Metacreations Painter

Boy, I love this program. Photoshop is better at some things, but painter has the best natural tools available anywhere. It really can produce documents that do not look like they were made by computer! I have used this for years, mostly to edit photos. I have not used the very latest version (5.5) but I have seen it, and it looks even better. The 'poor man's painter' is not really PSP, but rather Image Composer, from Microsoft. Most people that I know dislike Image Composer, but it will do a lot of what Painter can do. Just not as well, nor as easily!

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Complex software with many options for customization of paint tools and media. The software emulates natural media such as pencils, watercolor brushes, pastel, etc. A good application for digital users with a strong feeling for traditional art materials either through past experience or wanting to create digital content that looks less 'computeresque'.

Highly customizable. Good graphic tablet support. Supports Photoshop layers. Various import/export formats supported.

Version 6.0 a bit unstable but the latest update is an improvement. The OEM manual is not too well organized (PeachPit Press is due out with an aftermarket version late spring 2000).

Photoshop, PaintShopPro

Corel just bought the software, but no one responded to my recent support question.