Review by null

I have used both Painter 11 and Painter 12 and find these more intuitive to use than Painter Essentials 5, which is essentially a stripped-down version of the full-fledged Painter programs. Painter 11 and 12 have more brushes, more canvas textures, wet background painting, more options and customizations, and a slew of other niceties that Painter Essentials lack. HOWEVER, Painter is also more than 10 times the price of Painter Essentials. PLUS, Painter 11 and 12 are buggy and computer resource intensive. Painter Essentials, on the other hand, is easy on the CPU, has a much smaller memory footprint, is less buggy, and plays very well with Windows 10.

If you’re not a graphic artist and simply want to try your hand at digital painting or to use the (very nifty) auto-painting feature, which transforms your photos into very convincing works of art, Painter Essentials is a good way to go. If you can’t decide which program is right for you, Corel offers free trials of both programs (direct links provided in the comments section).

I personally like Painter Essentials 5 and think it is very good for what it is. Definitely recommended for the semi-serious digital artist.