Corel Painter Essentials 7 | Digital Art Suite | Amazon Exclusive Includes Free PhotoMirage Express Valued at $49 [PC/Mac Disc] [Old Version]

This is an excellent cost-effective option for anyone who doesnt need the entire functionality of the much more expensive full Painter software. For less than a tenth of the cost (at the time of this review), I feel this has the features that most amateurs and even some avid amateurs need in this type of software.

I use this photo editing software more than photoshop elements.

I am not known for my artistic talent in any way shape or form. If my spelling is a bit sketchy. But I got this hoping to learn more about digital brushes, how they work, and what I can do with them. My daughter, she’s very artistic, paints both on canvas and using digital software. So I wanted to be able to understand some of what she tells me.

I found this somewhat easy to figure out and user friendly. It certainly loads up quickly on my laptop and simple step by step instructions. I prefer still having a disk rather than navigating a program purely online. I found it really cool to experiment with but I mainly use the photo art stuff. I also love turning images into animation. I’d like to illustrate my own children’s book. This is really great technology that is great quality. I feel it helps keep my aging brain stimulated. I feel I have great control of creativity with this and plan to use it a long time if my grandchildren don’t break my laptop. They like turning their photos into paintings and I feel it is a skill building tool for them.

I think this is a fine entry-level program for the non-artist or the artist new to digital painting. I am not an artist but play with simple graphics for my own amusement. I had tried at least one previous iteration of Painter and was quickly overwhelmed with the options. This version gets around that by limiting the options and permitted user variations. The most noticeable of that being that users cannot tweak the settings to create their own brushes and then save that brush for later use. A professional artist might find that a limitation but for a casual user like me that is really not an issue, given the huge--HUGE--number of preprogrammed brushes. For those who dont anticipate creating original art but do want to enhance or just plain play with existing images, there is Auto-Paint, which lets you take any picture and convert it into styles suggestive of classical techniques: from Smooth Acrylic to Pastel to French Impressionist to Van Gogh. The program supports Layers, a Tracing function, a Text tool and, of course, painting from scratch. Overall, Painter Essentials is a non-intimidating introduction to painting software for the novice and, compared to expensive fully-featured packages, a fair value.

I am new to digital painting and was looking for a program that was easy and intuitive. This one fits the bill. Installation was simple and straightforward. there are excellent training videos to help you learn the program. while experienced digital artists might feel limited, the program is ideal for beginners. There are plenty of options but not an overwhelming number. it is fun to play with no frustrating glitches or tricks. It will take some time before I master it but it is an entertaining skill to learn. This program is well designed, accessible and interesting. Well done.

Fantastic program

This software is great for a range of skills - from someone just getting started with digital painting through more experienced painters. Installation is quick and painless, and if you dont have a CD drive it can be downloaded and then you enter the serial codes included in the box to activate.

What a joy to have this at my fingertips.

the link to the add-on didnt work and it was shipped without an outer box. The box was severely damaged and opened in shipping. I was very grateful to discover the disc in tact. And corel customer service assisted me in getting a linke to download the add on