Review by Gagewyn

This review is entirely from the perspective of people looking at Photoshop alternatives, now that Adobe has switched to a monthly fee model with Creative Cloud.

I use to do computer graphics and fine arts more than a decade ago, but I don’t work in that field, and so I only actually need to use a high end graphics program every few months or so. I’ve used Photoshop for more than 10 years, but now that Adobe has gone to Creative Cloud with a monthly rental but no purchase option, I need an alternative. I don’t do graphics often enough to justify a monthly fee on the Adobe Creative Cloud plan, and I have concerns about whether I will be able to open files years into the future unless I can own the software. My personal alternative is the Gnu Image Manipulation Program (GIMP), but GIMP has a clunky user interface. And, I also recommend software for a small university library where students and staff are also looking for something for occasional use.

Corel Painter 2015 has a decent user interface. I was able to do simple edits quickly and intuitively. I was also able to use the User Guide to quickly find and follow instructions for applying a mask. There are a lot of options, because you can do a lot for it, so I think it’s better for someone who has used a high-end graphics program before or who wants to be able to do more. It was easy to find instructions for using the software. There is a big long PDF User Guide, tutorials on YouTube (this is officially how Corel makes the tutorials available), and by Googling I could find websites where people talked about using the software. So, you will be able to quickly find instructions on doing common tasks in Corel Painter. One thing that bothers me is that the user guide is an included PDF, so I will have it as long as I have the Corel Painter CD, but the tutorials are made available as YouTube videos. I won’t necessarily be able to go back to a tutorial a few years from now, since I can’t store them with the software.

All in all, this is perfectly adequate software for editing digital images, and has a range that goes all the way up to fine arts. There is a 30 day free trial to demo the software, and you can get this from Corel’s website to try the software out.