Corel Painter Essentials 4 (Win/Mac) Reviews

• A fun experience, excellent software

  
  By A1B05INWIDZ74O on 2007-11-21
  Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R3RMO0PHTKL5Y I am not an artist, not computer savvy and used this product with a mouse. And even with all those disclaimers I can tell you it was not easy to use until I read the booklet and watched the tutorial. So I suggest you watch the tutorial videos that come with it first. After a little practice I was able to produce "paintings" from photos as it promised. This lets you upload a photo and basically paint over it. And expect to be able to improve as I learn more about all that the software has to offer and of course 'Practice'. I cannot imagine how easy and useful this product would be with a tablet.
  
  As you may be able to tell from this review, I mainly wanted this so that I could enhance my photographs. The Photo Painting was quite nice. When you upload an image all you do is select which parts of it you want shown by using the same variety of paint tools available in the Drawing & Painting workspace. And there are a lot of choices; many that I am not using at the moment, but will with time. You are even able to change the texture of the image by changing the paper; you can change the brush type and width, and even use different kinds of paints. It will take more time to learn all that this software is capable of. The Amazon description shows the wealth of options available within this product.
  
  For me this is a big upgrade. I have only used PC Paint before and always found myself frustrated by not having a brush size I wanted to use. Painter Essentials 4 gives you many more options and has greatly reduced this level of frustration I use to feel. Another big plus in my opinion is the undo or unedited, whichever term you are use too, works for many levels. I had gone forward and noticed something I did not like. I was able to remove the last 18 modifications I had made to the painting and it looked as if I could have kept removing them.
  
  My sister visited me and is great a sketching. She loved the charcoal brushes range from pencils to hard or soft charcoal sticks. She mentioned that it was not as easy as drawing with the actual stick, but the sketch looked great. And I am sure with a pen attached and practice it would be just as easy.
  
  I remember when a friend bought the first Corel product and was happy with it. I could never figure out how to use it and it was over three times the cost of this. This is worth the price, has many features and gives you an intro to the basics with its tutorial material that is included.
  
  So considering I could use it for my photos and my sister thought it was a wonderful tool for creating art (in her case sketches), I have to give this two thumbs up as a product for the home.
  
  

• Corel PE4 - Nice Photo Painting Features, Nice Price

  
  By A17BUUBOU0598B on 2007-12-17
  Corel has produced a nice product that at a good price. This product is meant to compete with Adobe Photoshop Elements. It tends to be about $10-15 less than Elements, though both have the same list price. The added photo painting routines make this a fun product for those who want to creatively edit pictures.
  
  Pros
  + Nice interface that feels familiar to Photoshop Elements users
  + Great price!
  + Nice photo painting routines and included brushes for quick photo painting
  + Great included tutorials and documentation to get you up to speed
  + Works great with graphics tablets or standard mice
  + Minimal memory and processor requirements (works on older PCs and Macs)
  + Very nice brushes, pencils, pens and papers provide range of textures
  + Runs much faster than Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop
  
  Cons
  - Separate learning curve for current Photoshop users
  - Some photo painting macros are simply blurring techniques
  
  The main features that make this product stand out are the added brushes and textures and the photo painting routines. These are essentially macros that can turn your photos into drawings, oil paintings, watercolors, etc. Some of them are better than others, including the charcoal drawings and impressionist paintings. Others are amount to little more than blurring.
  
  All of these techniques can be done with full blown graphics programs. PE4 just makes it quicker and easier to do those things.
  
  The included tutorials are nice and will help you get up to speed if you are not familiar with the product. The interface is relatively intuitive.
  
  For those who are Photoshop devotees, learning a separate product may not be worth it. But for those that have not yet invested in Photoshop, the cost of Adobe's full products must be considered.
  Adobe Photoshop Elements 6
  Adobe Photoshop CS3
  
  But at this price, this is a good product for anybody who wants to take advantage of the added brushes and photo painting techniques.
  
  Give it a try! Enjoy!
  
  
  

• Fun and Endless Possibilities

  
  By ACYR6O588USK on 2007-12-18
  Watch Video Here: http://www.amazon.com/review/R2CA53IO9ZIC3Z Using Corel Painter 4 is a lot of fun and extremely versatile.
  
  The multi media, paper surface effects and brush varieties make this program extremely versatile. And also amazing to watch as a photo can be automatically and effortlessly transformed into whatever you desire and select.
  
  In this clip, a photo is in changed to different mediums in seconds.
  
  This is a product that can make anyone creative.
  Definitely 5 star material.
  Highly recommended!
  
  

• Great software for graphics editors, overkill for amateur users

  
  By A23ZNGL704AW7O on 2007-12-17
  When I ordered `Corel Painter Essentials 4', I was under the misconception that it included projects, such as cards, calendars, and the like. My own fault, really, I read the line in the description for this product which states "Incredible selection of brushes, paints, pens and paper textures for adding unique touches to photos or creating cards, scrapbooks and other fun projects" and mistakenly assumed that this indicated it included projects. Now that I know differently and read this statement again, I realize it does not actually state it includes projects, but simply that it can be used on photos that may be included in them.
  
  While I frequently use project software, such as Microsoft's Picture It! Digital Image Pro 7, my needs for photo editing are amateurish enough that I do well with the photo editing features of the project software. I would never have ordered `Corel Painter Essentials 4' had I realized my mistaken assumption beforehand.
  
