Corel Corp. has released Corel Painter 8, the latest major release of its digital painting and sketching tool.
The new version features improved compatibility with Adobe Photoshop, more than 400 new brushes, new creative features and a redesigned user interface.
New features include a more true-to-life mixing palette that enables users to create, save and reuse custom colors by smearing them together. The Brush Creator enables you to design your own brush, customize existing brushes, combine them or fine tune them as well. The Sketch Effect lets you control paper grain, heaviness of the pencil line and desired detail level.
A new Toolbox augments the user interface, along with a context-sensitive Property Bar, and a Brush Selector. Layer masks and channels can be hidden and revealed, which provides a consistent interface with Photoshop, along with the software’s enhanced Photoshop file compatibility.
Corel Painter 8 is available for US$299. Upgrades from previous versions cost $149, while the academic version is available for $99. Upgrades are also available for users of Painter Classic and Adobe Photoshop 5.5 or later.
A free trial version of Corel Painter 8 is available for download, and an interactive demo has been posted to Corel’s Web site.