Corel Painter - X3 Getting Started Guide
Getting Started Guide
Getting Started Guide
Corel Corporation
2013
Copyright 2013 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved.
Corel® Painter® X3 Getting Started Guide
The contents of this user guide and the associated Corel Painter software are the
property of Corel Corporation and its respective licensors, and are protected by
copyright. For more complete copyright information about Corel Painter, please refer
to the About Corel Painter section in the Help menu of the software.
Protected by Patents in the United States and elsewhere.
Product specifications, pricing, packaging, technical support and information
(“specifications”) refer to the retail English version only. The specifications for all
other versions (including other language versions) may vary.
Information is provided by Corel on an “as is” basis, without any other warranties or
conditions, express or implied, including, but not limited to, warranties of
merchantable quality, satisfactory quality, merchantability or fitness for a particular
purpose, or those arising by law, statute, usage of trade, course of dealing or
otherwise. The entire risk as to the results of the information provided or its use is
assumed by you. Corel shall have no liability to you or any other person or entity for
any indirect, incidental, special, or consequential damages whatsoever, including, but
not limited to, loss of revenue or profit, lost or damaged data or other commercial or
economic loss, even if Corel has been advised of the possibility of such damages, or
they are foreseeable. Corel is also not liable for any claims made by any third party.
Corel's maximum aggregate liability to you shall not exceed the costs paid by you to
purchase the materials. Some states/countries do not allow exclusions or limitations
of liability for consequential or incidental damages, so the above limitations may not
apply to you.
Corel, the Corel logo, Painter, Painter for Cinco, Natural-Media, RealBristle, and the
Balloon logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its
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company names and logos may be trademarks or registered trademarks of their
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Contents
Welcome to Corel Painter . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
What’s in this user guide? . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 1
Additional resources. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Registration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
Corel Cinco for Painter. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 2
About Corel Corporation . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 4
What’s new in Corel Painter X3. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What’s New in Corel Painter X3 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 5
What’s new in Corel Painter 12 Updates 1 and 2 . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 7
Changes to the brush control panels. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 9
Workspace tour . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Corel Painter terms . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 13
Exploring the Document window. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 16
Exploring the toolbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 18
Displaying the toolbox. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Displaying the Media Selector bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 22
Displaying the property bar . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Exploring the Navigator panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 23
Displaying the Brush Selector bar and the Brush library panel . . . . . . . . . 24
Exploring panels and palettes. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 26
Working with libraries. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 30
Restoring the default Corel Painter settings . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 31
A short tour of Corel Painter for users of Adobe Photoshop . . . . . . . . . . . . . 33
Creating, navigating, and manipulating documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Creating documents . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 39
Contents i
Understanding resolution. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 41
Opening files . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Navigating images and viewing image information . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 43
Resizing images and the canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 45
Saving files. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 47
Painting . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Choosing a painting workflow . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 49
Exploring painting media. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 52
Working with the canvas and layers. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 53
Displaying reference images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 54
Clearing the canvas . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 55
Brush tracking and calibration . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 56
Applying freehand and straight brushstrokes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 58
Color . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Choosing colors from the Color panel. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 61
Using the temporal colors palette. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 64
Exploring the Mixer panel and mixing controls . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 65
Mixing, sampling, and applying colors from the Mixer pad . . . . . . . . . . . 67
Opening images in the Mixer panel . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 69
Selecting, managing, and creating brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Understanding brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 71
Exploring brush categories . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 72
Searching and selecting brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 86
Setting basic brush attributes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 88
Displaying advanced brush controls dynamically . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 92
Cloning images. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
ii Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Cloning images . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 93
Using Quick Clone. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 97
Editing, updating, saving, and exporting clone source images . . . . . . . . . 98
Painting in the clone . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 100
Jitter brushes . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Choosing a Jitter brush variant. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 103
Controlling the behavior of Jitter variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 105
Applying and adjusting flow maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Getting started with flow maps . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 107
Choosing flow maps and compatible brush variants . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 108
Enabling flow maps and controlling flow resistance . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 110
Working with symmetry tools and perspective guides . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Using the Mirror Painting mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 113
Using the Kaleidoscope Painting mode . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 115
Using Perspective Guides. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 117
Contents iii
Welcome to Corel Painter
Corel® Painter® X3 is the ultimate digital art studio. Its inventive drawing tools,
realistic brushes, cloning capabilities, and customizable features let you expand your
creative output in exciting new ways. When you use the pressure-sensitive brushes of
Corel Painter, they become fluid extensions of your hand, so the resulting brushstrokes
are unrivaled in texture and precision. What’s more, features such as the ability to
build your own Natural-Media® brushes and customize how brushes interact with the
canvas give you countless ways to develop your artistic ideas. Corel Painter takes you
far beyond what’s possible in a traditional art environment.