  That would be my very longwinded way of telling you that my review of this software will be strictly from an amateur photo editor point of view on a piece of software I haven't as much need for.
  
  Despite my blunder, I have made a point of using only Corel for the items I've needed to edit since receiving it, as well as taken time to play with some of the numerous tools built in.
  
  The software loads quickly on my laptop, which is a 3.00 GHz machine with 2 GB of RAM. I don't have a computer with lesser memory to test with, but the software doesn't seem to use a large memory footprint. Installation was as simple as any installation these days, and even a user who is technically naïve will have no trouble installing by simply following the defaults during setup.
  
  Actually using the software was pretty simple. The menus and toolbars are pretty intuitive, and the various cropping, drawing, and brush tools are simple to use and control. Even for someone as artistically inept as I am, the various photo-painting filters were easy to understand and apply.
  
  The workspace is well laid out, without too much clutter on the toolbars to confuse the user. Some of the icons will open an additional menu of choices, but these are pertinent to the command selected and also clutter free.
  
  For someone who is more adept at graphic editing, I am certain this would be very useful software. For a novice such as myself, it is useful, but I am sure I am barely scratching the surface of what it is capable of.
  
  I recommend `Corel Painter Essentials 4' to those with a real need for high-level graphics design and photo editing. For those of us with very basic needs, a suite of products with projects and graphic editing is a better investment.
  
  
  

• the layman's perspective

  
  By A2K9FXOFFHVNWG on 2007-12-19
  I want to say first that I am not a person who regularly uses painting or drawing programs so this review is from a purely layman's perspective. I'll be giving points to five different categories and basing my final review on that
  
  
  Instillation: 3 out of 10 points.
  
  When I first tried to install this program on to my computer I could not get past the product registration phase because the program kept telling me the serial number I was inputting, which is printed on a special card, was invalid. I can only assume, based on about half an hour of trying to install it, that some of the zeros in the serial number are O's and some are zeros and there is no difference visually between the two. However my brother, who is a techy person, managed to figure it out. Thus, automatically, two points off for difficultly installing
  
  Then the program would not close. Five points off.
  
  
  Manual: 25 out of 25 points.
  
  While I was waiting for it to install, I read the manual. I found this guide to be extremely complete, easy to read and understand, and it seemed to explain everything you could do with the program. It's also a well bound booklet with many picture examples and some art tips, even a little art history thrown in. It's also arranged into lessons with an index in the back, which is very important for a non-tech such as myself. In my opinion, this manual could teach anyone to use the program. Very nice.
  
  
  Ease of use: 22 out of 25 points.
  
  This program took forever to load. I mean a really, really long time. Once it did load I went through the little tutorials in the manual one by one. I found that I could easily use the vast majority of the controls, but some of them will need a little practice before I know how to use it all. But 90% of the tools were very easy to use.
  
  
  Quality of finished product: 20 of 20 points
  
  This is an easy to use, very cool program. It's obvious that a lot of work went into it; it even has little tutorial lessons built in to let you get to know the program.
  
  Overall visual impression: 20 out of 20 points.
  
  I liked it. It's a very pretty program. I wouldn't have bought it myself, because I don't buy software, but I'll definitely use it whenever I have an art project and look forward to the cool things I can do with it.
  
  Overall: 90 out of 100 points.
  
  
  
• Good for the artist...
  By ACEA95FQS1AVP on 2007-12-16
  How good this program is depends on what you want it for. Corel Painter 4 is nowhere near as useful or well designed as Adobe Photoshop. Photoshop does so much more with advanced layering, digital manipulation, lots of tools, etc. However, Photoshop costs upwards of $500, while this is less than $100. In addition, Photoshop has a huge learning curve because it has so much.
  
  Corel Painter 4's main feature is turning photos into painting-like images. I'm not particuarly artistic, so this wasn't much use to me. I use Photoshop for photo manipulation, nothing original. However, I HIGHLY recommend this program for middle-school age children through colleg age that are interested in art. It is a good way to foster creativity with the computer. The program is user-friendly enough for children to manipulate while there are enough features/settings for more advanced users.
  
  Overall, if you can afford Photoshop it's worth every penny and will do what Corel Painter 4 does and more. But for those of us on a budget, or who aren't computer friendly, this is a good alternative.
  
  
• Not up our alley
  By A3FZMYI7RA7E3P on 2008-04-13
  Reviewing software can be tricky because people have different expectations and uses. So keep in mind that this review is from a couple who tend to use such software for picture and touch ups than for drawing or painting.
  
  Overall, the program ran slow on our computer for some reason (note that our computer is new and is set up to handle high volumes of photo and video editing). Also, for someone who uses Photoshop all the time, the interface on Painter was not very intuitive. So we used the video help on Painter. It was detailed and helpful, but took longer than we had excepted. Finally, we could not get the mouse pen to work, because we kept getting a conflict error.
  
  One project we attempted was to convert some pictures into nice paintings. We had tried this on Photoshop, but wanted to get greater detail than Photoshop allowed. Unfortunately, given the above issues, we could not manage any better results than with Photoshop.
  
  This program may be more up the alley of someone interested in doing their own drawings or paintings. But for us, it was not the right choice.
  
