a very important key command

[fredflickstone]

I am using Painter 8 no more than I use Photoshop, and that's a big move for me to let go of an old familiar.

One thing that buggggssss me is that I have to go to the menus to select a new brush type, or medium type. Since you have the right click on the wacom button, could you do a shift+right click Wacom to bring up a new alt menu for changing the type of medium on screen, on the fly? That is seriously my only huge complaint.

I am also having trouble scaling lasoo selections, is there a trick to this?


Thank you for listening, and, I can't say enough good things about this program.


Ron

[fredflickstone]

I see the 8.1 patch, but I dont want another menu floating all the time. Can you make it a hot key command? I like moving fast, but not grabbing from menus except for the color picker...It slows me down to have to drag into menus. I am being a bit fickle...but I am looking at a process, and the time issue is a big deal to me and hot keys are heaven sent...


Thanks again for your time...Jin...

Ron

[Jin]

Hi,

Custom Palettes, available after the Painter 8.1 patch is installed (and in earlier Painter versions) aren't menus.

They're palettes containing whatever icons, main menu command buttons, and palette menu command buttons you choose to place in them.

Once you have Custom Palettes set up for specific projects, you can pretty much close everything else and click icons to load brush libraries, or click menu command buttons to initiate menu commands.

When you choose a brush variant, then drag that brush category icon onto your Custom Palette, even if you load another brush library, when you click that icon again, it will load the original brush library with the original brush variant ready to use.

To fine tune everything, you can create new brush categories, if needed, each containing a single brush variant and each with a unique icon image that will help you identify it in the Custom Palette.

It takes a little time to set things up, but using Custom Palettes can greatly speed up your work flow and, in addition, allow you to have much more room on your Painter screen.

Custom Palettes can be configured horizontally or vertically, so to make it most efficient for you, it's possible to have your Custom Palette a long narrow vertical arrangement sitting on one side of your Painter screen... or, arrange it as a single row of icons and menu commands along the bottom or top of your Painter screen.

You can have several Custom Palettes set up to use as needed.

Really, it'll be worth your time to try this method of working rather than fighting the fact that Painter is not Photoshop.

Download the Painter 8.1 patch and the updated CorelPainter8UserGuide.pdf at:

ftp://ftp.corel.com/pub/Painter/8.1/

There are instructions for creating and using Custom Palettes and though there are some errors in the instructions, you'll probably be able to figure things our pretty easily.

Good luck,

[fredflickstone]

Thank you Jin. I am trying to download it now. How do the Levels and Curve functions work in this program as compared to Photoshop? I dont getwhat I am looking for in them, and I usually take the artwork over to photoshop to do that stuff, then bring it back in painter to continue on with th art.

Thank you again for the update. I cant wait to try out this new menu system.

Ron

[Jin]

Hi,

I'm not a Photoshop expert, so can't give you a full/fair comparison from personal experience.

However, the concensus of opinion among both Painter and Photoshop users is that Photoshop is much better at color tweaking.

Just be sure to save your Painter file in RIFF format, checking the Uncompressed box when using Save As (not Save), both to lessen the chances of RIFF file corruption and to ensure that no Painter specific information is permanently lost when you save again in PSD format.

Saving in both formats (RIFF first, then PSD) will allow you to return to the Painter RIFF file with all Painter specific information intact, if you want to work on the image again.

Good luck,