This section contains the following topics:
• What’s in this user guide?
• Additional resources
•Registration
•Corel Cinco for Painter
• About Corel Corporation
What’s in this user guide?
This user guide provides step-by-step instructions to help you get started with
Corel Painter X3. The content describes the most common tasks performed with
Corel Painter X3. Please note that this guide is not an exhaustive reference for every
tool. If you require additional information, refer to the application’s Help system.
A stunning collection of artwork, created in Corel Painter by renowned digital artists,
is included in this user guide to inspire you and show you what you can do with the
application.
Welcome to Corel Painter 1
Additional resources
You can access additional Corel Painter resources online to learn more about the product
and connect with the Corel Painter community.
Resources To access
Corel Painter page on the Corel website http://www.corel.com/painter
Corel Painter Factory http://www.painterfactory.com/
Corel Painter on Twitter http://www.twitter.com/corelpainter
Corel Painter on Facebook http://www.facebook.com/corelpainter
Registration
Registering Corel products is important. Registration provides you with timely access
to the latest product updates, valuable information about product releases and access to
free downloads.
If you skipped the registration process when installing Corel Painter X3, you can
register at www.corel.com/support/register.
Corel Cinco for Painter
Corel® Cinco™ for Painter® is a companion app that lets you control Painter remotely
from your iPad by opening and using any custom palettes that you created in
Corel Painter. You can download Corel Cinco for Painter from the Apple App Store.
Corel Cinco for Painter lets you display only one custom palette at a time, but you can
quickly switch between palettes. Corel Cinco for Painter displays five palette controls
per screen. If your custom palette includes more than five controls, you can swipe the
screen to display the additional controls.
2 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
The icons of the controls are conveniently positioned to match the shape of your
hand so that each finger can quickly tap a control.
Working with Corel Cinco for Painter allows you to extend your workspace and reduce
onscreen clutter. It can also replace traditional shortcut keys.
To allow Corel Cinco for Painter to connect with Corel Painter, you need to enable the
option in the Painter Preferences dialog box.
To allow Corel Cinco for Painter to connect with Corel Painter
1 Do one of the following:
• (Mac OS) Choose Corel Painter X3 menu Preferences Connections.
• (Windows) Choose Edit Preferences Connections.
2 Enable the Allow Companion Application to Connect to Painter check box.
3 Type a name in the Service Name box to give your copy of Corel Painter a unique
name.
We recommended that you do not enable the Allow Companion
Application to Connect to Painter check box before the companion
application is available.
Welcome to Corel Painter 3
You can also specify an Authentication Code to ensure that only a legitimate
user can access your copy of Corel Painter from a remote application.
About Corel Corporation
Corel is one of the world’s top software companies providing some of the industry’s
best-known graphics, productivity and digital media products. Boasting the most
comprehensive portfolio of innovative software, we've built a reputation for delivering
solutions that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of creativity
and productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for innovation,
design and value.
Used by millions of people around the world, our product lines include
CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® Painter®, Corel® PaintShop® Pro,
Corel® VideoStudio® and Corel® WordPerfect® Office. For more information on
Corel, please visit www.corel.com.
4 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
What’s new in Corel Painter X3
Corel Painter takes you far beyond what’s possible in a traditional art environment.
This section contains the following topics:
• What’s New in Corel Painter X3
• What’s new in Corel Painter 12 Updates 1 and 2
• Changes to the brush control panels
What’s New in Corel Painter X3
In this section, you will find information about the new and enhanced features of
Corel Painter X3.