  
  
  
• Add Artistic Flair to Your Photos
  By A1RIQUDE4B8NGX on 2007-12-10
  To get the best results with your photos as a general user, Adobe Photoshop Elements is the only way to go...but, once you have the best photo you can get from Photoshop, use Corel Painter Essentials 4 to add some flair and artist value to your photos.
  
  Whether you want to add that something extra to your photos for your scrapbook, greeting card, or art project, Corel Painter Essentials 4 has a wide range of artist tools that will enhance your favorite photos. From Thin Paint and Thick Paint to Watercolor and Drawing Pencils, Corel Painter Essentials 4 offers up a wide array of digital painting tools to turn your photo into an oil painting or pen and ink drawing.
  
  Beyond enhancing your photos, Corel Painter Essentials 4 also makes a great blank canvas. Use its wide selection of painting tools to start from scratch and render your vision into a ready to print piece of artwork.
  
  Corel Painter Essentials 4 is the light version of the long favorite Corel Painter software used by artistic professionals for years. Now you can get started with an easy to use version that will turn any artist project into the best it can be.
  
  Enjoy!
  
  
• Neeto Little Paint Program
  By A3RZU6MUEDCQYX on 2007-12-13
  I have to say I wasn't really into photo manipulation or image editing until I got this program. Right after I installed it I opened a photo of my nephew, he's seven and cute as a button, and used the woodcut filter on it and was I ever impressed. I'm sure if you're a big time Painter or Photoshop user this is old hat to you, but to me it was pretty neeto.
  
  I did the skeeth effect next and after figuring out how to tweak it (it was very easy) I came up with something that actually looked like it had been hand drawn. I felt like an artist.
  
  As for the actual painting, I opened the brush drawer, very easy to figure out, and started scribbling all over my darling nephew's face. Then I hit the undo command and tried to paint a frame around the photo, not perfect, but cute. The program as lots of brushes and if you know what you're up to, you should be good to go in no time at all.
  
  I do, however, wish there were more photo effects with the program. I think just having a few kind of cripples it. Even a novice like me would appreciate more ways to spice up her photos. Still, I enjoy the program and will no doubt be playing around with it a lot.
  
  Review submitted by Captain Katie Osborne
  
  
• Interesting but limited art tool
  By A3GM64N13BILUP on 2007-12-20
  In the years since art programs were first released for home computers, the line between "paint program" and "photo editing program" has significantly blurred; photographs are routinely imported into paint programs, and draw/paint features such as brush type selection and shape creation are standard in photo editing software.
  
  Corel Painter Essentials 4 attempts to distinguish itself from other art programs in a number of ways, but the most obvious is through "photo auto-painting." Once a source photograph (or any image) has been selected, users choose from over a dozen different painting styles (not including the custom settings) and allow the program to turn their photograph into a work of art. Want that picture of your spouse to look like a pen-and-ink drawing? Choose the photo, select the style, push a button, and it is done in seconds. Do you desire a watercolor image of your family? Grab the appropriate picture, select the style, push the button, and you'll have something worth printing and framing in seconds.
  
  Painter Essentials 4 also allows for more "traditional" digital drawing and painting on the computer. Such activities are primarily done with brush tools, but there are also other useful features like trace paper and a "straight line strokes" option. These tools and options are easy to figure out, but tend to be less useful than their Photoshop counterparts. Painter 4 Essentials also lacks a number of the filters and drawing tools that Photoshop has (I still can't figure out how to make a circle shape in Painter Essentials 4), so advanced digital artists may find themselves editing their "to be painted" pictures in Photoshop prior to importing them into Painter Essentials 4.
  
  In other words... Corel Painter Essentials 4 isn't going to replace other art programs like Photoshop; it will, however, give users unique options that they might (or might not) be interested in. If making photographs appear like paintings does not appeal to you, then avoid this software.
  
  
• Great for Amateur or Artist
  By A27P0MW8TE1JQP on 2008-01-27
  
  Whether you're transforming a photo into a painting/drawing/mixed-media artwork or digitally enhancing your own original scanned art PAINTER ESSENTIALS. There are video tutorials included in the software to help guide you as well as a guidebook, which complements the video with art tips. If your not interested in exploring techniques by hand, the auto-paint will rework images on their own, with little guidance from your. Other options include using photos as the basis for sketches, choosing brush type, media from chalk, pastels, pencil, oils, airbrush, even down to paper types and coarseness or materials. You may approximate different photographic tonalities within the photos or art. You can adjust the pressure of the stylus itself and the software offers a wide variety for your palette, allowing you to mix your own colors.
  
  As an artist I would recommend this product if only for re-inking sketches, coloring and shading your original works. If handles as professionally as more costly software. I would also recommend using Corel Painter Essentials with a stylus and tablet (Wacom for example).
  The options are really broad for possible applications.
  
  As someone who lost many pre-digital photos to Katrina, I would recommend this product to rework severely damaged photos.
  
  
  
• Great experience, fun software
  By A3VZH0PWLQ9BB1 on 2007-11-23
  I used this software on my PowerMac G4.
  
  Installation was easy. You simply put the disk in the drive, clicked on a few buttons and installation was finished. The hardest part was having to enter the long registration number, which is included in the box.
  
  Integration to the Mac OS was well done. You are able to drag your favorite photos for augmentation directly from iPhoto, and then export to iPhoto as well.
  
  The software was easy to use and very intuitive. The included manual was easy to follow and included step-by-step tutorials for auto paint and photo correction.
  
