I recently purchased Painter X and have been playing and watching the free tutorials provided with registration.
The package is very powerful but typically is complex and working with it is difficult. Be prepared to spend some time in tutorials and the help content before you can do much.
As suggested by the introduction tutorial, the added “RealBristle Brushes” are a major advance in this version.
A variety of “color sets” are provided and new ones can be built automatically by sampling an image.
The “Quick Clone” feature allows rapid outlining and manipulation of a loaded image.
The “Artists’ Oil Brushes” emulate a real brush and run out of paint as used.
Most all of the brushes can be edited and saved to meet individual wishes.
Painter X will not directly paint with patterns/textures although I have been lead to believe that it can be simulated in the cloning system - Picture Publisher 6, 7a or 10’s Textures would be a better choice, or perhaps PhotoPlus 9, 10, 11 or X2’s “Pattern Tool”.
Photo-Paint(the new incarnation of Picture Publisher) does not appear to support painting with textures. If it does, I cannot figure it out.
If you’re just a painting or graphics hobbyist it is the smart thing to do to shop and purchase the previous or next previous version of a tool. That will allow you to avoid extreme costs. Windows 7 will actually run most any well written program.
Corel Painter X is a welcome addition to my graphics and painting toolbox. No way is it worth $399 for the average user. I paid $49.98 and it is definitely worth that price-point.
PhotoPlus 9 can be purchased from the company for $9.99 or gotten for free. Picture Publisher versions can be found at eBay and similar outlets.
Several tools can be found at http://graphixtools.com/
Malcolm T. Hedges
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