A platform for inspiration, creativity,
and reflection
Brush search Helps you find the perfect brush by
performing a search. Simply type in the
name of the brush variant or a combination
of brush properties, such as jitter or bristle,
to narrow down the search. To find all of the
new brush variants that were added in
Corel Painter X3, type in “X3” in the Search
bar.
Reference Image panel Lets you display an inspirational image in an
easy to use, dockable panel. You can zoom,
pan, and sample colors from the reference
image while maintaining focus on your
digital painting.
What’s new in Corel Painter X3 5
A platform for inspiration, creativity,
and reflection
Enhanced stroke preview Offers a more detailed preview of the
brushstroke that will appear on the canvas in
real-time. The preview now visually
represents brush parameters such as mixing,
erasing, blending, and jitter. The brush
preview displays in the Brush library panel,
Brush search results panel, and the Stroke
Preview brush control panel.
Inspirational Mixer Pads Lets you choose colors from a collection of
original mixer pads that were created for you
by expert Corel Painter artists.
The innovator in digital art
Jitter brushes Produces more realistic brushstrokes by
introducing an increased amount of
randomness. The Jitter brush variants are
found under various brush categories.
Universal Jitter Allows you to control the randomness of
various brush features, such as size, angle,
and opacity. You can now use Jitter in
conjunction with a different expression.
Minimum controls Allows you to introduce a range of variation
to a selected expression. You can apply
minimum values for brush controls such as
Size and Opacity.
Additional Flow Maps, Patterns, and Papers Includes a greater variety of Flow Maps,
Patterns, Papers that you can use in your
paintings.
Easier to learn and use
Smart Brush Settings with added media
panel (Advanced Brush Controls)
Provides you with a more intuitive way of
modifying the advanced brush controls of a
selected brush.
6 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Easier to learn and use
Perspective Guides Allows you to accurately draw in one, two or
three-point perspective by using preset
guides. The Perspective-Guided Strokes
constrain your strokes to direct them
towards the vanishing points. This feature
replaces the Perspective Grid feature.
Enhanced Cloning Reintroduces the traditional side-by-side
cloning workflow and lets you view the
crosshair cursor on your source image to
increase painting accuracy. In addition, you
now have the ability to edit the source
image. For example, you can apply various
effects to the source image.
Transform across layers Allows you to apply transformations to
multiple layers and layer groups
simultaneously.
Set maximum colors for color sets Lets you specify a maximum number of
colors when creating new color sets.
Show Onion Skin layers Allows you to display underlying frames
when working with movies.
Performance
Memory Extender Lets you take advantage of more of your Mac
systems’s available RAM by letting you
control how much RAM you want to
designate to Painter. This features was
introduced in Painter 12.2.1.
What’s new in Corel Painter 12 Updates 1 and 2
If you are migrating to Corel Painter X3 from Corel Painter 12, you may not be aware
of the features and enhancements that were added to Corel Painter 12 Updates 1 and
2. These features and enhancements are also available in Corel Painter X3.
What’s new in Corel Painter X3 7
Corel Painter 12 Update 1 Features
Ability to import and export brush libraries,
categories, and variants
Allows you to import and export brush
libraries, categories, and variants so you can
better manage brush resources.
Creating and removing brush libraries Allows you to more easily create and delete
custom brush libraries.
Creating and removing brush categories Allows you to store brush variants in custom
brush categories. You can also remove
custom brush libraries when you no longer
need them.
Saving brush variants Allows you to quickly save the custom brush
variants that you create.
Moving brush variants Allows you to easily drag variants between
categories.
Deleting Workspaces Allows you to delete custom Workspaces
from within the application.
Color mixing enhancements Allows you to open images as mixer pads
and save mixer pads to the PNG file format.
Panel resizing Lets you vertically resize most panels within
a palette.
Navigator panel enhancements Lets you hide the image information area or
the controls of the Navigator panel.
Corel Painter 12 Update 2 Features
Flow Maps Introduces an additional textured surface for
working with Real Watercolor and Real Wet
Oil brushes that help you direct the flow of
paint.
Vertical docking of panels Allows you to vertically dock panels in the
document window.
8 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Corel Painter 12 Update 2 Features
Support for Corel Cinco for Painter Allows Corel Painter to connect to
Corel Cinco for Painter, which is a
companion iPad app that integrates
seamlessly into your current workflow to
enhance productivity.