  The palates that are included as part of the program were very comprehensive and included options such as charcoal, water color, and oil painting. There are also options to do the painting yourself. My favorite way to do this was use the tracing paper option. Just like using a photo and tracing paper, you can draw and paint over your photo to create your own masterpiece.
  
  The end result of either the auto paint or the self paint are the same. You have beautifully enhanced versions of your favorite photos; suitable for framing, printing, and what ever your artistic little mind would want to do.
  
  The only reason that I did not give it 5 stars was on my 4 year old Mac it ran a little slow and seemed to bog the system down a bit. It wasn't bad enough to warrent not using it, but it was slightly annoying. I'm sure on a new computer it would run just fine.
  
  
• If only Photoshop Elements was this easy to use!
  By A2NVQZ4Y7Y0J1R on 2007-12-05
  When I first saw this software my immediate expectation was that it would be like Photoshop Elements. It's not and for the most part for the better.
  
  Corel Painter Essentials 4 will quickly and easily take your photos and transform them into various styles of artwork. There are 17 different pre-set auto paint styles in all (chalk, pencil, oil paint, water paint, etc.) plus a do-it-yourself mode which I personally didn't feel the need to even use. The auto mode is that good.
  
  There's also a "Drawing and Painting" mode that allows you to create images like you would with a paper canvas. Not being an artist, I haven't spent much time with this function. From a non-user perspective it looks fairly robust for this price range, but I would leave the final analysis to other reviewers who actually draw and paint. At the very least, it's a fun little tool for either adults or kids.
  
  I tested several photos with the software and each was easily altered, in some cases for the better. I found that you could take a rather boring shot and make it look like something worthy of being framed on the wall.
  
  I have to strongly disagree with at least two other reviewers who stated that the auto paint function doesn't bring good results or that artistic skills are required. As Corel notes in their instruction book, simplistic photos work best - the old fruit basket on the table kind of thing. The more complicated the shot, the harder it will be for auto paint function to give you the best results. So if you know the photography rule of thirds and can take a half decent photo this should work for you rather well - no other artistic abilities required, at least not for the auto paint function.
  
  Some of thr same functions found on Corel are available on Photoshop Elements (around the same price range as this software) which I already owned. Photoshop has more choices when it comes to altering photos, but I always found many of them rather useless and frequently just mangled the photo I was working on. Not so with the Corel - regardless of the auto mode I chose, more often than not the final product looked great. This was a pleasant surprise after having struggled in the past for so many hours with Photoshop Elements.
  
  The dodge and burn controls on Corel Painter were weak at best and there's no way that I could find to alter or enhance a photo like you can do with Photoshop Elements. But that's OK because that's not the intent of this software. Photoshop is good at removing flaws from photos that you want to keep as just plain photos. When it comes to altering the images into works of art it falls flat on its face in my experience. This is the software you'll want instead if that's your goal.
  
  I used the software on an Intel Mac Pro 2.66 GHZ with 2.5 gigs of RAM running OS 10.4.11 with no problems. It worked faster than Photoshop Elements even when it was doing far more complex tasks. It was also 10x easier to use than the Photoshop. Altering your photos only takes a few steps which are almost identical regardless of the paint style you choose. After you do it once or twice it feels like you've always known how to do it. This has absolutely not been my experience with Photoshop Elements which, even though it's supposed to be the "easiest version of Photoshop , feels like drudgery to use.
  
  Corel Painter Essentials is fun and easy to use. I recommend it to anyone on a budget who wants powerful photo altering software but doesn't want to spend hours and hours learning how to use it.
  
  Edit: I read the reviews for version 3.0 of this software and it seemed that many reviewers found it to be very buggy. So far that hasn't been a problem. If I find that I start to get program crashes or other problems I will certainly come back and change my review, but so far everything is fine.
  
  
• An excellent little creative program
  By A2CWIYIETNBAK3 on 2007-12-19
  It is pointless to compare this program to full-featured creative suites that cost nearly ten times as much. This is positioned to be a relatively low-cost, simple-to-use home art studio that makes it easy to draw, paint or turn photos into paintings: an ideal way to get started with digital art. And that is essentially what it does. However, it is only 'simple-to-use' after reading the guidebook, watching the videos and doing as many of the tutorials as you have time for. And then it becomes a matter of practice. If you aren't creative at all, this may not be the program for you. However, if you're like me, someone who has always had a desire to paint but never had the where-with-all to master that desire, this program is a simpler and cleaner means of doing so. Playing with the various brushes and paints provides an introduction, a feel for art that I've never experienced in any other format. As such, I found it highly satisfactory and much fun. Given this rather limited usage, the program is certainly worth its price. If you require more advanced photo editing tools, you'd better look elsewhere.
  
  Mike Birman
  
  
  
• Very Nice Painting Program
  By A2G1NN5JIWYC9Z on 2007-12-19
  As soon as I loaded this program onto my computer I opened a photo I took of a red sky sunset. Using the sharpening tool I changed a pleasant and pleasing photo into something stark and a bit frightening, something that you might find on the cover of a Stephen King horror story. Frankly I didn't expect the control the sharpening tool gives. After saving a copy of the photo, I went to the undo command in the Edit Menu and quick as a wink, my photo was back to it's old, fuzzy, pleasing self again.
  
