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  • Setting Preferences

  • General Preferences

  • Brush Tracking Preferences

  • Customize Keys Preferences

  • Undo Preferences

  • Shape Preferences

  • Internet Preferences

  • Save Preferences

  • Operating System Preferences (Windows)

  • Palettes

  • Using Two Monitors

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    Setting Preferences

    Corel Painter has several different preference dialog boxes: General, Brush Tracking, Customize Keys, Undo, Shapes, Internet, Save, Operating System, and Palettes.

    General Preferences

    To access General preferences
    Tip
    Cursor Setup

    Corel Painter gives you several choices for the appearance of your cursor.

    When you use a brush with "Enable Brush Ghosting" enabled, the cursor shows the shape of the brush.

    Setting the Default Libraries

    Corel Painter provides standard libraries that contain brushes, paper grains, selections, layers, and color sets. The Libraries section of the General Preferences dialog box lets you designate which libraries appear by default.

    To set default libraries
    Note
    Auto-Save Scripts

    When you create an image, Corel Painter records all the operations you perform. This recording is known as a background script and is saved on the Scripts palette.

    The Auto-Save Scripts preference governs how long Corel Painter saves background scripts before deleting them. In the text field, enter the number of days for which you want Corel Painter to save background scripts.

    For more information about creating and using scripts, refer to "Scripting".

    Brush Size Increment

    The Brush Size Increment preference lets you set the increment value in pixels.

    Magnifier Increment

    The Magnifier Increment preference lets you set the percentage of magnification the magnifier will increment by.

    Temp File Volume

    Choosing the temp file volume selects the disk volume that Corel Painter will put its temporary file on and use to access virtual memory. Choose the volume name (Mac OS) or letter (Windows) from the Temp File Volume pop-up menu.

    Units

    The Units preference lets you choose units of measurement used by the application's various sliders and other measurement options.

    Cloning Preference

    When you clone an image, Corel Painter uses the color information from the original as you fill in your clone. If you would like Corel Painter to display what part of the original you're cloning, check the box next to Indicate Clone Source With Crosshairs While Cloning.

    Draw Zoomed-out Views Using Area-Averaging

    When looking at an image at under 100% magnification, screen draw is faster if you leave this option unchecked, and slower but more accurate if checked.

    Display Warning When Drawing Outside Selection

    Checking this box enables the warning that appears when you draw outside a selection.

    Show Commit Dialog When Converting to a Layer

    Enable this checkbox if you want to reinstate the Commit dialog after you have selected the Don't Ask Again button in the Commit dialog.

    Brush Tracking Preferences

    When you draw with traditional media, the amount of pressure you use with a tool determines how dense and how wide your strokes are. Using a pressure-sensitive stylus with Corel Painter gives you this same kind of control. Each artist has a different strength or pressure level in a stroke. The Brush Tracking preference lets you adjust Corel Painter to match your stroke strength. This is particularly useful for artists with a light touch. If a light stroke leaves no color on the Canvas, you should use Brush Tracking to increase sensitivity.

    You might also change brush tracking between phases of a project. You could use a light touch when sketching with a pencil brush variant, then set tracking for more pressure when you switch to an oil paint variant.

    Corel Painter saves Brush Tracking between sessions, so whatever tracking sensitivity you set will be the default next time you open the application.

    To set Brush Tracking
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Drag in the scratch pad in a "normal" stroke.

      2. Use the pressure and speed you prefer when drawing or painting. For specific adjustments, you can move the sliders.

    Customize Keys Preferences

    Corel Painter lets you assign commands to your keyboard function keys (the F-keys). This saves you time by giving you immediate keyboard access to your favorite commands. Using the Shift key with the function keys lets you double the number of commands you can use.

    To assign commands to function keys
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Choose the function key you want to use from the menu.
    2. If you want to use the Shift key in combination, enable the Shift checkbox.

      3. Current Function shows the command now assigned to this key.

    3. Choose the command you want, either from a main menu or a palette menu.

      4. New Function shows the command you've chosen.

    4. Click Set to assign this command to the selected key.
    5. Repeat steps two through six for each key you want to set.
    6. When you're finished, click OK.
    Tip

    Undo Preferences

    Multiple Undo allows you to undo and redo up to 32 levels of changes. Corel Painter sets 32 levels as the default.

