Procreate Painter 7

Creativity is in our DNA, and each of us expresses it in a different way. For most of us, the early experiments involved nothing more than a sheet of paper and a box of crayons. Paper and felt pens were essential in the past, but nowadays painting can also be cultivated using a computer.
Procreate's Painter 7 is a cross-platform "Natural-Media" painting application, allowing people to simulate tools such as felt pens, charcoals, coloured pencils, watercolours, oil paints, pastels, and much more.
Behind the Procreate brand there is one of the best known and well-reputed companies in the field of graphics, i.e. Corel, also famous for products such as Corel Draw and WordPerfect.
Painter 7 includes many technological innovations that noticeably improve the quality of the simulation, offering the same look and feel that would normally be given by an artist's real canvas and tools.
Liquid Ink is a new tool that mimics the viscosity and surface tension of thick, gluey medium ink. Liquid Inks work on layers of their own, which can be created automatically or manually, according to need. Applying Liquid Ink strokes to images in close proximity to one another will generate the same spread effects the real ink does. There are several different ways to apply Liquid Inks, simulating a variety of artistic media using Liquid Ink technology, including ink- and wax-resistant painting, scratch board, glass scraping, enamel, encaustic painting, intaglio, woodcut, linoleum, deckle-edges and erosion. You can apply a negative, resistive variation of Liquid Ink to carve away or remove Liquid Ink from an image.
Among other innovations, the Watercolour technology also underwent major improvements. Even though this technology had been present in previous editions, Corel now implemented it to a further degree, achieving spectacular results. The Watercolour technology emulates almost perfectly the diffusion effects that a pigment-laden brush creates when it touches wet areas on watercolour paper. Of course, like in the real world, one can juggle with many variables, such as the wetness and the evaporation rate of the paper.
Painter 7 also offers better colour-management support, so the same colours can be obtained under different conditions.
The integration of Painter 7 with programs like Photoshop (Adobe) is one of the best aspects, since the combination of these two software packages gives a truly complete product.
In comparison to previous versions, the interface did not change much, keeping the same look familiar to all Painter users. Those who try the program for the first time could find the huge number of palettes filling the screen confusing enough, but the embarrassment will easily be overcome with a little practice. Unfortunately, the palettes cannot be customized; this would be a definite advantage in terms of clutter.
As to performance, the Macintosh version I tested gave satisfactory results even in a four-year-old computer, such as the early G3, Watercolour and Liquid Ink excepted. These new technologies need quite more powerful processors, such as the latest G4s.
Painter 7 is compatible with the latest Apple operation system, i.e. OS X. Less pleasant is the fact that the application's performance degrades considerably in OSX, and that the interface needs some graphic retouch, as in my case some control panels were easily confusing against a white background. Moreover, under OS X there are some incompatibilities with devices like graphic tablets, which are a must for a program like Painter 7.
At $749, Procreate Painter 7 is a must for all the digital artists out there. If your computer happens to be a little too old, Painter 7 can single-handedly give you a valid reason to visit your favourite hardware retailer.

For more information visit: www.procreate.com

Publication Date: 2001-11-18
Story Location: http://tandemnews.com/viewstory.php?storyid=634