  The sketching tool turned the photo into sort of a wintery looking thing I didn't like very much at all, but after a bit of playing around with it I turned up something that looks like I might have drawn it. Now I'm an artist. I never would have believed it. The lighting tool works a treat as does the brightness and contrast. I can see that I'm going to be playing with a lot of my old photos. I can hardly wait.
  
  
• Become a Digital Monet
  By AN2CU1YP12J4U on 2007-12-20
  I am not an artist nor do I have experience with painting or artisic software. I found this program difficult to use, though much easier once I watched the tutorial. It took me several hours of experimenting and playing with the different brushes, paper textures, and paints to get the hang of how this program works. Once I did though, I was able to produce some beautiful artwork. I took a photo of my daughter dancing on the beach in Hawaii and used two different tools and papers (simple water and thick wet impasto) and was stunned with the change in the photo and mood of the print.
  
  I noticed that one reviewer said that Corel Painter Essentials is not as useful as Adobe Photoshop. I must disagree. These are two different programs. Adobe Photoshop is really more for photographers and if I had to choose one program, I would choose Adobe Photoshop. I am a photographer and not a painter or sketch artist. Corel Painter can be used by artists and even creative people.
  
  My friends loves some of the prints I have done and wants to use them in her scrapbooking. I printed off some of the images I manipulated using this program and used it for wrapping paper.
  
  Bottom line: This is a great, fun program that allows you to explore new ideas with your photographs.
  
  
• Fascinating
  By A2X3L31KCXBHCL on 2007-12-21
  I had no problems installing or using this software. I did not read the manual nor watch the video. I found this to be very intuitive and powerful. I'm very technical though.
  
  I spent way too much time with my computer thanks to this product. I just wanted to remove some red eyes, but couldn't help myself from trying out all the special effects. I made a great family "painting" for my Christmas cards using this product. I even made some family "coloring books" for the kids. When I finally got around to removing the red eyes from my digital photos, that was easy too.
  
  I have a friend who swears the Adobe is much better, but I'm not artistic and $500+ for a software package is too much for me. This was just right. I highly recommend this to anyone who wants a low cost but powerful photo editor.
  
  
  
• Make Sure You have the Right Equipment for This!!
  By A1FWFCJU2G7TRA on 2007-12-21
  Take a good look at the system requirements for this software! Although it says Windows XP, you also need "The Latest Service Pack" for it to work. Wanting to review this product, I instead went to my parent's to use their Mac to give it a go. On the package back, there's also a note about it working the best with a "Wacom tablet"--something else I didn't have. These are hugely expensive, btw, but I'm sure they'd make your experience better than mine. I do fancy myself somewhat of an artist (oils, watercolors) so I was excited to try this as something to bring me into the digital age. Unfortunately using just a regular mouse was clumsy and didn't produce the results pictured in the demo. I'm very disappointed in this software. I think people that have the Vista or Mac capabilities needed and the tablets will have the best results for this.
  
  
• Wonderful software, I am completely amazed!
  By AEWYUPCNDV7HY on 2007-12-27
  After trying out this software I am sold 100% and will definately be using this for a long, long time. This software allows users to turn their photos into beautiful works of art. My favorite is to take my childrens pictures and turn them into impressionist paintings or watercolors. I have not yet tried the freehand painting/drawing as I am truly not a good artist, but I have become very good over time at editing photos to create professional quality works. Some of my photos have even been used commercially.
  
  The photo editing portion of this software is what I will be reviewing today. The simplest and easiest way to start out using this software is the use the auto-painting feature. First you select a picture you would like to work with. Then you click on the auto-painting feature where you can select from among 18 different painting methods such as impressionist, chalk, watercolor, pastel drawing, and illustration. Then you apply the auto-painting. It takes a few minutes and then your work of art is finished. If you would like to restore some details (such as eyes) you can also do that with a couple of clicks. The end result is just gorgeous. You can even customize your paper type (canvas, linen, etc) and your brush size to get the perfect picture.
  
  If you are looking for a new and exciting way to work with photos, or you enjoy using online painting programs, this is definately a great product. I can imagine avid scrapbookers will also enjoy using these "paintings" in their scrapbooks.
  
  
• Amazing Power for the Price!
  By A1HOLJW15Q5S5V on 2008-01-17
  I have children 14, 11, and 9, and I was looking for software that would appeal to their creative side. I am a fairly sophisticated software user, and used to do some programming myself, but had never really ventured into these type of painting/art programs.
  
  Bottom Line: I was blown away by this program, totally impressed!!
  
  Why?
  
  #1 It's easy to use out of the box--- many of the controls are easy enough to figure out just by using them, it installs easy on both Mac and PC systems (I installed the program on both an old eMac and a low end Vista laptop successfully).
  
  #2 It's really powerful--- once you really get into the software, it's amazing all the different brushes and textures and effects that you can do to make really impressive art.
  
  #3 The tutorials are first rate--- A thick instruction manual that actually is well written, and actually teaches you about basic principles of art and painting. There are also a whole series of video tutorials included free. You can tell that a lot of hard work and frankly a lot of love went into this, which is a rarity for computer software these days.
  
  #4 It's a great value--- For all you get, the price is very reasonable. And check the company's website, if you're still not sold they were at the time of this writing offering a 60 day free downloadable trial.
  
  One more tip: Get even a low-price graphics tablet to go along with the software--- you'll be glad you did!
  
