Corel Painter Essentials 3 review

The Auto-Painting feature is great for quickly filling the canvas with a broad-brush artistic impression of the original image, but it's rarely the end of the process. The best way to bring the artistic version of the photo to life is usually to partially restore details from the original. This has always been possible with the Straight Cloner brush variant, but Essentials makes life a lot easier and the entire process more integrated with its Restoration palette. Here, you can quickly select either a Soft Edge or Hard Edge cloner and begin partially restoring vital details such as eyes and hair.

With Painter Essentials 3, Corel has finally recognised what people want from their art software - the ability to take digital photos in new creative directions - and has enabled them to produce better results more easily. Factor in the bargain price and the painless upgrade path to Painter, and you can't ask for more.

Author: Tom Arah