Corel ships Painter 2019
Corel has released Painter 2019, the latest update to its digital painting software, extensively reworking the UI, boosting overall performance on modern multi-core CPUs, and improving brush speed by up to 75%.
The update also introduces a new set of Stamps brushes, intended to streamline common concept art tasks.
New dark-themed UI, designed to scale to 4K displays
The most obvious change in Painter 2019 is the reworked UI, which now defaults to a more industry-standard dark theme. The old themes are still available via the preferences.
Over 650 UI icons have been redesigned, both to improve clarity and to scale better to Hi-DPI displays.
Faster painting and document rendering, plus improved multi-touch workflow
Under the hood, performance has been improved quite significantly: Corel claims that brushes can be “up to 75%” faster, and that the improvements affect “the majority of brushes”.
If you have an AVX2-compatible system (that is, one with an Intel Haswell CPU or later, or a current AMD Ryzen chip), document rendering is “up to 38%” faster when panning, zooming or rotating.
Multi-touch workflow has also been updated, with the option to two-finger-drag to pan, zoom or rotate on Windows touch devices; and to click and drag to zoom when using a stylus or mouse.
There are also number of smaller workflow improvements, particularly to colour workflow: many of the UI elements have been redesigned, and the floating colour wheel can now be pinned in place while painting.
New Stamps brushes and patterns aimed at concept artists
Although Painter 2019 is generally a more workflow- and performance-focused update than recent releases, there are also 36 new brushes, including an entirely new catgegory of Stamps brushes.
The latter work much as they would in a 2.5D application like ZBrush, with the decal being added following the apparent 3D form of the underlying image, as shown in the video above.
Suggested use cases include common concept art tasks like adding dirt or damage to objects, adding scars or marks to characters’ faces, or adding moss and vegetation to environments.
The release also adds five new patterns to the Pattern Pen – again, designed specifically for concept artists and game designers.
Pricing and availability
Painter 2019 is available now for 64-bit Windows 7+ and Mac OS X 10.11+. New licences cost $429.
Read a full list of new features in Painter 2019 on Corel’s website