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    Overview
    ProductRatingMost Used ByProduct SummaryStarting Price

    Painter

    Score9.9 out of 10
    N/APainter is a digital art and painting application, from Corel Corporation.N/A

    QuarkXPress

    Score9 out of 10
    N/AQuarkXPress from Quark Software headquartered in Denver introduces modern responsive web design with Flex Layouts, reimagined Tables, and productivity-boosting design features.

    $279

    per year

    Pricing
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Editions & Modules
    No answers on this topic
    QuarkXPress Subscription License
    $279
    per year
    QuarkXPress Perpetual License
    $629
    one-time fee
    Offerings
    Pricing Offerings
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Free Trial
    NoYes
    Free/Freemium Version
    NoNo
    Premium Consulting/Integration Services
    NoNo
    Entry-level Setup FeeNo setup feeOptional
    Additional Details——
    More Pricing Information
    Community Pulse
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Considered Both Products
    Corel Corporation
    No answer on this topic
    Quark Software Inc.
    No answer on this topic
    Key User Insights
    Would buy again
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Would buy again
    6 Answers
    Delivers good value for the price
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Delivers good value for the price
    6 Answers
    Happy with the feature set
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Happy with the feature set
    6 Answers
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Lived up to sales and marketing promises
    5 Answers
    Implementation went as expected
    No answers on this topic
    100%
    Implementation went as expected
    5 Answers
    Best Alternatives
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Small Businesses
    GIMP
    Score8 out of 10
    GIMP
    Score8 out of 10
    Medium-sized Companies
    Adobe Illustrator
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Adobe Illustrator
    Score9.4 out of 10
    Enterprises
    Adobe PhotoShop
    Score9.2 out of 10
    Adobe PhotoShop
    Score9.2 out of 10
    All AlternativesView all alternativesView all alternatives
    User Ratings
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Likelihood to Recommend
    7.0
    (2 ratings)
    9.9
    (6 ratings)
    Usability
    1.0
    (1 ratings)
    10.0
    (1 ratings)
    Support Rating
    3.0
    (1 ratings)
    -
    (0 ratings)
    User Testimonials
    PainterQuarkXPress
    Likelihood to Recommend
    Corel Corporation
    Corel Painter does have a lot of great brushes, and they do emulate real art supplies very well. Especially the thick paint is well done. But unfortunately there are so many functional and UX bugs that overall it is just horrible to work with. When contacting customer support about it, they really seem clueless about the seriousness of the situation, and clueless about what proper UX is in general. They have tried to make it work a bit like Photoshop, which is a good move but then some things are absolutely not intuitive at all and they are definitely missing the mark horribly with so many issues. I would highly recommend using Photoshop instead, though you'll have to download them separately; it also offers a lot of great brushes nowadays and works much much smoother without all those aggravating bugs of Painter. The price of Corel Painter is just not at all worth all these horrible bugs.
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    I used QuarkXPress to maintain a proper page layout for the UI which I receive from a UIUX developer. I develop Graphic Illustrations on the digital canvas to create creative content on the page design set and to develop designer headlines and sub-headlines where writers and editors can amend the text and place the copped images.
    Read full review
    Pros
    Corel Corporation
    • Watercolor Compatible
    • Multiple variety of Brushes and shapes
    • Captured Dab Library
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    • Excellent project conversion into PDFs and digital formats.
    • Incredibly user friendly and intuitive to use.
    • Works seamlessly with our Adobe Suite of programs.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Cons
    Corel Corporation
    • Way too many functional bugs, makes it hard to work with
    • Bad UX and usability, too much unintuitive behavior, makes it particularly hard to work with
    • Overall looks and behaves as if it was coded in the '90s, it really needs a complete UX overhaul
    • Did I mention the many bugs yet? Yeah? I'll mention it again because it's bad
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    • Currently does not have a way to open really old archived QuarkXPress files.
    • Text manipulation could be expanded upon (ie be able to warp or distort text).
    • Be able to output files in InDesign format.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Usability
    Corel Corporation
    If it wasn't quite clear yet, I'll state it again: the usability of Corel Painter is, simply put, horrid. And I am not talking about rendering, lagging, etc., it is not even all that bad there. I am talking about the weird issues like being unable to move a brush into a custom brush palette when you work on a second screen, like being unable to move the software onto the second screen in the first place unless you separate all the palettes and the windows (and if nobody tells you upfront there is no way of knowing because the manual doesn't state this at all), and then having to drag all your separate windows and palettes over one by one every time your computer wakes up again, and they won't really want to move to the other screen but only through a tiny corner of your screen, and the fact that you have to scroll through lists and lists of fonts but can't search and when you apply this font, add another piece of text the font jumps back to the default font of all the text already applied even when you haven't selected any of the text. Just to name a very small few.
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    This is an industry standard. It is intuitive and pretty simple. I have been using it for 40 years and by no means do I use its potential, rather it does just what I want it to do.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Support Rating
    Corel Corporation
    It was really hard to get them to understand what I was having problems with. It was hard to get the message through that Painter has an unacceptable amount of functional and UX bugs. When I finally talked to someone who was easier to communicate with, he was very stoic about the situation, like they didn't really care about the awful amount of bugs.
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    No answers on this topic
    Alternatives Considered
    Corel Corporation
    Corel Painter has support to multiple OS and across all the devices. Coloring and multi layer imaging works very well. The new enhanced brush settings and the redesigned brush libraries.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    QuarkXPress simply blew the competition out of the water when it came to pricing and scalability in our business. Every employee that uses Quark always speaks very highly about using the software. We are not a large company but, the amount of money saved on the cost of each license was about 60% when compared to the competitors' products.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Return on Investment
    Corel Corporation
    • Customer support could be improved in my opinion.
    • Multiple bugs while working with layered designing.
    Incentivized
    Read full review
    Quark Software Inc.
    • On different computers, it does crash.
    • Issues with accidental (program) photo overrides.
    • Corrupted photo formats.
    Read full review
    ScreenShots

    QuarkXPress Screenshots

    Screenshot of QuarkXPress 2026 is compatible with the latest macOS® 26.x (Tahoe), macOS® 15.x (Sequoia), macOS® 14.x (Sonoma).Screenshot of the Welcome Screen in QuarkXPress 2026, which has had a fresh redesign. Here, users can create new projects, find ready-to-use project size presets, use customized workspaces and quickly access built-in tutorials and useful resources.Screenshot of where to adjust typography with Variable Fonts in QuarkXPress 2026 to enhance creative freedom. With a single font file, users can adjust font characteristics like weight, width, slant, and more with sliders.Screenshot of the Paste Into feature. Users can display content creatively by masking images or grouping items through placing them inside container shapes.Screenshot of built-in support for LaTeX and MathML, so that there's no need for external tools or plugins for advanced mathematical equations. This is ideal while working in STEM or Academia, as it enables quick and accurate editing of math equations across print and digital formats.