Buy Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac)

Amazon.com: Corel Painter Essentials 4 is the simple-to-use home art studio that makes it easy for you to draw, paint or turn your photos into paintings. Two new workspaces put the tools you need at your fingertips, whether you're turning a photo into a painting, or drawing and painting on a blank canvas. Plus, Corel Painter Essentials 4 includes an incredible selection of brushes, paints, pens and paper textures for adding unique touches to photos or creating cards, scrapbooks and other fun projects. Based on the world's most powerful painting and illustration software, Corel Painter, it's the ideal way to get started with digital art!

Discover an Expressive, Natural, and Inspiring Home Art Studio
For Corel Painter Essentials 4, the application workspace has been completely redesigned to improve color selection and the discovery of brushes, media, and paper. The new workspace is also easier for users to navigate, especially if they work with a pen tablet.

Corel Painter Essentials 4 is the simple-to-use home art studio that makes it easy for you to draw, paint or turn your photos into paintings.

With Corel Painter Essentials 4, it's now even easier for users to turn photos into expressive, natural, hand-painted portraits.

New--Redesigned workspace:
Corel worked closely with its customers to find out how they were using Painter Essentials. The result is a redesigned and simplified environment with two distinct workspaces: Drawing & Painting and Photo Painting. Each workspace is easily accessible from tabs within the application, and each presents users with the tools specifically needed for the task they've selected.

In the Drawing & Painting workspace, users can access relevant tools, such as the Colors, Color Wheel, and Layers palettes. In the Photo Painting workspace, users are provided with the Source Image, Auto-Painting, and Restore Detail palettes. Both workspaces offer a reconfigured toolbox that makes it easier to identify and select brushes, media, and paper.

New--Brush Drawer:
With Corel Painter Essentials 4, a new Brush Drawer has been added to the toolbox, making brush identification and selection easier than ever before. The Brush Drawer opens with the click of a flyout button. Redesigned icons for each brush category are displayed on tabs along the top of the Brush Drawer. The list of available brushes changes depending on the selected brush category. When closed, the Brush Drawer displays a column from which users can quickly access their most recently used brushes. For convenience, users can also easily add their favorite brushes to the Brush Drawer column.

New--Mixer palette:
In addition to its traditional Color Wheel, Corel Painter Essentials 4 now provides the Mixer palette. By simulating the traditional experience of mixing colors on an artist's paint palette, the Mixer palette makes it easier for users to get the precise color they want. Users can apply two or more colors to the Mixer pad, and then blend the colors together until they are satisfied with the result.

New--Colors palette:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 provides the new Colors palette, which lets users choose a color with just one click.

New--Easier pen tablet navigation:
With its new workspaces, Corel Painter Essentials 4 makes it easier for pen tablet users to navigate. Many of the application's buttons and sliders are larger and easier to grab. In addition, the controls for frequent actions, such as Undo and Redo, have been better exposed so that users can access them without using a keyboard.

New--Professional prints:
Accessible from the File menu, the new Online Print Services option lets users get professional prints on canvas, watercolor paper, or other fine art materials.

In the Drawing & Painting workspace, users can access relevant tools, such as the Colors, Color Wheel, and Layers palettes.

In the Photo Painting workspace, users are provided with the Source Image, Auto-Painting, and Restore Detail palettes.

The Corel Painter Essentials 4 Guidebook provides step-by-step tutorials that help users discover the application while completing fun projects.

Turn Photos into Paintings
With Corel Painter Essentials 4, it's now even easier for users to turn photos into expressive, natural, hand-painted portraits.

New & Enhanced! Photo Painting System:
The Photo Painting System has been redesigned and enhanced, reducing the complexity of turning a photo into a painting. With Corel Painter Essentials 4, the streamlined Photo Painting System is now available as a separate workspace. All brushes within the Photo Painting workspace act as cloners and take their color from the source image.

The new Source Image palette makes it simpler to choose a clone source, and includes controls to adjust the opacity of tracing paper and to toggle tracing paper on and off. In addition, the source image is now saved with the painting, meaning that users do not have to keep a separate photo open. The enhanced Auto-Painting palette now includes Smart Stroke technology, which provides more intelligent brush behavior during the auto-painting process.

New & Enhanced--Smart Stroke technology:
Built into the Auto-Painting palette, the new Smart Stroke technology paints with brushstrokes that follow the forms of the original photo. Smart Stroke technology dynamically changes brush size, stroke length, and pressure, based on the detail and focal areas of the original photo, which helps users quickly achieve impressive paintings or sketches.