Wacom Multi-Touch support Enables enhanced multi-touch support for
Wacom Intuos 5 touch tablets. You can now
simultaneously pan, rotate, and zoom the
canvas.
Changes to the brush control panels
A number of brush controls panels were more logically organized to better reflect the
structure of the Corel Painter brush engine. The following table maps the
Corel Painter 12 brush control panels to the new Corel Painter X3 brush control panels.
For more information about the brush control panels that include the new Jitter
controls, see “Controlling the behavior of Jitter variants” on page 105.
Corel Painter 12 brush control panels Corel Painter X3 brush control panels
Dab Profile panel
Stroke Preview panel (New)
Dab Preview panel (New)
Dab Profile panel (Modified)
What’s new in Corel Painter X3 9
Corel Painter 12 brush control panels Corel Painter X3 brush control panels
General panel
General panel (Modified)
Stroke Attributes panel (New)
Opacity panel (New)
Grain panel (New)
Size panel
Size panel (Modified)
Bristles panel (New)
Multi panel (New)
10 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Corel Painter 12 brush control panels Corel Painter X3 brush control panels
Spacing panel
Spacing panel (Modified)
Smoothing panel (New)
What’s new in Corel Painter X3 11
Workspace tour
The Corel Painter workspace has been designed to give you easy access to tools, effects,
commands, and features. The workspace is organized by using a series of menus,
selectors, panels, and interactive palettes.
This section contains the following topics:
• Corel Painter terms
• Exploring the Document window
• Exploring the toolbox
• Displaying the toolbox
• Displaying the Media Selector bar
• Displaying the property bar
• Exploring the Navigator panel
• Displaying the Brush Selector bar and the Brush library panel
• Exploring panels and palettes
• Working with libraries
• Restoring the default Corel Painter settings
Corel Painter terms
Before you get started with Corel Painter, you should be familiar with the following
terms.
Works pac e to ur 13
Term Description
Canvas The canvas is the rectangular work area inside the document
window. In addition, the canvas serves as the background layer of
the image. However, unlike other layers, it is always locked. The
size of the canvas also determines the size of the image that you
create.
Pixels-per-inch (ppi) The default unit of measurement for resolution in Corel Painter.
Pixels-per-inch (ppi) is equivalent to dots per inch (dpi).
Layer Layers are independent image elements that stack on top of the
canvas. You can manipulate the content of a layer without
altering the canvas. Layers let you experiment with different
compositions and effects without risking an unwanted,
permanent edit.
Brush category Brush categories are groups of similar brushes and media.
Brush variant Brush variants are specific brushes and brush settings within a
brush category.
Dab types The dab type controls the way a brush applies color to the
painting surface. In Corel Painter, there are numerous dab types
that fall under two dab type groups: rendered and dab-based,
also known as pixel-based.
Rendered dab type The rendered dab type produces continuous, smooth-edged
strokes. For example, Camel Hair and Airbrush use the rendered
dab type.
Dab-based dab type The dab-based dab types produce brushstrokes that are made up
of tiny dabs of color that are closely spaced together so they
appear smooth.
Panel A panel is a single tabbed container that displays commands,
controls, and settings for a specific feature. Panels reside in a
palette. For example, the Color panel contains controls that
allow you to choose colors.
Palette A palette is a container for one or multiple panels.
Paper Paper allows you to control both the color and texture of the
canvas.
14 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Term Description
Clone source The clone source determines the image, or image area, that you
want to reproduce through cloning. A document can include
multiple clone sources.
Clone document The clone document is created by copying the original clone
source image which allows you to reproduce a painterly version of
the source image. A copy of the clone source is embedded in the
clone document. In addition, you can add multiple clone sources
to a clone document.
Image sampling Image sampling lets you copy part of one image and reuse it
elsewhere in the image or in another image. You can sample an
image by using the Rubber Stamp tool, a Cloner brush that
supports offset sampling, or a Cloner brush that supports multipoint sampling. Sampling is similar to cloning, but, unlike
cloning, it does not create a separate document that stores clone
sources.
Composite method A composite method, which is similar to blend modes in Adobe
Photoshop, lets you change how a layer blends with an
underlying image.
