Hi Artthou,

You'll probably get more up-to-date info and get it faster, if you frequent the CGTalk Corel Painter forum and the ConceptArt.org Painter forum where there are some lengthy discussions on these kinds of issues.

Also, Corel Painter Program Manager Rick Champagne and the developers read those two forums (as they read other forums, lists, and the two Corel Painter newsgroups). Occasionally, they interact with the members and with cooperation on both sides, problems like this one get fixed. That's because Corel needs to have detailed information from users in order to reproduce the problem, track down the cause, and fix it.

Here are the URL's:

CGTalk Corel Painter Forum

ConceptArt.org Painter Forum

If you do a search in the CGTalk Corel Painter Forum using the word shift or the words color shift you'll find some threads where this issue was discussed over a long period prior to the Painter IX 9.1 Update release.

Here are a few tips that may help prevent RIFF file corruption and will help prevent loss of time and work if Painter IX vanishes off the screen without warning or if a RIFF file becomes corrupted:

Save frequently!

Save using File > Save As (not File > Save) for the first save.

Save using File > Iterative Save for the second and following saves of the same image.

When we use File > Iterative Save, Painter IX automatically adds a number at the end of the file name. You should then have a numbered series of files that look something like this:

my_painting.rif (first save using File > Save As)
my_painting_001.rif (second save using File > Iterative Save
my_painting_002.rif (third save using File > Iterative Save)

... and so on.....


If you're concerned about the possibility of corrupted RIFF files (who isn't?) we've found that saving the file both using File > Save As for the first save and checking the Uncompressed box when saving helps prevent RIFF file corruption.

I just tested to find out if File > Iterative Save will follow the "instructions" given with the first save using File > Save As with the Uncompressed box checked and it seems that it does.

The file I opened to do the testing started out at 28 MB.

After using File > Save As with the Uncompressed box checked, the file was 249 MB. (Nothing had been done to the file at this point.)

After using File > Iterative Save (with no option to check the Uncompressed box as he Save dialog doesn't open), the file was again 249 MB. (Only a small spray with the Pen's Leaky Pen variant had been made on a new Layer since Painter IX won't allow us to use File > Iterative Save until something in the image has been changed.)

Theser results are after only one test and I haven't heard anyone discuss this so you might want to run this test a few times yourself to be sure File > Iterative Save also saves the file uncompressed.

See you in the other forums... and here, too!