Corel(R) Painter(TM) 12 Sets New Standard for Realism and Creativity in Professional Digital Art

OTTAWA, ONTARIO--(Marketwire - May 11, 2011) -

Editors Note: There are three photos and one video associated with this press release.

Corel ® Painter™ 12, the newest version of the world's most powerful art studio, is available starting today. Combining the industry's most advanced and realistic digital painting and illustration tools, unprecedented speed, and a new, highly customizable interface, Corel Painter 12 gives artists and photographers power and creative freedom beyond anything previously possible with either traditional or digital art tools.

Celebrating 20 years of digital art breakthroughs, the newest release of Corel Painter represents a powerful partnership between Corel and the Painter community. With new real brushes, unique progressive art tools, customizable workspaces and faster performance on both Mac® and Windows®, Corel Painter 12 opens up new creative pathways and possibilities, unmatched by any other product in its category. With the introduction of Real Watercolor, Real Wet Oil, Mirror Painting and the mesmerizing Kaleidoscope tool, Corel Painter 12 continues to set the standard for a truly organic and expressive digital art experience.

Changing What's Possible in Art – Key News Facts:

• Available today for both Mac® and Windows®, the new Corel Painter 12 offers impressive performance with increased brush speeds 3 to 5 times faster, on both platforms.

• Whether you're creating from a blank canvas or applying painterly effects to your favourite photographs, Corel Painter 12 extends its reputation for unmatched Natural-Media® painting, adding powerful new brushes including Real Watercolour and Real Wet Oil. These unique brushes recreate the liquidity and viscosity of flowing and blending paint, water or solvent and textures with a new and astounding level of realism.

• Further enhancing artistic freedom, Corel Painter 12 offers new progressive art tools for creating amazing designs that simply aren't possible with real-world media. New Kaleidoscope or Mandala Painting enables artists to transform brushstrokes into a balanced spectrum of colourful shapes or blends from 3 to 12 planes. New Mirror Painting lets artists quickly create automatic symmetry by mirroring the plane vertically and horizontally. Mirror placement can also be moved or rotated to achieve stunning and distinctive looks.

• Offering a redesigned and highly customizable user interface (UI), Corel Painter 12 fits seamlessly into a creative workflow to make users more productive than ever. The new Navigator Panel, updated panel and palette behaviour, custom workflow workspaces, enhanced preservation of colors and layers, and common keyboard shortcuts make Corel Painter 12 the perfect complement to any professional's toolbox, especially when working with Photoshop.

• For a full list of new features and enhancements in Corel Painter 12, please visit www.corel.com/painter.

Related Quotes

"Our Painter community has always been the driving force behind our development priorities," said Andy Church, Product Manager for Corel Painter. "Our goal is to consistently provide our artists with powerful tools that enable them to expand and express their creative visions and to achieve the most stunning and realistic results possible. Our artists provide the inspiration and Painter provides the power, freedom, and control unmatched in any other creative environment."

"Painter 12 provides me a level of artistic realism that brings my subjects and concepts to life and makes my work stand apart" claims Mike Thompson, illustrator and urban artist. "My professional career is dependent on Painter's brushes, realism and inherent time-savings it delivers." To browse Mike Thompson's galleries visit www.miketartworks.com.

"The redesigned interface is streamlined and more efficient to use. If you like to paint, then Painter is the application for you" said Cher Threinen-Pendarvis, fine artist, author and educator. "Real Watercolor brushes allow me to paint realistic, natural watercolor brushstrokes, washes and textures like never before." To learn more about Cher Threinen-Pendarvis' work visit www.pendarvis-studios.com.

Availability

Corel Painter 12 is available now for Windows and Mac in English in markets worldwide. North American pricing is $429 (US and CDN) for the full version and $229 for (US and CDN) for upgrade customers. Commercial and education volume licenses are also available.

For a full list of everything that's new in Corel Painter 12 and to download a free fully-functional trial version, please visit www.corel.com/painter.

Media & Blogger Resources

For additional Corel Painter 12 resources including reviewer's materials, images and videos, please visit www.corel.com/newsroom/painter12 and www.corel.com/painter12demogallery.

Meet the Painter Community

• Connect with Corel Painter on Facebook www.facebook.com/corelpainter

• Follow our updates @CorelPainter www.twitter.com/corelpainter

• Join the Painter Factory www.painterfactory.com

Visit www.corel.com/20things to view a collection of our Painter Masters' favourite digital painting techniques done in Corel Painter.

About Corel

Corel is one of the world's top software companies with more than 100 million active users in over 75 countries. We develop software that helps people express their ideas and share their stories in more exciting, creative and persuasive ways. Through the years, we've built a reputation for delivering innovative, trusted products that are easy to learn and use, helping people achieve new levels of productivity. The industry has responded with hundreds of awards for software innovation, design and value.

Our award-winning product portfolio includes some of the world's most widely recognized and popular software brands, including CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite, Corel® Painter™, Corel DESIGNER® Technical Suite, Corel® PaintShop Photo®, Corel® VideoStudio®, Corel® WinDVD®, Corel® WordPerfect® Office, WinZip® and Corel® Digital Studio™.

© 2011 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel, the Corel logo, the Corel Balloon logo, Corel DESIGNER, CorelDRAW, Digital Studio, PaintShop Photo, Painter, VideoStudio, WordPerfect, WinDVD and WinZip are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product names and any registered and unregistered trademarks mentioned are used for identification purposes only and remain the exclusive property of their respective owners.

To view the image of the Corel Painter 12 box, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20110510-corel0511boxshot800.jpg.

To view the video "What's New in Corel® Painter™ 12", please visit the following link: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ChqkPjDyGuo&hd=1.

To view the image of the Corel Painter 12 Anniversary Edition Paint Can, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20110510-corel0511anncan800.jpg.

To view the image of the Corel Painter 12 User Interface, please visit the following link: http://www.marketwire.com/library/20110510-corel0511painterui800.jpg.