Works pac e to ur 15
Exploring the Document window
The document window is the area outside the canvas that is bordered by scroll bars and
application controls.
Circled numbers correspond to the numbers in the following table, which
describes the main components of the application window. (Artwork by Karen
Bonaker)
Part Description
1. Menu bar Lets you access tools and features using pull-down menu
options
16 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Part Description
2. Brush Selector bar Lets you open the Brush library panel to choose a brush
category and variant. It also allows you to open and manage
brush libraries.
3. Property bar Displays commands that relate to the active tool or object. For
example, when the Fill tool is active, the fill property bar
displays commands for filling selected areas.
4. Advanced Brush
Controls
Lets you quickly access the advanced brush controls for any
default brush variant. It also displays an enhanced stroke
preview of the currently selected brush variant.
5. Brush Search bar Lets you quickly search the content of the currently selected
brush library to find brushes that match a specific description.
6. Navigator panel Lets you navigate in the document window, change the
magnification level, and access various document viewing
options, such as Tracing Paper and Drawing Modes
7. Color panel Lets you choose main and additional colors for painting in
Corel Painter documents.
8. Mixer panel Lets you blend colors together to create new colors. You can
also open inspirational mixer pads designed by expert Corel
Painter artists. (The inspirational mixer pad in the image was
created by artist Skip Allen.)
9. Color Set Libraries
panel
Displays the colors in the current color set so you can organize
groups of colors.
10. Layers panel Lets you manage the hierarchy of layers and includes controls
for creating, selecting, hiding, locking, deleting, naming, and
grouping layers
11. Channels panel Lets you manage channels and includes controls for creating,
hiding, inverting, deleting, loading, and saving channels
12. Clone Source panel Lets you open and manage clone sources.
13. Reference Image
panel
Works pac e to ur 17
Lets you display an inspirational image in the document
window while maintaining focus on the canvas.
Part Description
14. Toolbox Lets you access tools for creating, filling, and modifying an
image
15. Canvas The canvas is the rectangular work area inside the document
window whose size determines the size of the image you
create. The canvas acts as the image background and, unlike a
layer, it is always locked.
Exploring the toolbox
You can use the tools in the toolbox to paint, draw lines and shapes, fill shapes with
color, view and navigate documents, and make selections. Under the toolbox is a color
selector, plus six content selectors that let you choose papers, gradients, patterns, looks,
and nozzles.
The following table provides descriptions of the tools in the Corel Painter toolbox.
Tool Description
Color tools
The Brush tool lets you paint and draw on the canvas or a layer.
Brush categories include pencils, pens, chalk, airbrushes, oil paints,
watercolors, and more. When the Brush tool is selected, you can
choose specific brushes from the Brush library panel.
The Dropper tool lets you pick up a color from an existing image.
The property bar shows the values of the color. When you select a
color with the Dropper tool, that color becomes the current color in
the Color panel.
The Paint Bucket tool lets you fill an area with media, such as a
color, gradient, pattern, weave, or clone. The property bar shows
options for the areas that you can fill and the media that you can use.
The Eraser tool lets you remove unwanted areas from an image.
18 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Tool Description
Selection tools
The Layer Adjuster tool is used to select, move, and manipulate
layers.
The Tr a n s f o r m tool lets you modify selected areas of an image by
using different transformation modes.
The Rectangular Selection tool lets you create rectangular
selections.
The Oval Selection tool lets you create oval selections.
The Lasso tool lets you draw a freehand selection.
The Polygonal Selection tool lets you select an area by clicking
different points on the image to anchor straight line segments.
The Magic Wand tool lets you select an area of similar color by
clicking or dragging in an image.
The Selection Adjuster tool lets you select, move, and manipulate
selections created with the Rectangular, Oval, and Lasso selection
tools and selections converted from shapes.
The Crop tool lets you remove unwanted edges from an image.
Shape tools
The Pen tool lets you create straight lines and curves in objects.
The Quick Curve tool lets you create shape paths by drawing
freehand curves.
The Rectangular Shape tool lets you create rectangles and squares.
The Oval Shape tool lets you create circles and ovals.
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Tool Description
Shape tools
The Te x t tool creates text shapes. Use the Te x t panel to set the font,
point size, and tracking.