  
• Ready, set, create!
  By A2X7NBUETXC19E on 2008-02-18
  Back in the mid 90's I went to school to become a graphic designer, and while my career ended up going in a totally different direction, I still find the idea of using a computer to create or enhance artwork and photography quite appealing. I decided to take a chance on Corel's new Painter Essentials 4. I liked the idea of "one stop shopping" for both illustration and photo manipulation software, and my experience with Corel in the past was positive.
  
  I've found Painter Essentials 4 particularly useful in creating freehand illustrations (I'm using the mouse only - no special hardware), coloring scanned line artwork, and editing and enhancing photographs. I love to sketch in pencil and then ink, but am an indifferent colorist at best, so Painter Essentials 4 is a nice tool for adding color to my drawings. The photo enhancing features are great for adding fun special effects to photos, and can be used to restore damaged photographs as well. The software features a wide array of available colors and effects, so the sky is really the limit when it comes to what you want to do with this software.
  
  My only complaint is that the operation of this software is not as intuitive as it could be. I was familiar with the various tools and functions (like riding a bike, it all came back pretty quickly), but someone brand new to this kind of software will need to spend some serious time with the users guide before they can take advantage of this program's various bells and whistles.
  
  Other than that, I'm quite happy with Corel Painter Essentials 4. It's not at the same professional level as Adobe's one-two punch of Illustrator and Photoshop, but for everyday users it's an outstanding graphics product.
  
  
  
• As a drawing program great! Photo editing so so...
  By A376OJHLE6SU9Q on 2008-03-20
  I loved the drawing functions within this program and found them somewhat easy to get the hang of -- took a little bit in that they were not as intuitive as I would like however once I figured them out the functionality was good.
  
  On the picture editing side I did not have as much patience. It was not intuitive and I was seldom pleased with the results. If you are looking for an editor for pictures and giving pictures special effects I would by far recommend Adobe Photoshop Elements.
  
  
  
• Perfect for Photo manipulation
  By A36I5QI57MCF93 on 2008-03-21
  Painter Essentials 4 is an excellent program for anyone interested in creating digital art, without breaking the bank. With a host of natural media brushes one can paint on a digital canvas without fear of making mistakes, thanks to the ubiquitous "Undo" command.
  
  Being quite familiar with PE 4's big brother, Painter X, I wanted to see what PE 4 was all about. This program is targeted towards beginners, but there are a lot of powerful features under the hood. Not an artist? No problem with Painter Essentials 4. One really nice feature the program has is the ability to take any digital photo and transform it into a wide-variety of natural media paintings. Want an airbrushed version of your favorite digital photo? What about charcoal? Water-color? No problem. Push a button and watch PE 4 digitally 'compose' your new masterpiece.
  
  While Painter Essentials 4 doesn't have all the features of Painter X, I was able to do just about everything I typically do with the professional version. The interface has been overhauled - it's nothing like Painter X.
  
  The program is divided into two modes: 1) Drawings and Paintings and 2) Photo Painting
  
  You can mix colors on the fly, much like you would using a traditional artist palette, making it easy to select the perfect color for your composition. The overall user interface is intuitive and quick for beginners to grasp.
  
  Painter Essentials 4 uses the "Real Bristle" painting system, which mimics natural brushes on a digital canvas. To really take advantage of painting with these brushes, you'll want to factor in the purchase of a graphics tablet (I recommend the Wacom brand.)
  
  The most overlooked part of this program are the free video tutorials that are also included (clocking in at 135 minutes!). Painter master John Derry shows you the features in depth and also how to take the best advantage of them. Source images that are used in the tutorial are provided on the disc. It would be wise to watch the video to really get the most out of the program.
  
  The program runs fine under both Mac OS X Tiger and Leopard. The package includes both Mac and PC versions.
  
  Once again, to maximize your usage of this program, I would strongly recommend purchasing a graphics tablet. With one of these hardware peripherals, you can take advantage of painting and drawing with pressure sensitivity.
  
  Painter Essentials 4 is a great value for the money. Recommended for beginner and intermediate hobbyists alike.
  
  
• AT LAST!! EASY AND AWESOME SOFTWARE FOR THE CREATIVE PERSON!
  By A3GMVGM7L1PM9H on 2007-11-29
  I remember the early days of creative paint and photo editing software. My, my "we've come a long way, Baby...."
  
  This software comes with easy to follow, plain English, tutorials on auto-painting, enhancing photos for painting, touching up an auto-painting. One can also follow a tutorial on photo painting by hand with this program. There is a tutorial for creating an underpainting from a photo or sketching from a photo. Or if you wish you can start with a completely blank canvas. Once you have decided which technique you wish to use, you have the option of applying various textures and effects or adding creative edges. There is even a tutorial on how to get professional prints from your work.
  
  There's a thousand uses for the Corel Painter Essentials 4, and it wont' take you very long to master it. I love this program!
  
  This is fun, easy and incredibly flexible software for the creative person who enjoys being unique and individual.
  
  
  
  
• Great product, but you still need artistic skills!
  By A2WM1KL9DQSQ18 on 2007-12-05
  When I first saw the box to this product, with the photo of a young girl, and then a beautiful painting, I was expecting that I could basically push a button and produce the results. While this program does have many automatic paintings that can be created, they will not reproduce such quality.
  
  The real power of this program come in when you use the various tools that it provides to enable you to paint from a blank canvas. You start with a photo, and use various brushes and other tools that allow you to gradually create your painting. Basically using your original photo as "trace paper". It will take a considerable amount of time to learn to use all of the many features provided by this program.
  
