Corel has released version 12 of Corel Painter, one of the longest-running graphics applications for the Mac. The new release comes with a number of enhancements, including much-improved performance and a user interface that can be fully customized to fit each user’s needs. The main new feature, however, is Painter’s support for new realistic brushes, which, according to the company, reproduce the “movement and feeling of traditional art on canvas” when used with a graphics tablet. A free 30-day trial version is available. ($429 new, $229 upgrade, 297 MB)
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Larry Leveen
Corel Painter 12
by Marco Tabini 
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How is support for realistic brushes a new feature? That was always the entire point of Painter!
Yeah, this blurb did a terrible job reporting the press release! Aside from better performance and an overhauled UI, the actual news seems to be:
• New Watercolor and Wet Oil brushes, now getting the RealBristle moniker (basically even more realistic brushes of these types than were available before... you can now control such details as the direction of the wind blowing as your watercolors dry!)
• Some new flashy tools (one or two of these seem to show up with every major release):
- Kaleidoscope or Mandala Painting: "transform brushstrokes into a balanced spectrum of colourful shapes or blends from 3 to 12 planes"
- Mirror Painting: "create automatic symmetry by mirroring the plane vertically and horizontally. Mirror placement can also be moved or rotated"
(quoted from bullet points Corel’s press release).
You can see videos of the new features here:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ca/en/Product/1166553885783#tabview=tab1
• New Watercolor and Wet Oil brushes, now getting the RealBristle moniker (basically even more realistic brushes of these types than were available before... you can now control such details as the direction of the wind blowing as your watercolors dry!)
• Some new flashy tools (one or two of these seem to show up with every major release):
- Kaleidoscope or Mandala Painting: "transform brushstrokes into a balanced spectrum of colourful shapes or blends from 3 to 12 planes"
- Mirror Painting: "create automatic symmetry by mirroring the plane vertically and horizontally. Mirror placement can also be moved or rotated"
(quoted from bullet points Corel’s press release).
You can see videos of the new features here:
http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/ca/en/Product/1166553885783#tabview=tab1