New--Source image saved with file:
Previously, if users wanted to continue working on a Photo Painting project, they needed to remember which image file had been used as the source. With Corel Painter Essentials 4, the source image is now saved with the RIFF file, making it easier to return to a project later.

Try the Broader Selection of Natural-Media Materials
Painter has always led the way with its unrivaled selection of Natural-Media materials. With Corel Painter Essentials 4, users get access to an even greater selection of Natural-Media brushes, pens, and paper textures.

New--RealBristle Painting System:
First introduced by Corel Painter X, the new RealBristle Painting System heightens the responsiveness of the brush for the artist and represents a major milestone for digital painting. With Corel Painter Essentials 4, users get access to several RealBristle brushes in a variety of brush categories. Brushes that use RealBristle technology are identified by the prefix "Real" in their name. By authentically reproducing the sensation of the interaction between the paint, canvas, and brush, RealBristle brushes take realism to a whole new level.

New--Charcoal brushes:
The new Charcoal brushes range from pencils to hard or soft charcoal sticks. As with other dry media brushes, the opacity is linked to pen pressure.

New--Sargent brush:
The new Sargent brush in Corel Painter Essentials 4 helps users paint in the style of master artist John Singer Sargent.

New--Pens:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 introduces pens in the Pencils & Pens brush category, such as the Scratchboard Tool and Smooth Edge Calligraphy, which are perfect for inking comic books or doing calligraphy

New--Sumi-e brushes:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 has added Sumi-e brushes, which let you create flowing sumi-e-style brushstrokes.

New--Paper textures:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 includes a greater selection of paper textures that accurately reproduce the feel of using traditional art materials. Users can control the texture of the canvas to achieve the results expected from using traditional media on a given surface--for example, pencil on watercolor paper, felt pens on cotton paper, or chalk on the sidewalk.

Explore Learning Materials
Getting started with Corel Painter Essentials and digital art has never been simpler. Users can take advantage of inspiring, tutorial-based videos and a companion guidebook, in addition to the application's Help system.

New--Tutorial-based guidebook:
The Corel Painter Essentials 4 Guidebook provides step-by-step tutorials that help users discover the application while completing fun projects. With projects ranging from beginner to advanced levels, the guidebook introduces various Corel Painter Essentials media and provides tips that introduce some of the elements and principles of art.

New--Video tutorials:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 includes video tutorials that are accessible from within the application. Users benefit by learning from the experience of Painter Master and Ambassador John Derry. The video tutorials guide users through a variety of projects, including those in the guidebook.

Brushes--The Heart and Soul of Corel Painter Essentials.

Enjoy Compatibility
Users who work with the latest operating system from Apple or Microsoft can rely on the compatibility features of Corel Painter Essentials 4. The application is designed to work with the industry-standard software and hardware that digital artists and hobbyists use every day.

New--Universal binary:
While still providing a great experience with PowerPC processors, Corel Painter Essentials 4 is optimized for use with Intel processors.

Enhanced! Windows Vista support:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 Works with Windows Vista.

Enhanced! Support for Wacom products:
Corel Painter Essentials 4 supports the entire Wacom product line, including the Graphire pen tablets, the Cintiq 21 UX interactive pen display, the Intuos3 pen tablet, and the Wacom 6D Art Pen.

Natural-Media Brushes
Brushes are the heart and soul of Corel Painter Essentials. The following sections explain how brushes and media are organized within the application.

Thick Paint
Thick Paint brushes let users simulate painting with thick, sticky paints, such as acrylics and oils. All Thick Paint brushes cover underlying brushstrokes. Many of the brushes can produce multicolored strokes, and others interact with underlying pixels to create realistic effects. The Thick Paint category includes Acrylics, Artists' Oils, Impasto, Oils, Palette Knives, and RealBristle brushes.

Thin Paint
Thin Paint brushes let users simulate the application of thin paint or ink, such as thin acrylic, oil paint, gouache, or Sumi-e ink. All Thin Paint brushes cover underlying brushstrokes. The Thin Paint category includes Acrylics, Gouache, Oils, RealBristle, and Sumi-e brushes.

Water
There are two classes of Water brushes: watercolor brushes and airbrushes. Users must dry both airbrush and watercolor brushstrokes before applying effects. Watercolor brushes produce watercolor effects that react with the canvas texture. With the exception of the Wet Eraser, the width of watercolor brushstrokes is affected by stylus pressure. In previous versions of Corel Painter Essentials, the Watercolor brushes were referred to as Digital Watercolor. Airbrushes apply fine sprays of color. The Digital Airbrush carefully mirrors the feel of a real airbrush. The Wacom airbrush stylus is fully compatible with the airbrushes in Corel Painter Essentials.