  It shares many features with Photoshop, but goes well beyond in the unique tools it adds for converting photos to paintings. I think a graphic tablet would be very helpful with this program. It can be difficult to "paint" with the mouse.
  
  
• Good for beginners, great for more advanced users.
  By A3TNM3C9ENUCFW on 2007-12-06
  I'm new to Corel's paint software but can only imagine that this is an improvement on an already winning formula. The software is easy enough and helpful for beginners but also has enough to challenge the more adventurous user.
  The tutorial videos are excellent and unlike other programs I have used don't baffle the user with technicalities, rather then almost "walking through" you next level of achievement. I don't think this is "pro" software, for using in professional graphic applications but it is a great at home set up and use easily.
  The idea of turning a photograph into a painting is just the beginning as features like smart stroke and online access to professional prints yield amazing results. There are also a wealth of different brushes and finishes like charcoal, and the user palette is very user friendly. I'm still experimenting with the software at a very beginner basic level, but I already notice that (as others have said) the different brush sizes makes a big difference. I'm also fairly certain that the more the program is used (and the more I learn) there will be ample scope for a multitude of uses, that will continue to challenge and excite.
  
  
  
  
• A Little Frustrating at First
  By A1HBVFI5G2X1G2 on 2007-12-10
  The program installed with ease, just the way you expect it to on a Mac, putting the application in my applications folder. Eager to use the software, I put the application in my dock, then dropped a photo on it. The photo was on its side, so I went up to the menu and rotated it to the left (counterclockwise). Then using the rectangular selection tool, I selected an area to crop and there the fun stopped. There is no menu command for crop. I'm a Photoshop person, I live in it all the time, so for me to be frustrated at a simple paint program is saying something. Mac people don't like going to the help menu, at least not straightaway. But go to the help menu I did, found the shortcut key to crop, but it didn't work, so I guess I have more reading to do. Again, I'll say, this should be a very simple procedure and I know you can do it in this program, so I'm going to stop writing for a bit and see if I can figure it out.
  
  Well, back to the help menu and I did figure it out. Only took a minute or so. Not intuitive, but once you know, it's cool. I suppose Photoshop wasn't all that intuitive at first, more so than this though, at least for the simple commands. Still, I have to admit the crop tool is way cool.
  
  However, I seem to be having problems adjusting the brightness and contrast on my cropped image. The program thinks I want to frame it and it only wants to adjust the edges. I'm missing Photoshop, but I'm not giving up just yet. Back to the help menu and it's telling me I'm doing everything right, however the contrast isn't adjusting. I'm running an iMac with Tiger, System 10.4.10 and I shouldn't be having this problem. Okay, on to something else.
  
  The eye dropper and the paint bucket didn't work and now I know something's up. Checking around my canvas and the palettes at the side of my screen, I see the program automatically made a second layer when I cropped the image. Why did it do that? Anyway, now that I see what the program is up to I can check out the tools.
  
  I'm pleased to say, brightness and contrast work fine now that I'm in the right layer (which shouldn't have created in my opinion), as does everything else. I can recommend this program, but you'll have to do a bit of reading to figure it out, however, once you learn to think like it does, you shouldn't have many problems.
  
  
• Virtually unlimited creative potential with plenty of guidance
  By A16IM9MYTHCKYQ on 2007-12-10
  Corel's Painter Essentials 4 software allows you to express yourself with as much creativity as you can bring to a project.
  
  The software package includes approximately four hours of tutorial video on various techniques - auto painting photographs, tracing, sketching, freehand, and more. These lessons are very entertaining and well presented. The instructor is so enthusiastic he makes you feel eager to get started on a project. The tutorial video quality is excellent. The tutorial is everything you'd hope for with a graphics package. Watch the lessons back to back, or choose the applications and techniques in which you're interested. There is a substantial manual in the box that reinforces the tutorial. When you've mastered these basic lessons, there are links available for more user support - everything from tech support, to user community forums that can help you figure out how to do what you envision. So the support and instruction is virtually unlimited and ongoing, which is good to have with a package that does as much as this one does.
  
  Painter Essentials 4 works at many levels - from novice to professional. At the most basic, you can open an existing photo and let the software "auto paint" it with impressionist, modern, classic oil painting, watercolor, pastel, chalk, sketch, or dozens of other modes. The results, even at this level, are amazing! You can customize the automated techniques by changing brushes, color schemes, paper quality and more.
  
  In addition to automated projects, you can do a lot of things starting from a blank canvas. With the addition of a tablet and pen, the user can control the pressure and width of the brush work. There are hundreds of options available with brushes, colors, shapes, etc.
  
  When you're happy with your creations, there are instructions for printing your work as a project (for example, greeting cards). There are even options to choose a company that will print your work on canvas and mount it as a gallery wrap on a wood frame.
  
  Beginners will enjoy the amazing and professional looking results they can get with their photos using nothing more than automated techniques. When they are ready, they can take off the training wheels and start customizing.
  
  Serious artists will appreciate the flexibility of the program and the virtually unlimited freedom to create.
  
  Highly recommended!
  
