Interested in digital art? Enjoy all the versatility of Painter® Essentials™ 8, the fun and uncomplicated painting software for beginners that will inspire you to experiment and fall in love with digital painting.
Check out our Quick Start Guide to get started
Quick Start GuideFrom traditional to uniquely Painter, every brush in Essentials was custom selected for new digital artists from our professional Painter art studio.
Take a look at what other artists are creating with Painter Essentials.
"Isabelle started creating art from her kitchen table at the young age of four. This culmination of time and passion has helped her become a worldwide recognized artist."
- Isabelle Staub
"Painter Essentials is an absolute steal. It was the only program I used for the first 3 years of my career as a freelance illustrator."
- Brandon McDonald
Sketch, draw, render and paint whatever you dream up or are inspired by.
Create your first paintingProduce incredible photo art with ease using AI, Auto-Painting and cloning tools.
Bring Your Photos to LifeLaunch the new Drawing and Painting Layout from the Welcome Screen to set up the UI with optimal tools for creating from scratch. Begin your painting by experimenting with 23 new brushes and many with enhanced smoothing for buttery strokes that react to stylus tilt and bearing. Watch video
AI Auto-painting presets have added powerful new algorithms to provide richer, more natural looking results for portraits, still life and landscape type paintings from imagery. Choose from 10 new AI Styles to experience auto-painting with stunning artistic results. Watch video
Choose to create a landscape or portrait-oriented document right from the New Image dialog. While working with layers, the improved contextual menus, information dialogs, layer adjuster options and easy access to commands will greatly improve ease of use. Watch video
Feature |
Painter®
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Painter®
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Painter®
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Photo Art Specific Tools |
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NEW Artificial intelligence presets | 10 new presets | 8 presets | |
NEW Artificial intelligence presets powered with Apple Vision Framework technology (Mac only) | 10 new presets | ||
NEW Photo painting brushes | 9 new brushes | ||
Auto-Painting | |||
Tracing & cloning | |||
User Interface & Tools |
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NEW Drawing & Painting layout | |||
NEW Color Harmonies | |||
NEW Color Sets | 3 new sets | ||
ENHANCED Image Dialog Box | |||
ENHANCED Brush Library | |||
ENHANCED Layers workflow | |||
ENHANCED Layer Adjuster tool | |||
Dark User Interface | |||
Improved Application icons | |||
Inline dab and stroke previews | |||
Drag to zoom | |||
Workflow UI layouts | |||
Color mixer panel | |||
Color wheel | |||
Mirror painting | |||
Kaleidoscope painting | |||
Eraser tool | |||
Fill tool | |||
Crop tool | |||
Selection tools | |||
Transformation tool | |||
Text tool | |||
Effects menu | |||
Rubber Stamp | |||
Dodge | |||
Burn | |||
Performance/Support |
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NEW Apple Big Sur support | |||
NEW Apple M1 support | |||
NEW Apple Sidecar support | |||
NEW Apple Pencil Tilt support | |||
NEW Apple Touchbar support | |||
NEW Apple Trackpad support | |||
NEW Apple Core ML support | |||
ENHANCED Performance for Sargent brushes | Up to 4X faster | ||
Multi-Core support | |||
Tablet support | |||
Wacom multi-touch support | |||
Windows touch support | |||
RTS support | |||
Pressure sensitive brush tracking | |||
Unlimited layers | |||
Layout switch for 2-in-1 devices | |||
64-bit Mac and Windows | |||
Built-in learning resources | |||
Brushes |
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NEW Auto-Painting and Touch-up | 9 new brushes | ||
Dynamic Speckles | |||
Glazing brushes | 2 new brushes | ||
Dab Stencils | |||
Blenders | |||
Digital Watercolor | |||
Image Hose | |||
Artists Favorites | |||
Acrylics & Oils | |||
Airbrushes | |||
Chalk, Pastel & Crayons | 1 new brush | ||
F-X brushes | |||
Sponges | 1 new brush | ||
Pens | 4 new brushes | ||
Pencils | 4 new brushes | ||
Markers & Inking Tools | 1 new brush | ||
Photo Painting General | |||
Particles | 1 new brush | ||
Pattern Pens | |||
Content |
