its own blending mode and opacity. Grouping, masking, and selecting on and between layers are now easier than ever. Support for CMYK TIFF format makes it easy and fast to open and save your CMYK TIFF images without the use of an additional application. Type text on a path and reshape the baseline by moving the Bezier curve handles. With Painter's dynamic text, you can insert and edit, tilt, rotate, stretch, scale, and type your words on a curve--all with automatic, yet configurable drop shadows. An accessible user interface provides you with the most streamlined, yet informative user interface ever designed for Painter. The simplicity and the power of compact, expandable palettes will make working with Painter 6 even more productive and fun. A responsive palette knife carves and moves paint--depending on the stylus bearing, tilt, and pressure--and takes advantage of the new multicolor brush loading. Options include painting with thick impasto paint. Impasto painting can build up above the canvas or cut through multiple layers of paint all the way down to the canvas. The paint is "plowed" around by brushes, giving a very realistic look. Each layer can have its own depth and way of combining its depth with the layers underneath. Brush size and shape cursors provide instant feedback for each painting tool used. And for the fastest, smoothest painting ever, Painter 6 includes multistroke spooling, motion damping, and cubic interpolation. Painter 6 has superior support for the Wacom Intuos tablet and pen and airbrush technology. Take advantage of 1,024 levels of pressure sensitivity for smooth curves, gradual transitions, and precise control. With it you'll paint more intuitively, illustrate with more freedom, and edit images faster than ever before. An updated plug-in host lets you add even more capabilities to Painter 6 with popular plug-ins. Increased file-handing efficiency allows you to work on large images at high-quality print resolutions. Import formats supported are RIFF; CMYK TIFF; PICT; Photoshop 2, 3, 4, and 5.0; BMP; PCX; Targa; GIF; JPEG; EPS; Pyramid; and Illustrator. Export formats supported are RIFF, CMYK TIFF, PICT, Photoshop 2.0 and 3.0, BMP, PCX, Targa, GIF, JPEG, EPS, Pyramid, and Illustrator.

Some of the Wacom Tablets come with Painter Classic, a cut-down version. If you do any web art, digital art or want to try your hand at it, the full version 6.0 is well worth it.


Fine Artists take Note   November 18, 2000
This is the best program when it comes to painting, sketching, charcol, pastelsm watercolor, impasto etc. There is a high degree of realism in the brushstrokes.

All of this comes at a high price however. The software is quite difficult to learn and it requires a lot of patience.

If you do pick this up, I also recommend Cher Threinen-Pendarvis' book "The Painter Wow book" to compliment your purchase. The book can show you what the software can do.


Animation artist from Chicago says:   July 9, 2000
Lisa A. Ruth (Chicago, IL United States)
5 out of 5 found this review helpful

In utilizing Painter 6.0 I found it to be a most effective and creative means of enhancing animation pieces. One can transfer filmed pieces into frame by frame stacks and create new effects or even copy and paste options for the frames.

In addition to animation, this program allows one to utilize any medium and apply to the computer canvas. Along with an abundance of art mediums, there are text options and an assortment of textures one can apply.

This software is limitless and one of the most convenient graphics/animation programs I have used.


Corel Draw   June 26, 2000
4 out of 4 found this review helpful

This product is incredible when it comes to creating graphics. However, unless you are very good with a computer the software can become quite cumbersome. It is complex but one of a kind. I, personally, don't believe there is another software that has the same capabilities. Also, the price is pretty steep so unless you can make good use of it, it's probably not worth the [cost].