Corel has released a new version of Painter: the first update to its natural-media paint app in over two years.

Painter 12 features an overhauled UI, extra options for symmetrical and ‘kaleidoscopic’ painting (symmetrical painting on a user-defined number of mirror axes), new Natural Watercolor and Wet Oil media, and a lot of brush updates and new brush types.

Performance has been increased between three and five times, according to Corel, which posted this side-by-side comparison of Painter 11 and 12 running on the same (presumably low-spec) machine.

(The brush sizes aren’t absolutely identical, so you could nitpick over the exact speed boost, but version 12 is clearly a lot faster.)

Early responses to the new version are good, with users reporting that the UI and performance enhancements make a big difference to workflow.

Painter 12 costs $429 and is available for Windows and Mac OS X.

Read the full feature list and watch demo videos of new features

Download the trial version of Painter 12

Tags: Corel Painter, kaleidoscopic painting, natural media, Natural Watercolor, Painter, Painter 12, painting, speed, symmetry, UI, Wet Oil