Using Paper Texture

In the real world, a marking tool has different results when applied to surfaces with different textures. Corel Painter allows you to control the texture of the canvas to achieve the results you'd expect from Natural-Media on a given surface-pencil on Water Color paper, felt pens on cotton paper, chalk on the sidewalk, and so on.

Of course, some brushes, like the Airbrush, don't reveal paper texture in their strokes. This follows the behavior of the natural tool.

Most of the brushes interact with the current paper texture.

Paper textures are useful in many ways. The brushes interact with paper "grain," just as natural tools react with the texture of the surfaces beneath them. Paper grains are useful in applying Surface Texture and other Effects, like Glass Distortion. You can select different paper textures, modify them, organize them in libraries, and even create your own custom textures.

In Corel Painter, brushes that react with paper texture have a "grainy method." For more information about brush methods, refer to "Methods and Subcategories".

• The terms "paper grain" and "paper texture" are used here synonymously.

Adjusting the Grain

When you choose a brush that interacts with paper grain, you see the results with each stroke. When you find a brush and paper combination that you really like, you can save it as a Look.

If you have a stylus and tablet, you can adjust paper grain by changing the stroke of the stylus on a pressure-sensitive tablet. In most cases, a light stroke colors only the peaks and ridges of the grain. A heavy stroke fills color deep into the pockets and valleys. You can also affect paper grain by using the Grain settings on the Stroke Designer tab of the Brush Creator.

When you want paper grain to appear uniformly across an image, create your artwork first and then apply the grain as a surface texture. If you apply paper texture when you create an image, the texture is erasable.

With erasable texture, you won't be able to erase brush strokes without erasing paper texture at the same time. You'll find that adding paper texture as the last step, not the first step, in developing your image often works best.

To save a Look

1. In the toolbox, click the Rectangular Selection tool .
2. Drag in the image to make a selection of the look you want to save.
3. In the toolbox, open the Look selector and click the selector menu arrow.
4. Choose New Look.
5. In the New Look dialog box, type a name in the Save As box.

Choosing Paper Textures

The Papers palette is where all paper textures are stored. In addition to using it to select papers, you can use this palette to invert, resize, or randomize paper grain; control brightness and contrast; or to open other paper libraries. For more information on working with libraries, refer to "Loading Alternate Libraries".

The Paper selector on the Papers palette.

To choose a paper texture

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers to display the Papers palette.

If the Papers palette is not expanded, click the palette arrow.

2. Click the Paper selector arrow to display the available paper textures.
3. Choose a paper texture from the Paper selector.

The Papers palette shows the dimensions of the selected paper (in pixels). Corel Painter tiles the paper to cover as much canvas as needed.

• You can also choose a paper texture from the Paper selector in the toolbox.
• Corel Painter uses the currently selected texture, so you can make a few strokes, then change the paper and make a few more strokes with different results.

Inverting and Scaling Paper Textures

You can think of paper texture as a three-dimensional landscape. Usually, brushes react to paper texture by coloring peaks and ignoring valleys. Enabling the Invert Paper option makes color fill the valleys, instead of the peaks.

You can adjust the paper texture scale to resize the paper texture. Scaling paper grain affects how the grain appears in brush strokes and images.

To invert paper grain

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers.
2. On the Papers palette, do one of the following:

• Click the palette menu arrow, and choose Invert Paper.
• Click the Invert Paper button .

• You can also use the Paper selector in the toolbox to invert paper grain. Click the Paper selector, click the selector menu arrow, and choose Invert Paper.

Two brush strokes overlapping. The green one was painted with the grain inverted.

To change paper texture scale

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers.
2. On the Papers palette, use the Paper Scale slider to resize the paper grain.

As you move the slider, the texture preview updates to display the new grain size. You can scale texture down to 25% or up to 400%.

• Scaling large textures can use a great deal of RAM. Most textures in Corel Painter are from 50 to 400 pixels square at 100% scaling.

Brush strokes on paper grains with different scale values.

Randomizing Paper Grain

Normally, paper grain is fixed, which means the texture is in the same position each time you apply a brush stroke. You can change this when you want grain to be applied randomly.

To randomize paper grain

1. Choose Window menu > Show Brush Creator.
2. Click the Stroke Designer tab, and choose Random.
3. Enable the Random Brush Stroke Grain option.

Controlling Paper Texture Brightness and Contrast

Brightness can be thought of as controlling the depth of the paper grain. Paper that is less bright acts as if the grain is shallow.

Contrast can be thought of as controlling the steepness of the paper grain. The grain in higher contrast paper goes from high to low more quickly and with fewer intermediate levels.

To change paper texture brightness

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers.
2. Adjust the Paper Brightness slider to modify the brightness of the grain.

To change paper texture contrast

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers.
2. On the Papers palette, use the Paper Contrast slider to modify the contrast of the grain.

Creating Paper Textures

The Make Paper command lets you make your own paper textures.

To create a paper texture

1. Choose Window menu > Show Papers.
2. On the Papers palette, click the palette menu arrow and choose Make Paper.
3. In the Make Paper dialog box, choose a pattern from the Pattern pop-up menu to use as the basis of your paper texture.
4. Adjust the Spacing slider.

Moving the Spacing slider to the right opens up space between rows and columns in the selected pattern.

5. Adjust the Angle slider.

Moving the Angle slider changes the direction in which the pattern's rows are lined up.

6. When you like the look of the texture, enter a name.

Your new texture appears as the last item in the Paper selector.

• You can also use the Paper selector in the toolbox to create paper. Click the Paper selector, click the selector menu arrow, and choose Make Paper.

The Make Paper dialog box allows you to create your own textures based on patterns in the Pattern pop-up menu.

Capturing Paper Textures

The Capture Paper command lets you turn a section of an image into a paper texture. Once you save textures, they are available from the Papers palette.

To capture paper texture

1. Open or create an image.
2. Select all or a piece of your source image.
3. On the Papers palette, click the palette menu arrow and choose Capture Paper.

If you want to blend the distinction between tile borders, move the Crossfade slider in the Save Paper dialog box to the right.

4. Type the name of your new texture.

Your texture now appears in the Paper selector and is added to the current library.

• You can also use the Paper selector in the toolbox to capture paper texture. Click the Paper selector, click the selector menu arrow, and choose Capture Paper.
• The Make Fractal Pattern feature creates excellent textures. Some weaves also produce good textures. For more information, see "Turning a Fractal Pattern into a Paper Texture".