Review by H. Wang

This is a software for serious digital artists. The program’s natural-media tools are unparalleled. Combined with a tablet (a must-have for this program), Painter provides a unique artistic experience.

The tiny Colors and Mixer palettes are resizable. All the color controls are in a single palette, and if you hover the mouse over the color wheel, a tooltip pops up, displaying accurate values for the currently selected color.

You can save individual color profiles for all Painter documents, and Painter recognizes embedded profiles when opening documents in these formats. Color profiles are essential for maintaining color consistency across applications.

If your tablet supports tilt detection, you can control the stroke width merely by changing the brush angle; the further the tilt is from vertical, the wider the stroke. You can even use the side of your pencil for soft shading, just as you would with a real pencil.

The velocity control acts realistic, the faster you move your pen, the thinner the stroke becomes.

Also, a set of brushes designed to emulate real-world markers. The initial stroke produces an even color on the paper; additional strokes build up and darken the color.

Better yet, the layer management is almost same as that in Adobe Photoshop, letting you easily open files in both programs, so you can switch between Painter and Photoshop. Saving a Painter file in Photoshop format retains all complex information such as alpha channels, layer masks, sets, and merge modes.

In summary, Painter 11 can be overwhelming to master because of the broad spectrum of functions, but beginners can access plenty of help, including tutorials and an extensive user’s guide. Though it’s a bit pricey, no other application compares.

By the way, Windows XP users must have Service Pack 3 installed.