Corel Photo-Paint

Corel PHOTO-PAINT

Corel PHOTO-PAINT X5 under Windows 7
Developer(s)	Corel
Stable release	X5 Service Pack 1 / August 9, 2010
Written in	C++
Operating system	Windows
Type	Raster graphics editor
License	Proprietary
Website	Corel PHOTO-PAINT

Corel PHOTO-PAINT is a raster graphics editor developed and marketed by Corel since 1992. Corel currently markets the software for Windows operating systems, previously having marketed versions for Linux^[1] (Version 9, requiring Wine) and Mac OS (through version 11). Its primary market competitor is Adobe Photoshop.

In 2006, Corel released version 13 as "Photo-Paint X3", employing this naming convention for subsequent releases as well as for CorelDRAW, included with Photo-Paint in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite. Corel has marketed a limited edition of Photo-Paint called Corel Photo-Paint SELECT with HP scanning hardware, e.g., the HP ScanJet 5p scanners.

Features

Photo-Paint's native format is .CPT (Corel PHOTO-PAINT Image), which stores image data as well as information within an image, including objects (layers in some raster editors), colour profiles, text, transparency, effect filters.

The program can open and convert vector formats from CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator and can open other formats, including PNG, JPG and GIF files — as well as competing photo editor formats from Photoshop, GIMP and Paint Shop Pro. The program also supports plug-in functionality including those developed for Adobe Photoshop^[2] and Paint Shop Pro. Other extensions such as brushes are also compatible with Photo-Paint.

As other raster graphics editors, Corel Photo-Paint allows an image to be edited in multiple layers, called objects here. A gradient line going from opaque to transparent, for instance, can be used to have a darker foreground color fade into a lighter background color. The UI is highly customizable, and the user can freely move dialogs or adjust button sizes and such. Effects can be applied to a picture including Smart Blur -- a type of Gaussian blur effect which however retains sharpness around sharper edges -- Mesh Warp, Camera Lens Flare, Trace Contour and others. There is limited support for vector paths to be integrated. Depending on personal preferences and work style, users may prefer Corel Photo-Paint over Adobe PhotoShop or the other way round, though in terms of market share, PhotoShop is clearly more represented.

As a component of the CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, Photo-Paint can exchange data with other programs in the suite, including Corel CONNECT (Version X5), which enables users to share files between different computer software and drives on the user's computer. CorelDRAW and Photo-paint are also Copy-paste compatible, with format and effects retention — and without file conversion.

Corel Photo-Paint is available in English, German, French, Italian, Dutch, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Russian, Hungarian and Turkish.

See also

• Image editing
• Raster graphics
• Digital darkroom
• Graphics file format summary
• Photo manipulation
• Comparison of raster graphics editors

References

1. ^ "Corel Photo-Paint 9 for Linux". FreeOS.com, 11/01/2000. http://www.freeos.com/articles/2576. 
2. ^ http://www.namesuppressed.com/support/plugins-photopaint.shtml

• Corel Photo Paint (Graphic Suite)
• Corel Photo-Paint help files