Review by Marshall Carter

I’m not sure what I was expecting from Corel Painter Essentials 5, but while this is a fun little program, it seems a bit limited and hampered. I was hoping it was a bit more like Photoshop for photo editing, never having used it before, but that’s not really its primary aim (there are some functions there, but there are better products). This is more like a souped of version of Paint where you can take photos and apply different textures and filters to it, as well as touch it up with an abundant selection of different brushes and effects. The interface is also a bit dumbed-down, and it’s missing some of the higher-end features of the full Corel Painter, and while that might sound off-putting, for those prospective users that are not professional artists and don’t have years of experience, that actually works in your favor. There is still a learning curve with the software (I’m still trying to sort through a lot of the features and what works well with some images, but not with others), but it’s nowhere near as daunting as Photoshop (or even the Gimp).

As something that sometimes comes across as a higher-end version of Paint, drawing tablet functionality is almost a must, and I’ve found it to be pretty good. I have an older (and decidedly low-end) Genius F350 graphics tablet and it worked well within the program. It’s certainly not a great tablet, but to be honest, I can’t really imagine using this program without one. If you intend to get the most out of this program on a desktop (or even a tablet without some kind of stylus), it’s almost a prerequisite.

As for the technical issues. I had no problems installing the program (which I did from an external USB optical drive), nor have I had any issues with it crashing (running under Windows 7 64-Bit). If you don’t have an optical drive, Corel makes the installation files available for download on their site, so that’s largely a non-issue (which is important with more and more tablets and ultraportables not having them). I installed this on my desktop which was built for low power-consumption since it’s on nearly 24-7. The CPU is a quad-core Celeron J1900, with 8GB DDR3-12800 memory and a 240GB AMD SSD. Performance is more than acceptable, although I’m sure a higher-end system would probably speed it up, but I have no complaints, even on my lower-end system.

All-in-all, Corel Painter Essentials 5 is a fairly inexpensive and functional program for those who would be more likely considered dabblers. It works well for casual users and doesn’t require a powerhouse to run decently. If you’re looking for something to play around with your photos a bit, this is a fun and functional option, but if you’re looking for more straightforward photo-editing capabilities, then this may not be the best.