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Thread: Artrage vs Corel Painter?

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  1. #1

    Artrage vs Corel Painter?

    I'm curious what the major differences are between these two programs and why there is such a massive price difference.

    I have been using Artrage for a long long time and love it. But I see Painter 2019 is in a Humble Bundle along with some other programs for $25. Wondering if it has any features or differences that would make it worth the extra expense? What does each do better or worse than the other?

    Also I'm currently using AR5.

  2. #2
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    painter has a free 30 day trial that you can download and use without any restrictions after you've registered it.

    as far as I remember, there were no major differences between painter 2019 and 2020, some performance improvements only.

    painter's $25 price-tag is a good deal if you like what you see in the trial; makes me assume they've thrown a dated release on sale hoping to bring back users that left corel for its low-cost competitor, paintstorm.

  3. #3
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    I'm not an experienced digital painter ... tried Painter 2017 and removed it because I could not turn off the annoying pop-ups from Corel.

    There was something in preferences that allowed you to stop pop-ups ... it did not work.

  4. #4
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    Painter is good for photo painting, especially if you are a photographer and want to give your photos a painter effect. 3D renders can also be used instead of a photograph.

    ArtRage is better for freehand sketching and painting as it has a much better performance then Painter 2019. I own both and enjoy both. There is also a lite version of Painter ala Painter Essentials that costs about $49 USA.

  5. #5
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    Well, here I go....I paid for Painter 2019, and it worked very well. Then, I tried the trial version of 2020. At the end of the 30 day trial period I discovered that my already-paid-for 2019 had been deactivated and cannot be used. Corel Corp has gotten their last dime from me. I will never use Painter again, which is a pity. I will now start the learning curve for Art Rage.

  6. #6
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    And please don't think that I hate Painter. I've used it since it was Fractal Design in 1993. Love the program, Hate Corel's corporate piracy BS.

  7. #7
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    Have you contacted Corel about your issue? I'd be surprised if they can't help you re-enable Painter 2019 if it's a legit purchase and the trial has caused it to deactivate.

    Just incase anyone else in interested in the app, the Painter 2019 Humble Bundle has been reactivated (has 3 days left) which would mean you can snap it up for $25. I've had a tinker and it seems pretty powerful (loads of options) but I feel it lacks the immediacy and intuitiveness of ArtRage. Maybe an app to grow into?

  8. #8
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    Quote Originally Posted by Rod Turner View Post
    Well, here I go....I paid for Painter 2019, and it worked very well. Then, I tried the trial version of 2020. At the end of the 30 day trial period I discovered that my already-paid-for 2019 had been deactivated and cannot be used. Corel Corp has gotten their last dime from me. I will never use Painter again, which is a pity. I will now start the learning curve for Art Rage.
    I have both Corel Painter 2017 and Corel Painter 2019 installed on my computer. As well as Corel Essentials 4 and Essentials 5. I installed a trial version of Painter 2020. After the trial period it deactivated. All my registered Corel Products still worked. Later I installed a demo of Corel Essentials 7. After the trial period Essentials 7 deactivated and ALL my Corel Products were still working fine.

    I would contact Corel about this. As your experience seems to be the exception.

  9. #9
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    On the discussions here of Corel vs ArtRage.

    A couple of my points.

    ArtRage is a pure joy to use. Better performance and a very friendly user interface. Corel's performance at times can be quite laggy and it's interface is cluttered and confusing. I tried Painter 2020 and despite Corel's claims of a vast performance improvement, I thought not enough to warrant upgrading despite the offer of $134 Canadian (about $99 USA).

    However that said, lately ArtRage has been gathering dust as I am using Corel Painter 2019 and Essentials 5 a lot more.

    Why? Because I now find my self doing a lot more photography and 3D modeling/3D rendering and less freehand sketching, drawing & painting.
    Corel's photo cloning ability is perfect for my photos and 3D renders, giving them a more paintery look. If I could obtain the same results I would use ArtRage.
    If only ArtRage had photo cloning brushes.

    A couple of years ago I asked this question here. How to make a photo look paintery with ArtRage.
    I was told I could place a layer beneath my photo and the brush strokes on the layer below would appear in the photo.
    I tried this and it did not give me the type of results I was looking for.
    The response kind of soured me for a bit on ArtRage.

    I did download the trial of ArtRage 6. I was quite turned off my the lack of a chalk brush. And there were not enough changes or improvements to warrant upgrading. However my opinion my change as I do admire ArtRage and it's friendly community.

    That's another point. Despite it's wider audience, Corel's user community is nowhere as active (PainterFactory.com) as ArtRage's. Nor are they as friendly and helpful. Corel's support is one of the worst.

    I'm now retired and I have a lot of registered apps (Photoshop, Lightroom, TopazLabs, Corel, ArtRage, e-onsoftware's Vue, Silo3D, 3D Coat, Curvy 3D, etc) and I have to pick and choice which apps to upgrade.

