Comments on: Corel Painter 12 Review

By: Donny Yankellow

Donny Yankellow — Sat, 05 Jan 2013 13:58:59 +0000

Hi Ethan,

Thanks for your comments. I have been using Painter regularly too and have not experienced any of the problems you are mentioning. However, I do think it is time for a Painter 13 release and hopefully your concerns will be resolved. I am currently using Painter Lite for a review and it is working great.

By: Ethanfg

Ethanfg — Fri, 04 Jan 2013 22:05:37 +0000

I’ve been a Painter advocate and serious user for more than 15 years. I use this program 7-8 hours a day, 5 days a week. It is THE production software I use as a professional illustrator. This latest release, while adding some attractive features, is the worst release Corel has ever put out. The software’s programmers have yet to resolve many of the earlier version’s crash problems, the interface redesign makes me question if anyone knows what they are doing, or perhaps they are simply outsourcing everything to India.
If you created custom palettes of brushes, colors, commands, etc. in prior versions, be forewarned: you will have to recreate every one of them again in this new release. If you rely on the portfolio feature (create portfolios of images or layers for reuse) be forewarned: you will run into problems importing many of them into this program. If you typically use the “paint inside or outside a selection” feature found in all prior versions, it inexplicably has been hidden in the navigation menu pull downs in this version. You can no longer shift select multiple layers in the document, you must go to the layer’s menu and do it there (absolutely ridiculous). The layer’s menu is poorly designed and glitchy. The brush size in the “Dab Profile” menu no longer updates in real time as you adjust sliders in the various brush control menus. The program continues to crash when dealing with layers, text and objects. I could go on, but suffice it to say, if you are a long-time user of this software, you will run into more problems and issues that drive you crazy and question your continued use of this software. Do not purchase this version, wait for Painter 13 and see if they correct their Painter 12 blunder.

By: Donny Yankellow

Donny Yankellow — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 19:04:19 +0000

Hi Andy

Thanks for the comments and great site! I definitely see the use of mirror painting on that site. As I said in the article, I think mirror painting could be useful for some people and that site definitely shows it off.

Also, thanks for the hard work on another great release of Painter! I look forward to the next version in the future!

Donny

By: goandychurch

goandychurch — Tue, 12 Jul 2011 13:49:43 +0000

Hi Donny –

I am the product manager for Corel Painter. Thanks for sharing your impressions of Painter 12. The dev team and usability lead worked very hard at this release.

I just got back from visiting some customers in ASIA. Illustrators that are into manga and fantasy characters do like the mirror painting feature – it saves them considerable time when they draw characters and faces. If you check out Tsukasa Kiryu’s site at http://citrocube.com/, you will note a character she painted with Painter 12 and the mirror feature. When I chatted with her, she called out the mirror painting as being a big time saver. This was echoed by other painters including Yoshitoshi Abe – he is a popular animator in Japan.

Hope that sheds some light on its usability and purpose

Andy