Photo Painter – add cool paint effects plus filters & frames to your pictures!
by Paul Wilks
Dec 19, 2012 4:28 PM –
Install
Photo Painter is an innovative photo editing tool for Android devices. Now, while it seems like the Google Play Store is flooded with such apps, there is room for those which aren’t just a range of filters and frames. Photo Painter is a little different in that- in addition to predefined filters it provides an array of painting effects that can be used to create entirely new styles of pictures.
Price: Free or $1.99 for the full version
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Tested on: Nexus 4
Content Rating: Everyone
Pros & Cons:
Pros
- Simple user interface!
- Lots of nice filters and styles!
- Great painting effects!
- Finger drawing functionality!
Cons
- Not overly intuitive to use.
- UI perhaps lacks the polish of other applications.
- Pictures are fixed to display in portrait mode.
Features:
Photo Painter gives you the ability to add all manner of effects to your photos. This in itself isn’t particularly new, but it is able to essentially recreate your photo in a number of different painting styles. So if you have a selfie you’re proud of but want to make it look a little different, why not recreate it using any number of painting techniques. These include: Impressionism, Realism, Color point, Color wash, Pointillism, Expressionism, Color stroke and Linearism. These each give your photos an entirely new texture and usually look great. You have to tap the screen to initiate the painting effect and it gradually creates your photo in an entirely new style while you watch.
These painting styles can be combined with many of the usual picture filters we know and love, such as Sepia, Sketch, Cartoon and more. Furthermore, you can add vignetting, frames and there is even a free painting mode where you can use your finger to add brush flourishes. Once you created your masterpiece you can both save and share it to your social networks.
The app offers relatively novel functionality which sets it apart from many other applications. For this alone I think it’s worth trying out, although I did find that Photo Painter doesn’t feel particular intuitive to use. You kind of have to guess your way around the app to make it work. While experimenting in this way is a good thing, if you want to create and share something quickly, this might put you off. It’s certainly a fun app to use but it perhaps could use better instructions and tutorials to show you how to use the app initially.
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Photo Painter – Menu
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Photo Painter – Awesome painted effects
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Photo Painter – Basic filters to combine
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Photo Painter – Filter selection
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Photo Painter – Available styles
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Photo Painter – Frame adjustment and vignetting
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Photo Painter – Choose paint colour
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Photo Painter – Free painting. Clearly I wasn’t actually trying very hard in this screenshot
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Photo Painter – Large tabs at the bottom of the screen
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Photo Painter – Easy to save and share
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Photo Painter – Photo painting creation (1)
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Photo Painter – Photo painting creation (2)
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Photo Painter – Photo painting creation (3)
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Photo Painter – Photo painting creation (4)
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Photo Painter – There are tutorials to begin with, but there perhaps needs to be more or a help section
Usefulness:
I always like seeing new photo editing apps in the Google Play Store and Photo Painter is great addition to this category. The painting effects looks pretty cool and it makes a change from the simplistic ‘add filter + frame’ type apps. However, I do think you need to spend a little time getting used to the functionality.
Ease of Use:
This is where the app perhaps falls a little behind compared to other photo editors. It offers some neat functionality, but it can feel a little counter-intuitive to use. I think it’s worth playing around with, but if you lack patience- or have perhaps been a little spoilt by the rash of new editors recently- you might not get on with Photo Painter.
Frequently Used:
This will wholly depend on the user and how often you like to tweak photos. For me I’m unsure this would be my primary photo editor, but it’s definitely a ‘nice to have’ app for when a picture calls for something different and unique.
Interface:
The interface is fine, but not as slick as other applications like Pixlr-o-matic and PicShop Photo Editor. Certainly for the paid for version I’d expect a little better.