  
• easy to use with great results even from a novice
  By AFN32PGTZ31MV on 2007-12-11
  Two quick notes before the review itself. One is that I am not at all an artist, so my review comes from that amateurish level of "I wonder what this button" does rather than a richly detailed knowledge of art history and techniques. Second is that I used the software on a desktop with a mouse. Much of what one can do with this software would clearly be enhanced with a tablet and stylus, though I was very happy with what I was able to do.
  
  Painter allows you to paint (surprise), sketch, draw, and turn your photos into paintings or into the underpinnings of a new painting/drawing. Anyone who has used the usual art or photo software, such as Photoshop or Elements, will find the toolbox quite familiar as it rounds up the usual suspects: the dodge/burn tool, the clone stamp, etc. There are also various artistic instruments one can select (brushes, pen, chalk). The selection process is simple as is the refinement via size and opacity.
  
  The program has two work areas: Drawing and Painting (lets you create from scratch) and Photo Painting, which lets you upload a photo and turn it into a painting or paint over/on it. The latter is truly impressive. With a simple click of a button, the program will render your photo into one of several types of art: impressionist, modern, oil, chalk, etc. As one would expect, you can fine-tune the process, choosing brushes and brush types/sizes, type of paper, etc. One can even choose artist styles such as Van Gogh (even I've heard of him). A nice touch is the ability to save tools as favorites, especially for those of us who don't really know what we're doing yet. You can choose to have the program simple turn the photo into a particular style of painting, you can interrupt it at whatever point you're happy, or you can trace over the photo to give yourself an underlying pattern and freedom to get very creative.
  
  The process is as simple or complex as you desire, allowing for a range from the complete novice/ignoramus (myself) to (it seems) someone with lots of artistic experience and ability. Mistakes are easily correctable with multiple undo's. The autopainting is amazingly fast. Effects can be previewed before they are applied. For those who don't want to just dive in, the video tutorials (very obviously aimed at novice level) are quite helpful.
  
  One piece of advice I'd give is to enhance your photo before doing the autopainting. You can do some work in Painter itself the photo tools are serviceable but I'd recommend doing the pre-work in an actual photo-editing program like Elements. You can also "enhance" your photo by painting on it in Painter before autopainting. For instance, I took a photo of my wife and son in a colorful meadow and added more "flowers" with some splashes of paint before turning it into a quite nice impressionist work.
  
  You can output your work in all the ways you'd expect, but Corel also offers a few nice alternatives, such as sending the completed piece to be printed onto actual canvas or watercolor paper or turning it into posters, note cards, etc. I'll actually be doing that for a few gifts this year and I'll update this review with how they turned out.
  
  All in all, the program admittedly surprised me with its end results and simplicity. I can only imagine that the more I use it the more I'll appreciate its seeming richness. But at this basic level, I'm already quite pleased with it (time to ask for that tablet for Christmas!) On a tech/spec level, I used this on a 1.8 dual G5 Mac and its speed was absolutely fine.
  
  As promised, here's the update on the ordering of final products. I ordered two different photos turned into impressionistic paintings on canvas and another photo that was turned into a watercolor. All turned out fantastic. The first was the meadow one mentioned above--I gave it to my wife as an early Christmas present. We were both so impressed at its quality that we agreed I would do two others as presents. The recipients were blown away. When my wife showed her gift around her dept. she had lots of requests about whether I'd do some for her colleagues for pay--that should tell you how impressive they were. And this from, as mentioned, an utter novice. It's a program I'll certainly be using again (we're already thinking about next year's gifts!)
  
  
• This is so much fun!
  By A3A6GXILVT9JNW on 2007-12-14
  I am not an artist and the only 'computer graphics' experience I have had was playing with a kid's graphic program that came with our first computer nearly twenty years ago. I opened this program, flipped through the guidebook while loading the program and then followed the prompts to view the instructional video. Then I started to play and began to think that perhaps I have some talent after all.
  
  I use this on my MacBook 2.1 using OS X 10.4.8. The program downloaded easily and has been running happily without any problems. As a Mac user I was delighted to see that not only were Mac intructions included, they were actually the first ones given - how nice not be an after thought!
  
  The tutorial video was clear and full of information. It is also divided into specific sections which will make going back for refreshers easy. The video goes over the tutorial in the book exactly so if there are any difficulties it is easy to check the video to see what should be happening. I did not get very far into the tutorial though before I just had to start playing. There were a few frustrations while I was learning the program, but no more than is usual with learning any new program - in fact, fewer than most.
  
  While this program is simple enough for a novice like me, there are so many tools to choose from, various painting styles that can be selected, different effects that can be supplied that the possibilities to create are quite enough to satisfy a more accomplished artist. Corel also supplies lots of technical support, such as ordering professional quality prints of finished projects - a consideration if a piece larger than your home printer can handle.
  
  The only real frustration that I had was discovering that for some projects a tablet and stylus were needed. Most of the things I have tried so far I have been able to accomplish with either a mouse or even the touchpad on my laptop although I can see that it would be easier, and probably produce a better end result, to have the additional equipment.
  
  It did not take me long to think of many ways to use this program beyond cleaning up photos or just amusement (and it as addictive as THE SIMS). For example, the next home project will be sketched over a photo of the existing area first.
  
  

• Bamboo (Small) Pen Tablet with Pen Only
• Paint Shop Pro Photo X2
• Genius MousePen 8X6 Graphic Tablet for Home and Office
• Adobe Photoshop Elements 6 (Mac)
• JBL On Tour Portable Speaker System ( Black )