Corel has announced Painter X, which boosts performance, and adds new composition tools and the RealBristle painting system that provides an organic painting and illustration experience – right down to the individual bristles on the brush. It's the first version to be released as a Universal Binary for Intel- and PowerPC-based Macs, and is officially compatible with Windows Vista (as well as Windows XP).

RealBristle brushes faithfully replicate traditional art media with individual bristles that blend and splay, as in the traditional world. Artists can experience the sensation of the interaction between the paint, canvas and brush like never before.

The new Composition Tools includes the Divine Proportion tool, which provides guidelines that follow the Divine Proportion (also known as the Golden Ratio) to enable artists to compose their images like traditional painters. The new Layout Grid composition tool provides guidelines that follow photography’s Rule of Thirds, but can be customized to other desired grid patterns.

border=0 /><p>Image by Andrew Jones </p></div> </p> <p> Building on the strength of the Photo-Painting Palettes in Corel Painter IX.5, new enhancements provide users with more control and intelligence throughout the photopainting process. Additions to the Underpainting Palette include colour schemes based on various media styles, such as Impressionist, Classical, Modern, Watercolor, Sketchbook and Chalk Drawing. Users can now also choose a colour scheme that matches the colors of any open image </p> <p> The Auto-Painting palette has been updated with the introduction of the new Smart Stroke Painting option which applies brush strokes that follow the forms of the original photo. Smart Stroke Painting changes brush size, stroke length and pressure based on the detail and focal areas of the original image. </p> <p> <div class=floatedimage><img src=Learning Corel Painter X with Jeremy Sutton DVD-ROM, the Corel Painter X collectors’ poster and the Corel Painter X Composition tool.