In upgrade worth it?

No doubt my questions have come up before, if so I apologise! I have a copy of Painter 5.5. Do those that have upgraded from 5 or 5.5 to 6 or 7 feel the money was well spent? Can P6 or 7 brushes be used in P 5.5? How easy is it to create brush libraries? I really don't understand the manual. Any info, comments or pointers to previous threads on any of these subjects would be useful,
Tony

"No doubt my questions have come up before, if so I apologise! I have a copy of Painter 5.5. Do those that have upgraded from 5 or 5.5 to 6 or 7 feel the money was well spent? Can P6 or 7 brushes be used in P 5.5? How easy is it to create brush libraries? I really don't understand the manual. Any info, comments or pointers to previous threads on any of these subjects would be useful"

Tony,

No need to apologize. Everyone has to ask questions so keep 'em coming. [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Yes, the upgrade price is well worth it. Depending on how well you know Painter, how you want to use it, and whether or not you are willing to put up with early release bugs, you might want to upgrade to Painter 6 instead of Painter 7.

Corel is not selling Painter 6 now that Painter 7 has been released, but you should be able to find it elsewhere and it's been around long enough to be pretty stable. Painter 6, with the 6.1 patch is what I have on my system, along with Painter 5 and Painter 7.

As to Painter 7, we're working hard to get complete bug reports to Corel, with system specs, steps leading up to the problem, and any other pertinent information so their Painter QA people can have a chance of reproducing the problem and working on fixes.

On my website, PixelAlley, there are several pages of Painter 7 information, PDF downloads, tutorials, custom Water Color brushes to download (created by Paulo Roberto Purim, Matt McElligott, and me).. and other materials put there to help Painter 7 users find solutions and/or workarounds and to learn and enjoy Painter 7. It's an exciting upgrade, even with the bugs, most of which are not serious enough to stop us from using and enjoying it.. though they are aggravating. The new Water Color brushes are very different from earlier version Water Color brushes and the older version Water Color brushes don't work the same way with the new Painter 7 Water Color brush engine. That's one of the reasons Paulo and I set up the Painter 7 Custom Water Color Brushes page with brushes that come closer to doing what the older version brushes did.. as well as to share generally what we have discovered while playing and experimenting with them. For anyone who's particularly fond of the earlier version Water Color brushes, I suggest that they keep both versions on their system, each installed in its own folder. That way, they have the best of both worlds.

On my site are many tutorials for both Painter 5 and Painter 6 (Painter 5 tutorials work for Painter 5.5 as they're very similar). Most of them contain instructions for both Painter 5 and Painter 6, so if you take a look at them, you'll get an idea of the differences in Painter 6. Their links are on the main page of PixelAlley's Tutorials section.

Also, in the Fun with Brush Strokes section (Painter 6 brush demos and tutorials), Character Matters (all versions, demos of text treatments with brief explanations), and Effects section (demos and explanations for Painter's Glass Distortion Effect, all versions) there are more.

You'll find the links to all of these pages and sections at (Painter 7 links on the right):

http://www.pixelalley.com/pixelalley...ons-pages.html

Some Painter 6 brushes are the same as ones found in earlier versions and can be used in Painter 5.5. Others were new in Painter 6 and don't work in earlier versions. I'd have to look through them to be more specific, but I think the Painter 6 Impasto brushes and Pattern Pens would be some examples of brushes that won't work in earlier versions. There's really no reason to use them in Painter 5.5, though, if you also have Painter 6. Most, if not all Painter 5.5 brushes can be loaded into Painter 6 and used there, if you want them all available in one version.

Painter 7 brushes are managed very differently from earlier version brushes. To begin with, they are .XML text files that contain complete instructions for Painter 7 to build the brush. They're managed in the Painter 7 > Brushes folder on your hard drive rather than inside Painter. In addition, they're cross-platform compatible so we can now create custom brushes and share them with any other Painter 7 user (which in part explains the Painter 7 Custom Water Color Brushes page at PixelAlley).

It's very easy to create Brush Libraries and if you need some help understanding how, I'll be happy to help. In the beginning it seems confusing but after you learn the procedure, it's a snap. Basically, in Painter 5, 5.5, and 6, brush libraries are managed using the Brush Mover utility inside Painter, as are other Painter libraries such as Patterns, Papers, Gradients, etc. managed in the Pattern Mover, Paper Mover, and Gradient Mover.

Before I sign off..

You may read complaints from people who have a bone to pick with Painter and/or Corel, due to some things that don't work as they expect and/or things that the developers legitimately need to fix. Some complaints are completely reasonable and others are somewhat misinformed or are assumptions based on lack of experience. Those of us who have used Painter for a while, often admit that we have a love/hate relationship with Painter as it can be finicky and frustrating at times. Still, those things are not enough to keep us from using it and having a wonderful time with it. It is a most amazing program, a bottomless well of things to discover.

Although there are many things about Painter that we'd like to see improved, it is a rich and complex program and capable of far more than you might imagine. I've used this software since version 4, well over 6 years, and used a forerunner even earlier, named Fractal Design Sketcher. Though I use and teach Painter on a daily basis, and have since the first version, there are still things that surprise and delight me almost every day.

If you're willing to learn, there is a large and generous Painter Community where you can ask all the questions you want and get answers from long-time Painter users, many of whom are professionals who use it in their work. I recommend that you join as many of the Painter lists, boards, forums, and newsgroups as you have time to read, in order to take advantage of all of the resources that are available. There's a list of them on the bottom half of PixelAlley's Tutorial section main page.

In addition to the TalkGraphics Painter Forum, three others that I find most valuable for technical information, tips, techniques, resosurces, and general quality are:

Painter list at Topica.com
(Individual e-mail or digest form, archives also available to read at Topica.com.. this list is the oldest and most well established of the Painter related lists, with over 800 members. Among the subscribers are: Cher Threinen Pendarvis, author of The Painter WOW! Books; Jeremy Sutton, Painter artist, author, and teacher; Karen Sperling of Artistry Online, Painter author of several Painter books and one User Guide as well as her Artistry Online Painter CDs. )

Painter Forum at In Depth Discussions
(Well organized and easy to use Web based forums, images posted inside message threads, great community of talented artists from beginner to expert, hobbyist to professional, teaching and learning ongoing with illustrated demos and tutorials, occasional painting challenges, friendly and supportive atmosphere.)

corel.graphic_apps.painter newsgroup
(This one is owned by Corel and is visited occasionally by Corel Techs and Corel Painter Program Manager Tanya Staples. Probably the best place to post questions that only Corel can answer and/or problem reports, though it's the *very best* to also post complete problem reports directly to Tanya Staples at tanyas@corel.com)

Hope you won't feel overloaded with all this. Just take what you need and leave the rest. It's meant to give you a boost and let you know there's a lot of friendly help at your fingertips.

Happy Painting! [img]/infopop/emoticons/icon_smile.gif[/img]

Contact:
jinbrown@pixelalley.com
or...
In Depth Discussions Painter Forum
http://www.critical-depth.com/cgi-bin/idd/

Jinny Brown
http://www.pixelalley.com
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My prayers for the safety of your loved ones today and for a quick and certain stop to terrorism everywhere.
September 11, 2001
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Thank you yet again for your useful advice. I guess I'll persevere with 5.5 a little longer, until 7 has settled down.
Now I'm off to those tutorials!...
Tony