Corel Painter Essentials Editor's Review

Enhance Photos and create art with this professional graphics package.

I am a big photography nut. If there's one thing that I like to do is take pictures. However, in many cases, after the picture is taken and the shot enhanced, or retouched, that's often it. That is unless you have Corel Painter Essentials. It’s a really cool graphics app for Windows.

With Corel Painter Essentials – now called Painter X3 – you can do a great deal with your photos. You can create digital photo art. Painter X3 has power full cloning and painting features that allow you to transform your photos into something beyond a simple photo. With the right effects, the results can be stunning.

If photography isn't your thing, don't worry. Painter X3 has you covered there, too. You can of course create traditional art from a blank, digital canvas. The cool think here is that Painter X3 can actually mimic traditional media. With it oils look and behave like oils, water colors like water colors, pastels or chalk like pastels or chalk, etc. The effects are pretty cool to watch and work with; but you'll need to see and experience that for yourself. 

If you're new to art as well, don't worry. PX3 has you covered as well. It has tools that are easy to use and understand. It even has a training app called Painter Lite that can teach you to master the basics. You'll be creating cool pictures in no time.

App Pro’s: Feature rich, Tries to cater to new users

App Con’s: Expensive, somewhat complicated

Conclusion: Ok... I was suitably impressed. There's a reason why this is one of my favorite apps and has been for many years.

There's a lot more that you can do with Corel Painter Essentials than I've listed here. Its one of the most interesting graphics apps that I've ever seen; but I've known that for quite a while. In fact, its always been one of my favorites. The only bad thing about it is that is somewhat expensive. However, if you want to do more with your pictures than simple enhancements, this is the app for you.