Redesigned user interface

The Corel Painter workspace has been redesigned to give you easy access to tools, media, commands, and features. The redesigned workspace also includes an improved Brush Library panel that integrates both brush categories and variants. For more information about the Corel Painter 12 user interface, see Workspace Tour.

Enhanced Cloning capabilities

The new Clone Source Panel lets you visualize and manage clone sources. In addition, you can use one or multiple clone sources in a document, which are now embedded in the clone document. For more information, see Cloning Images.

New Navigator panel

The Navigator panel allows you to better orient yourself in the document window and quickly modify the document window display. You can also enable various tools from the Navigator including the drawing modes, Impasto, tracing paper, grids, and color management. For more information, see The Navigator Panel.

Enhanced Library management

The libraries have been enhanced to help you better organize and manage a collection of similar items, such as brushes, paper textures, color sets, and gradients. For more information, see Libraries.

New Temporal Colors palette

The new Temporal Colors palette is a floating color palette that displays in the document window and lets you view and choose colors within the context of the image. For more information, see Using the Temporal Colors Palette.

Enhanced New Image dialog box

The enhanced New Image dialog box lets you set the size, resolution, paper texture, and paper color of a new document. You can also create presets for canvas settings that you use frequently. For more information, see Creating Documents.

Enhanced High Quality Rendering

Corel Painter 12 renders smoother-looking images onscreen when you zoom in and increases the speed of rendering images when you zoom out. For more information, see To set zooming performance preferences.

New Computed Circular brush dab and controls

The Computed Circular dab type and controls let you customize dab profiles, instead of choosing preset profiles. For more information, see Computed Circular Controls.

Enhanced Dynamic brush adjustments

You can now set brush size, opacity, angle, and squeeze dynamically onscreen, which is useful for sizing and shaping a brush within the context of the image. For more information, see To set brush attributes onscreen.

New Brush Calibration Controls

The new Brush Calibration controls let you calibrate individual brush variants to match your stroke strength when you use a pressure-sensitive stylus. For more information, see Brush Calibration Controls.

New Multicore support for brushes

Multicore brush support maximizes brush performance when you work on a multicore computer. For more information, see General controls: Multicore.

New Multicore support for the application

The new Multicore preference optimizes the application’s perfomance by allowing you to specify the number of cores that you want Corel Painter to use.

New Smart Blur effect

The Smart Blur effect softens the appearance of an image by smoothing out the colors and sharp details. For more information, see Applying Smart Blur.

Enhanced Custom Palettes

The enhanced Custom Palettes feature allows you to create custom palettes by adding items to custom palettes that were previously inaccessible for customization. For more information, see Creating and Modifying Custom Palettes.

New Mirror painting

The new Mirror painting mode allows you to create a symmetrical painting. For more information, see Using the Mirror Painting Mode.

New Kaleidoscope painting mode

The new Kaleidoscope painting mode lets you quickly transform basic brushstrokes into colorful and symmetrical kaleidoscope images. For more information, see Using the Kaleidoscope Painting Mode.

New Gel brushes and Merge Mode controls

The new Gel brushes allow you to tint the underlying colors of an image with the brushstroke color. You can customize Gel brushes by using the new Merge Modes brush control to produce different effects. For more information, see Gel and General Controls: Stroke Attributes.

New Digital Airbrushes

The new Digital Airbrush variants allow you to apply brushstrokes that do not build up color on single brushstrokes. You can achieve color buildup by overlaying multiple brushstrokes. For more information, see Airbrushes.

New Real Watercolor brushes and Controls

The Real Watercolor brushes and controls allow you to apply pigment to the paper in a very realistic way. The brush control options allow you to precisely control water consistency and movement. You can also control the way the water and pigments interact with the paper. For more information, see Real Watercolor Controls.

New Real Wet Oil brushes and Controls

The Real Wet Oil brushes and controls allow you to achieve the look and feel of real-world oil paints. The brush control options allow you to precisely control paint consistency and movement. You can also control the way the paint interacts with the canvas. For more information, see Real Wet Oil.

New Content

Corel Painter 12 includes various new content, such as brushes, papers, nozzles, and other media, that you can work with or integrate into your images.

Compatibility

Corel Painter 12 is compatible with your tools and workflows:

New Web-based Help

Corel Painter 12 now includes a web-based Help system in order to provide up-to-date help content. However, if you’re working offline and need to consult the Help, a Help file is installed locally.