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NEW Patterns | 5 new patterns | ||
Flow Maps | |||
Paper textures |
Feature |
Painter® 2023 |
Painter® Essentials™ 8 |
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Key features |
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Built-in collection of brushes | 1000+ | 150+ |
NEW Fluid Paint | ||
Real Watercolors | ||
Thick Paint | ||
Create and customize brushes | ||
Customize your workspace | ||
Import & Export your own brushes, papers, textures etc. | ||
Advanced photo painting | ||
Advanced editing tools | ||
GPU acceleration for brushes | ||
Brush Types |
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Fluid : Build and Sculpt brushes | ||
Fluid : Paint and Blend brushes | ||
Real Watercolor | ||
Pigment Watercolor | ||
Brushes compatible with Watercolors | ||
Thick Paint | ||
Brushes compatible with Thick Paint | ||
Watercolor Sumi-E | ||
Oils | ||
Gouache | ||
Erasers | ||
Stamps | ||
Impasto | ||
Palette Knives | ||
Selection Brushes | ||
Color Selection brushes | ||
Sargent | ||
Liquify | ||
Liquid Ink | ||
Cloners | ||
Texture brushes | ||
Acrylics | ||
Airbrushes | ||
Artist Favorites | ||
Auto-Painting & Photo-Painting brushes | ||
Blenders | ||
Chalks, Pastels, Crayons | ||
Dab Stencils | ||
Dynamic Speckles | ||
Digital / Fringe Watercolor | ||
F-X | ||
Glazing brushes | ||
Image Hose | ||
Markers | ||
Particle Brushes | ||
Pattern Pens | ||
Pens, Pencils | ||
Sponges | ||
Photo Art Specific Tools |
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Artificial Intelligence Styles | 12 styles with customization |
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Artificial Intelligence Presets | unlimited |
10 presets |
Clone Tinting | ||
Cloning with texture | ||
Multiple clone sources | ||
Resize clone sources | ||
Auto-Painting with SmartStroke™ technology | ||
Photo Painting panel | ||
Rubber Stamp | ||
Dodge | ||
Burn | ||
User Interface & Tools |
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Paint Opacity controls | ||
Color Selection control for Selection brushes | ||
Overlay mode for selections | ||
Selection overlay presets | ||
Selection Opacity Threshold for Marquee and Overlay | ||
Captured dab library | ||
Dab Effects | ||
Brush size library | ||
Brush favorites & filters | ||
Grayscale in the Navigator | ||
Clear layer content with Delete | ||
Lock, Move and Covert multiple layers | ||
Color Dodge blend mode | ||
Color Burn blend mode | ||
Photo art quick palette | ||
Interactive gradient tool | ||
Color ramps in sliders | ||
Brush customization | ||
Customizable user interface | ||
Perspective guides | ||
Texture painting | ||
Reference Image | ||
Customized artist layouts | 9 layouts |
4 layouts |
Color Sets | unlimited |
4 color sets |
Color Harmonies | 5 harmonies |
3 harmonies |
Shape & Shape Editing tools | ||
Image Navigator | ||
Selection tools | ||
Text tools | ||
Eraser | customization options |
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Mirror painting | ||
Kaleidoscope painting | ||
Crop tool | ||
Effects menu | ||
Drag to zoom | ||
Fill tool | ||
Color wheel | ||
Transform tool | ||
Performance/Support |
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Brush Accelerator™ | ||
GPU acceleration for enhanced cover methods | ||
GPU acceleration for stamp brushes | ||
Brush search engine | ||
Apple Sidecar support | ||
Apple Pencil support | ||
Apple Touch Bar support | ||
Apple Trackpad support | ||
Apple Core ML support | ||
Wacom multi-touch support | ||
Windows touch support | ||
Pressure sensitive brush tracking | ||
Unlimited layers | ||
Multi-Core support | ||
Tablet support | ||
Layout switch for 2-in-1 devices | ||
64-Bit Mac and Windows | ||
Built-in learning resources | ||
Compatible with Photoshop | ||
Content |
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Captured Dabs | ||
Textures | ||
Selections | ||
Weaves | ||
Gradients | ||
Images | ||
Looks | ||
Nozzles | ||
Papers | 75+ | 32 |
Patterns | 35+ | 35 |
Flow Maps | 25+ | 14 |
* Versions 1909 and later of Windows 10 are supported as well as versions that will be released during the life cycle of Painter Essentials 8.
** Additional space may be required for Microsoft .NET Framework 4.7
Find inspiration in our online gallery, featuring a diverse collection of artwork from Essentials artists from around the world.