    Undo levels apply across open documents. With five levels set, if you have two documents open and you have "undone" three operations on the first document, you can undo only two operations on the second document.

    Multiple Undo can use a significant amount of disk space. If you perform multiple operations on the entire image, the whole image must be saved for each undo step.

    To set undo levels
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Enter a number between 1 and 32 in the box.

    Shape Preferences

    You can set the default fill and stroke in the Shape Preferences dialog box. These settings apply to new shapes you create.

    If you enable Big Handles, the Bézier curve control handles will appear larger. You may find it easier to work with them in the larger size.

    You can also specify colors for the wing color, point color, and outline color.

    To change shape preferences
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Select your preferences from the following options:

    Internet Preferences

    Corel Painter works closely with your Internet browser to help you take advantage of resources on the Internet. Whether you use Netscape Navigator, Microsoft® Internet Explorer, or another browser, you can launch your browser from within Corel Painter.

    The browser will take you directly to the URL specified in the Internet Preferences dialog box. This streamlines your access to program help, technical support, additional art materials, and libraries.

    The level of memory in your system can limit your ability to run Corel Painter and your browser application at the same time. For more information, refer to "Physical Memory Usage".

    The Corel Painter installer should be able to locate and link to your browser automatically. In some cases, though, you will need to manually select the browser. For example, you'd need to do this if you have more than one browser.

    To change the default URL
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Type a new URL in the Default Library Browsing URL field.

    Save Preferences

    You can set color space prompt preferences automatically when saving files, so that you do not need to choose a color space every time you save.

    For Mac OS only, Corel Painter allows you to select file extension preferences.

    To set color space prompt preferences
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Choose one of the following options from the TIFF and PSD pop-up menus:
    To set file extension preferences (Mac OS)
    1. Choose Corel Painter 8 menu > Preferences > Save.
    2. Choose one of the following options from the Append pop-up menu:

    Operating System Preferences (Windows)

    Computers running Windows have some additional options.

    To access Operating System preferences
    Configuring Your Browser to Recognize Software Resources

    Your browser must be set to recognize Corel Painter files and instructed what to do with them.

    This is something you'll do in your browser. Consult your browser documentation for more information.

    Physical Memory Usage

    For best performance, choose Maximum Memory for Painter on the Operating System Preferences page, and run Corel Painter with no other programs running in the background. Choosing Half Memory for Painter on the Operating System Preferences page allows Corel Painter to run more efficiently while other Windows applications are running.

    Printing Options

    Free Memory for Printing will increase printing speed by writing the active image to disk, increasing the amount of memory available for the print manager and the printer driver.

    No Print Banding disables print banding for devices that support it. Disabling print banding can help some PostScript printers, but will hurt the performance of some bitmap printers, such as the Hewlett-Packard® DeskJet® printers. Most dot matrix printers will be faster with No Print Banding left unchecked. If you experience problems printing in landscape orientation, you may have to turn off banding by checking the option button in the dialog box.

    Display Options

    If your video display driver is set to 16-bit colors, you can experience some color irregularities on your screen when using Corel Painter. Checking the No Device Dependent Bitmaps option will correct this problem with most 16-bit color video displays. If you are not using 16-bit colors, this checkbox will have no effect on your system.

    Palettes

    Palettes have been redesigned for Corel Painter, allowing you to have more control over snapping and grouping them.

    To change palette behavior
    1. Do one of the following:
    1. Choose your preferences from the following options:

    Using Two Monitors

    The Corel Painter user interface can be displayed across two or more monitors. You can drag any of the Corel Painter palettes, the property bar, and the toolbox to any monitor; however, each palette must be displayed entirely on one monitor at a time.

    If a palette straddles two monitors, it will automatically snap to the nearest vertical edge of the monitor with the largest portion of the palette. If the palette is displayed equally on both monitors, it will snap to the vertical edge of the left monitor.

    For best performance, make sure both monitors are set to the same resolution. In Windows, you must stretch the application window to straddle both monitors, then redesign your workspace.

    For information on configuring your system to display across two or more monitors, refer to your operating system documentation.

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