    ArtRage is still one of my favorite apps. I would rather give my money to a small development team like Ambient Design or the 3DCoat development team then to Corel.

  10. #10
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    Quote Originally Posted by CMDesign View Post
    I'm curious what the major differences are between these two programs and why there is such a massive price difference.

    I have been using Artrage for a long long time and love it. But I see Painter 2019 is in a Humble Bundle along with some other programs for $25. Wondering if it has any features or differences that would make it worth the extra expense? What does each do better or worse than the other?

    Also I'm currently using AR5.
    Consider Corel's Painter (Originally a Co. called Fractal Design) the premiere, industry standard traditional media (oils, pastels, watercolors, ink, ect.) - digital art software. Very much like many would consider would consider Adobe Photoshop, for Photo & Raster design, or Adobe Illustrator for Vector design, as industry standards. for their respective primary functions in artistic design. Corel actually makes or has bought up (like Adobe), several design & other software companies. However, in the digital art world for a digital based traditional art media, Corel's Painter is regarded as the overall best software. That's where & why you have a big price tag. That all said, Painter isn't expensive considering you "own," the software vs. having to rent it, as you do with Adobe. When you could still buy Adobe software (some years ago), I can assure you, it was just as expensive (if not more), than Corel Painter. Consider Painter Corel's flag ship software these days too, for many professional artists.

    In the last several years, you have seen a revolution (so to speak), with many new Software companies like Ambient Design, Seriff, Escape Emotions, Ect., creating some fantastic art/design software. This is do to several factors. Cost of software (like Corel's painter) and Adobe's "rent our software." In particular, Adobe has received a huge backlash to their pricing. This was evident a couple of months ago when Adobe attempted to increase the price of their Photographers Package. Reasons already explained, plus a bunch of other little things have also contributed to this revolution of new and in some cases art/design software that is beginning to challenge Adobe & Co. from dominating the Design Industry (from painting, to editing photos, videos, website design, on & on). Don't get me wrong... Adobe, Corel, Autodesk, ect., still dominate and that won't end anytime soon. However, so long as these new Art/Design software company's like Ambient Design, don't get too greedy, they will increase in popularity. Seriff (who makes the Affinity line of software) is probably doing the best job, of the new art/design revolutionary companies. Affinity is actually really good... all 3 programs.

    Now that you have your history lesson (haha) and understand why Painter is so much more, I'll rank some software in tiers of: best, solid & fair "overall," (for painting & drawing only). Now just because Painter is and should be ranked #1, that does not mean other software is "entirely," less than. Example: Rebelle is by far the best software for digital watercolors. Both Artrage and Painter have really good watercolor functions but, Rebelle is again... the best when it comes to digital watercolors. Another example: don't think for a second that you cannot produce professional art in Artrage and that you have to have Painter.

    Best - overall: Painter - there are pros & cons with all software however, no software offers the control, tools, options upon options within tools, brushes, ect., as Painter
    does.

    Solid - overall (in no particular order): Artrage, Rebelle, Affinity Designer, Sketchbook (old but still awesome & now free), Clip Studio, Leonardo (this is technically should
    be in the fair tier but, it is wonderful to sketch on, when using a tablet like a Surface Pro, as well as it has so much potential). There's certainly a few more I could
    add to this list but, you should get the point.
    * I should mention Concepts, which is unique. This is a vector based app however, you draw & paint with this app as you would do in Artrage. Only downside with
    Concepts: they want a 25/30 yearly subscription fee, for some of the best tools and brushes. The Copic Color wheel will wow you.

    Fair - all listed have potential & could be big in a couple of years or sooner: Krita (tons of features, really needs to be cleaned up, high learning curve also), Gimp (which
    is Open-Source), Medibang (wow, is this fun to sketch in). Again, there's plenty of other software I could mention but, there's enough listed to make my point.

    What I use... I all of the software listed from time to time. I have a lot of knowledge and experience using the software listed. Even though I oddly just bought Artrage 6, I have used it years ago. I finally feel like it's at a stage where I'll use it more consistently. Save your money for now, if you don't have a ton of digital painting experience, for an eventual digital art digitizer/screen, like a Wacom Cintiq or a cheaper competitor in the meantime. A Wacom is expensive like Painter also but, it's less subjective to opinion as 99.9% of users will say " its worth every cent, in the long run. My best advice with Painter vs. Artrage: use what you're comfortable with. There isn't a wrong answer to this question.

    This is "my opinion." However, I base it on 25 years of tradition & digital painting. Name any art software and chances are I've tried it. I also teach, tutor and freelance. I'm also a Adobe Photoshop Certified Expert. At the very least, I hope this helps you and anyone else with similar thoughts or questions.

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