There are definitely times when I feel that older is better. All applications give you help in their application. This version of Painter, however, has what very few applications have, --- and that is a useable Tutorial and a useable User Guide that is in printed form......useable meaning that it is written for the uninitiated wannabe graphic groupie. In addition to this, Painter 4 has included a Quick Reference Card which illustrates all the tools, and what the tools are used for. I counted the written Tutorial, written User Guide and graphically illustrated Quick Reference Card as blessings when I started to use Painter 4.

The tutorial, which gives you actual step by step lessons for using their Tracing Paper, Basic Painting, Image Retouching, Cloning, Painting with their Image Hose (which is THE most fun), Basic Mosaics, Working with Textures, and Working with Patterns. Even the most unknowledgeable "newbie" can following each and every lesson in this tutorial and have the finished product look like the artist intended.

The Guide gives you the Painter Overview, describing in great detail how you get started, how to use the tools palette; all the items in the palette drawers; the libraries, etc. Also described in great detail is how you can set up your own preferences, whether it be for cloning, floaters, shapes, plug-in, etc. In Painter Basics, you learn how to create a new document, image size information, navigating the document, undoing operations, scanning and acquiring. In Chapter 3, is where you start to actually paint, and it is here that you learn how to select different brushes and their variants, and using texture and colors. You learn about opacity and grain and brush size. In the brush area, there are so many variants, such as liquid, water color, airbrush, pencils, chalk, charcoal, felt pens, crayons, and many more. There is such an enormous amount of variety that one is hard pressed to make a choice.

The advanced painting chapter teaches you about brush control They offer an entire spacing palette, teaching you about spacing and stroke types. The Bristle Palette addresses thickness, clumpiness and scale/size. The Rake Palette clues you in about contact angle, brush scale, how to soften the bristle edge.

One of their chapters consists solely of applying art materials, working with the color palette, using color sets, using paper textures, and how to select textures, using gradations of color and patterns. One of the most interesting areas was in Shapes, and how to create shapes using the shaping tools. Editing shapes and learning how to adjust curvature is only one of the many features of this particular area.

In their chapter on masking you learn how to create selections; converting a shape, and manipulating selections. They have entire areas devoted especially to image floaters and how they special effect, same with floaters, and cloning and tracing. There are so many variations that it is impossible to become bored with this application.

The one area that I had the most fun with was "The Image Hose" which allows you to ‘spray’ on various images with a nozzle, paint them in many colors, shape them, and even create a nozzle from a movie or from a group of floaters.

Another fun area is Mosaics. In here, you can apply and remove tiles, apply color to the tiles, color the grout, etc. You can start with almost any picture, click on Canvas/ Mosaic, and work away to your hearts content.

One can only think of Painter as a studio where artists keep all the tools they use in their work. They have oils, pastels, different brushes, inks, papers, and canvas. As an artist progresses, they may purchase new tools and employ different techniques in their artwork. You will find that as you progress in this application, it will be no different because you become the artist - in this electronic studio.