Pencils & Pens
Brushes in the Pencils & Pens category are marking tools that simulate pencils, ballpoint pens, markers, and calligraphy pens. Just like their traditional counterparts, the pencils in the Pencils & Pens category interact with canvas texture and are great for a variety of artwork--from rough sketches to fine line drawings. The pencils and the Felt Art Marker build to black and link opacity to stylus pressure. Dragging quickly with a Pencils brush produces a thinner line, while dragging slowly leaves a thicker line. Pens, such as the Round Tip Pen and Scratchboard Tool, create realistic effects without the drawbacks of traditional pens, which can clog, spatter, or run dry.

Dry Media
Dry Media brushes range from charcoal and chalk to pastels and crayons. The opacity of Dry Media brushstrokes is linked to stylus pressure and all strokes interact with the paper texture. These brushes range from hard styles that reveal the paper grain to soft styles that glide on to completely cover existing brushstrokes. The Dry Media category includes Charcoal, Chalk, Crayons, and Pastels.

Blenders
Blenders brushes affect underlying pixels by moving and mixing them. Blenders can reproduce the effects of blending paint by applying water or oil. Blenders can be used to smooth drawing lines and create shading just like a traditional pencil sketch or charcoal drawing.

Effects
There are three types of Effects brushes: Artist brushes, Image Hoses, and Pattern Pens.

Artist brushes let users paint in the styles of master artists, such as Vincent Van Gogh (with brushstrokes that are multishaded), or Georges Seurat (with multiple dots combining to form an image).

Image Hoses are special brushes that apply images, instead of color, to the canvas. The images that these brushes "paint" with come from special image files called nozzles. Each nozzle file contains multiple images. The Variable-Size Image Hose varies the size of images as you paint. The Variable-Angle Image Hose varies the angle at which the images are applied.

Brushes in the Pattern Pens category apply a pattern to an image. Users can vary the size and transparency of the pattern.

Photo
Photo brushes are based on popular brushes from other brush categories, but are optimized for auto-painting.

Customer Reviews:

Amazing Power for the Price! (46 of 47 Found this Helpful) January 17, 2008
I have children 14, 11, and 9, and I was looking for software that would appeal to their creative side. I am a fairly sophisticated software user, and used to do some programming myself, but had never really ventured into these type of painting/art programs.

Bottom Line: I was blown away by this program, totally impressed!!

Why?

#1 It's easy to use out of the box--- many of the controls are easy enough to figure out just by using them, it installs easy on both Mac and PC systems (I installed the program on both an old eMac and a low end Vista laptop successfully).

#2 It's really powerful--- once you really get into the software, it's amazing all the different brushes and textures and effects that you can do to make really impressive art.

#3 The tutorials are first rate--- A thick instruction manual that actually is well written, and actually teaches you about basic principles of art and painting. There are also a whole series of video tutorials included free. You can tell that a lot of hard work and frankly a lot of love went into this, which is a rarity for computer software these days.

#4 It's a great value--- For all you get, the price is very reasonable. And check the company's website, if you're still not sold they were at the time of this writing offering a 60 day free downloadable trial.

One more tip: Get even a low-price graphics tablet to go along with the software--- you'll be glad you did!

Masterpieces the Easy Way (14 of 14 Found this Helpful) May 28, 2008
Whether you're using a Wacom tablet or just a mouse, you can quickly achieve painterly styles either free hand or with existing art and photographs with a few clicks and create unique pieces of art with minimal effort.

Being a user of Photoshop for about 14 years, I can tell you, this is not a competing product - it is a complementary product. The two do very different things in very different ways. Great for amateur artists or professionals, Painter 4 Essentials has great video tutorials to get you started.

I installed this on two different machines to test it out - once on a one-year-old MacBook that has the older video card w/ 64MB of shared graphics memory and on a new (early 2008) iMac with a 512MB graphics card. The difference is striking on performance. While this product would probably be great on one of the newer MacBooks with 144MB of shared memory, it stuttered and was slow on my older MacBook. It flies on my iMac... and this is clearly due to the graphics memory differences and not because of a moderate processor jump.

I'd recommend anyone trying this new out of the box to sit through the tutorials at least once to familiarize themselves with the interface - to me, it was not initially intuitive.

Fun, affordable, powerful product.

A fun experience, excellent software (50 of 60 Found this Helpful) November 21, 2007
Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RMO0PHTKL5Y I am not an artist, not computer savvy and used this product with a mouse. And even with all those disclaimers I can tell you it was not easy to use until I read the booklet and watched the tutorial. So I suggest you watch the tutorial videos that come with it first. After a little practice I was able to produce "paintings" from photos as it promised. This lets you upload a photo and basically paint over it. And expect to be able to improve as I learn more about all that the software has to offer and of course 'Practice'. I cannot imagine how easy and useful this product would be with a tablet.

