Flare - Photo Editor 26.8 for Windows is out. Copies from this site offer it through Help › Check for Updates…, and the Windows page has the new installer and ZIPs. This release brings one big new thing: real watercolor painting.
Four watercolor tools
- Watercolor Brush lays down pigment and water that spread, blend and settle into the grain of the paper, with dark edges where the wash dries, like a real watercolor.
- Water wets the paper and moves the paint that is already there; Ink Pen draws fine ink lines; Lift takes pigment back off the paper to lighten a wash.
- The four tools share a new cell in the Tools palette, right after the painting tools; the Airbrush now sits in the Brush flyout.
- Pen pressure and tilt shape every stroke; with a mouse, pressure is simulated.
Paint first, then decide
- The painting lives on the canvas while you work: keep adding strokes, switch between the four tools, and Undo and Redo step through your strokes.
- Press ✓ (or Enter) to keep it as a new Watercolor layer above the active one, ✕ (or Esc) to throw it away, or Dry to fix the pigment before the next wash. The same commands are in the Edit menu.
- The options bar keeps it simple: tip, size, water, pigment and flow, with the rest under More and the colors under Pigments.
The Waterbrush palette
- Window › Waterbrush shows the tips as live previews, the papers, the pigments and the controls for water, flow, opacity and blending, each with its own pressure, speed or angle dynamics.
- Save your favorite settings as Wet Brushes and apply them with one click; rename, duplicate or delete them with a right-click.
- Right-click the canvas with a watercolor tool to open the palette right next to the pointer.
Fast on your graphics card
- The watercolor simulation runs on a GPU-accelerated watercolor engine, so the paint keeps flowing smoothly even on large photos.
- On PCs where the graphics card cannot run it, the tools still work on the processor.
Keep the reports coming through Help › Send Feedback… or on Discord.