The Shape Selection tool is for editing Bézier curves. You use the
Shape Selection tool to select and move anchor points and adjust
their control handles.
The Scissors tool lets you cut an open or closed segment. If the
segment is closed, after you click on a line or point, the shape path
becomes open.
The Add Point tool lets you create a new anchor point on a shape
path.
The Remove Point tool lets you remove an anchor point from a
shape path.
The Convert Point tool is used to convert between smooth and
corner anchor points.
Photo tools
The Cloner tool gives you quick access to the last Cloner brush
variant you used.
The Rubber Stamp tool gives you quick access to the Straight
Cloner brush variant, and lets you to sample areas within an image or
between images.
The Dodge tool lets you lighten the highlights, midtones, and
shadows in an image.
The Burn tool lets you darken the highlights, midtones, and shadows
in an image.
Symmetry tools
The Mirror Painting mode lets you create a perfectly symmetrical
painting.
The Kaleidoscope mode lets you transform basic brushstrokes into
colorful and symmetrical kaleidoscope images.
20 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
Tool Description
Composition tools
The Divine Proportion tool lets you plan compositions by using
guides based on a classical composition method.
The Layout Grid tool lets you divide your canvas so that you can
plan your composition. For example, you can divide your canvas into
thirds vertically and horizontally to use the compositional rule of
thirds.
The Perspective Guides tool lets you display guides using one, two
or three-point perspective. For more information, see “Using
Perspective Guides” on page 117.
Navigation tools
The Grabber tool lets you scroll through an image quickly.
The Magnifier tool lets you magnify areas of an image when you are
performing detailed work, or reduce areas to get an overall view of an
image.
The Rotate Page tool lets you rotate an image window to
accommodate the way you naturally draw.
Selectors
The Color selector lets you choose main and additional colors. The
front swatch displays the main color, and the back swatch displays the
additional color.
The Paper Selector opens the Papers panel. From the Papers panel,
you can choose a paper texture to alter the canvas surface and achieve
more realistic results when applying brushstrokes.
The View Mode selector allows you to switch between Full Screen
and Windowed.
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Displaying the toolbox
The toolbox is open by default, but you can close it. In addition, to minimize the space
required to display the toolbox, tools of similar function are grouped together and they
are accessible from flyout menus. The button for only one of these tools is displayed at
a given time on the toolbox. A flyout menu is indicated by a triangle in the lower-right
corner of the button. You can open a flyout to access all of its tools.
To open or close the toolbox
• Choose Window To o l b o x .
You can also close the toolbox by clicking the close button on the toolbox
header bar.
To access tools grouped in flyouts
1 In the toolbox, click and hold the tool icon whose flyout you want to open.
A flyout menu of the entire group of related tools appears.
2 Click the tool that you want to use.
The tool you’ve chosen appears in the toolbox.
Displaying the Media Selector bar
The Media Selector bar gives you quick access to the libraries for the following
Corel Painter media: patterns, gradients, nozzles, weaves, and looks. The Media
Selector bar is open by default, but you can close it at any time.
The Media Selector bar (displayed horizontally). From left to right:
Pattern Selector, Gradient Selector, Nozzle Selector, Weave Selector,
Look Selector.
To open or close the Media Selector bar
• Choose Window Media Selector.
22 Corel Painter X3 Getting Started Guide
You can also close the Media Selector bar by clicking the close button on the
header bar.
Displaying the property bar
In Corel Painter, the property bar displays options for the currently selected tool. By
default, the property bar displays in the application window docked below the menu
bar, but you can close it.
The property bar for the Grabber tool.
To open or close the property bar
• Choose Window Property Bar.
You can also close the property bar by clicking the close button on the header
bar.
Exploring the Navigator panel
The Navigator panel is a convenient tool for managing many aspects of a document.
Yo u c a n u s e t h e Navigator panel to better orient yourself in the document window and
modify the document window display. For example, when you’re working at a high
zoom level, or with a large image, you can use the Navigator panel’s small canvas
preview to display the entire image without having to zoom out. You can also move to
a different image area without having to adjust the zoom level. In addition, you can
change the zoom level or rotate the canvas from the Navigator panel.
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