As you may be able to tell from this review, I mainly wanted this so that I could enhance my photographs. The Photo Painting was quite nice. When you upload an image all you do is select which parts of it you want shown by using the same variety of paint tools available in the Drawing & Painting workspace. And there are a lot of choices; many that I am not using at the moment, but will with time. You are even able to change the texture of the image by changing the paper; you can change the brush type and width, and even use different kinds of paints. It will take more time to learn all that this software is capable of. The Amazon description shows the wealth of options available within this product.

For me this is a big upgrade. I have only used PC Paint before and always found myself frustrated by not having a brush size I wanted to use. Painter Essentials 4 gives you many more options and has greatly reduced this level of frustration I use to feel. Another big plus in my opinion is the undo or unedited, whichever term you are use too, works for many levels. I had gone forward and noticed something I did not like. I was able to remove the last 18 modifications I had made to the painting and it looked as if I could have kept removing them.

My sister visited me and is great a sketching. She loved the charcoal brushes range from pencils to hard or soft charcoal sticks. She mentioned that it was not as easy as drawing with the actual stick, but the sketch looked great. And I am sure with a pen attached and practice it would be just as easy.

I remember when a friend bought the first Corel product and was happy with it. I could never figure out how to use it and it was over three times the cost of this. This is worth the price, has many features and gives you an intro to the basics with its tutorial material that is included.

So considering I could use it for my photos and my sister thought it was a wonderful tool for creating art (in her case sketches), I have to give this two thumbs up as a product for the home.

Wonderful software, I am completely amazed! (10 of 11 Found this Helpful) December 27, 2007
After trying out this software I am sold 100% and will definately be using this for a long, long time. This software allows users to turn their photos into beautiful works of art. My favorite is to take my childrens pictures and turn them into impressionist paintings or watercolors. I have not yet tried the freehand painting/drawing as I am truly not a good artist, but I have become very good over time at editing photos to create professional quality works. Some of my photos have even been used commercially.

The photo editing portion of this software is what I will be reviewing today. The simplest and easiest way to start out using this software is the use the auto-painting feature. First you select a picture you would like to work with. Then you click on the auto-painting feature where you can select from among 18 different painting methods such as impressionist, chalk, watercolor, pastel drawing, and illustration. Then you apply the auto-painting. It takes a few minutes and then your work of art is finished. If you would like to restore some details (such as eyes) you can also do that with a couple of clicks. The end result is just gorgeous. You can even customize your paper type (canvas, linen, etc) and your brush size to get the perfect picture.

If you are looking for a new and exciting way to work with photos, or you enjoy using online painting programs, this is definately a great product. I can imagine avid scrapbookers will also enjoy using these "paintings" in their scrapbooks.

Corel PE4 - Nice Photo Painting Features, Nice Price (25 of 32 Found this Helpful) December 17, 2007
Corel has produced a nice product that at a good price. This product is meant to compete with Adobe Photoshop Elements. It tends to be about $10-15 less than Elements, though both have the same list price. The added photo painting routines make this a fun product for those who want to creatively edit pictures.

Pros
+ Nice interface that feels familiar to Photoshop Elements users
+ Great price!
+ Nice photo painting routines and included brushes for quick photo painting
+ Great included tutorials and documentation to get you up to speed
+ Works great with graphics tablets or standard mice
+ Minimal memory and processor requirements (works on older PCs and Macs)
+ Very nice brushes, pencils, pens and papers provide range of textures
+ Runs much faster than Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop

Cons
- Separate learning curve for current Photoshop users
- Some photo painting macros are simply blurring techniques

The main features that make this product stand out are the added brushes and textures and the photo painting routines. These are essentially macros that can turn your photos into drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, etc. Some of them are better than others, including the charcoal drawings and impressionist paintings. Others are amount to little more than blurring.

All of these techniques can be done with full blown graphics programs. PE4 just makes it quicker and easier to do those things.

The included tutorials are nice and will help you get up to speed if you are not familiar with the product. The interface is relatively intuitive.

For those who are Photoshop devotees, learning a separate product may not be worth it. But for those that have not yet invested in Photoshop, the cost of Adobe's full products must be considered.
Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
Adobe Photoshop CS3

But at this price, this is a good product for anybody who wants to take advantage of the added brushes and photo painting techniques.

Give it a try! Enjoy!

Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac)

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