ArtRage Painting - the real paint of digital art

1. I am not affiliated with Ambient Design, nor is this an offical page.

2. The art linked on this page belongs to the respective artists. It may be free to take, but most of it will not be. You check with the artist first.
(For some free wallpapers check out my Places to find me lens).

The art actually on this page is all mine. If you wish to use it for something *ask first* - I do not allow commercial use, but will probably be happy other things.

3. Reading this page signifies agreement and acceptance with my status as ruler of the world. I will expect your tribute after the beep.

4. I DO accept bribery and other monetary expressions of appreciation


(If you have a writeup - on a specific area, to avoid duplication - I'd be interested in adding it, with a link back to you. Feel free to contact me on here, or DeviantART
What I need:

I intend to add to this page and the other with more reviews and tutorials about ArtRage.

Comparisons to Painter, Corel and ArtRage 2.2
Any walkthroughs on tools and techniques
Technical problems and solutions
Experiences with graphics tablets )

Future projects
Textures and shading tips
Layers and blend modes
Pallette knifes
Thick to thin paint, other tools

ArtRage 2.5 Starter Edition gives you 8 painting tools and lets you create, save, and print as many pictures as you like and doesn't limit their size. ArtRage 2.5 Full Edition contains four new paint tools, the ability to paint on multiple layers, metallic paint, stencils and rulers, and a long list of additional features.

ArtRage 2.5 Starter and Full Editions require the following system specifications:

Windows: Windows Vista, XP, 2k, or Tablet PC. 800mhz processor or faster, and 256 megabytes of RAM.
Macintosh: Macintosh OS X 10.3.9 or later. G4 processor or faster, and 256 megabytes of RAM.

Machines with lower specifications may work, try out the Starter Edition, you might be surprised!

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ArtRage Thumbnail Viewer for Windows:

The ArtRage Thumbnail Viewer is a shell extension for Windows XP (32 and 64 bit) and 2k that allows operating system folders set to thumbnail view to preview ArtRage 1 and 2 .ptg files. To use the viewer, just download the installer from the link below, run it, and the thumbnails will appear.

You WILL need this. It is tiny and easy to install - and the only way you'll be able to see your files as pictures. Trust me, scanning through dozens of files showing only the Logo symbol and with some random title attached that I threw on in order to save it is NOT conducive to finishing art

Deleted an important file, or bought a new computer, and ArtRage doesn't work? (...I've done this to myself at least three times now >.> ) Easy! Go find that important email/registration code again, download the full version again if there's something wrong with yours and start again.

NOTE! To download a new installer for your ArtRage software you need to register a user account in the Member's area

You can use your existing ArtRage license to download the Mac version using the Member Area. If you register an account and register your key, you can then select the download link for that key on the My Product page and you will get OSX as an option as well as Windows.

Lost the email? And that very important code? Well, it will either be in your profile, from when you registered in the Member's Area, or check Kagi's FAQ to find your order details.

The Deluxe Edition - and its registration - is handled by Smith Micro and/or the vendor you bought it from.

If it came as part of a Wacom graphics tablet package, the registration key should be printed on the back of the CD sleeve. Otherwise, contact Wacom ( and go to your local site )

If you're looking for a fun art program for kids, you can't really go wrong with ArtRage. You can simply use the Free Version or you can contact them to arrange for special bulk deals at artrageschools@artrage.com

In New Zealand
Ambient Design offers $1 (plus GST) per computer license for New Zealand Schools

Everywhere else
Varies with the complexity of arranging things, so you'll have to talk to them directly. But they DO offer educational deals outside of NZ

(Photos - http://www.flickr.com/photos/30894945@N04/ / CC BY-SA 2.0 )

Above you will see a screenshot of an artwork in progress (the original is found here on my DeviantART)

This is a brief summary - each tool can be played with straight away or be used with many tweakings and techniques.

Description
The panel on the left shows the options for my current tool, the red thing under it is a stencil that I forgot to get rid of (now white in the latest update).
The tools are shown in the bottom left [in order from the top left and working inwards: paintbrush, pencil, palette knife, airbrush/ pastel, glitter, roller, tube/colour picker, pen, chalk, eraser/ scale for the current tool]
- the current one is a soft palette knife, for blending. I use this a lot. It's very good for mixing paint up, and smoothing it out.

The backdrop is black, because I find it easier to see what I'm doing - changing the background colour often helps changing the impression and letting me spot problems.
To change the background colour: hold down [Alt] and click the desired hue on the colour wheel.

The bar at the top is the 'main' menu; import, export, move the whole picture around and so forth.
The one at the bottom is for adding things (like tracing images and stencils) and manipulating the image or layer.

Right hand corner is obviously the colours - the bar at the bottom lets me choose how metallic the paint is, and you can make custom colour sets if you wish (I generally don't bother).

Going up on the right hand side, the layers panels - one of my favourite parts of the full version, and recently improved so that you can name them and move them around.

All the little menus disappear if move the paintbrush under them, or 'permanently' if you click on the green tab.

Navigation while working
If you look under the green tab, you will see a cross with arrows on the end of each arm, a magnifying glass symbol, and a circle-arrow (You may have to trust me a bit on this). For more detail scroll down to the ArtRage Navigation module

Basic zoom, rotate and drag
There are two options - the mouse, and the three faded grey buttons on the centre-bottom bar.

Dragging across the screen:
Holding the left mouse button down lets you drag the canvas around (this is surprisingly intuitive - to the point where I keep trying to do this while browsing or using other programs!)
Otherwise, you can select the cross-symbol, (pointing to the four directions)
- click and hold; and drag up, down, left and right. But not all at once.
Hotkey: [?]

Scroll button - does the obvious, of zooming in and out. Alternatively, you can use the magnifying glass - click and hold; and drag left or right to zoom in or out.
Hotkey: [Z]

Rotate the canvas -
If there's a mouse trick to this, I don't know what it is. However, the rotate-arrow button works just fine, in a similar fashion to the previous two.
Hotkey: [R]

Hotkeys: Flipping
To quick-flip the canvas horizontally (to see the mirror image) hold down [H]

To quick-flip the canvas vertically (to see the image upside down) hold down [V]
If you flip using H or V while shrinking/rotating/moving a layer it will stay flipped.
You cannot flip an imported (trace or reference) image.

Why flip and rotate?
It is the computer version of holding your paper up to a mirror or looking at it from behind while holding it against the light - it gives a fresh perspective and shows up a lot of the slants and errors that can creep in.

Getting A Better View
All the tool boxes and little screens getting in your way? You have three ways around this.

The first, temporarily is to paint under one - the box pulls out of the way while you are painting. (The problem with this is as soon as you stop holding down the mouse button, or take the pen off the tablet - the box pops out again.)

Secondly, you can manually send all the boxes out of sight. If you click on the little green tab, that box will stay tucked away, until you click it out again. To quickly pull ALL the boxes at once off the screen you can use the Hotkey: [I]

Thirdly, press [ENTER] or Left Click. This completely clears the screen of anything but your cursor and the canvas (not even the green tabs are visible). To get out of this and change any tools, you have to press [ENTER] or left Click again.

More Shortcuts
Right click fullscreen and other random AR2 shortcuts
Some more shortcuts are listed and discussed in this thread.

Saving ArtRage Pictures
The native file format for ArtRage pictures is the .PTG file type. You can only save and 'open' pictures in this format. To view thumbnail images, you will need to download the Thumbnail Viewer.

However, ArtRage will export and import JPEG, PNG, GIF, TIFF, PSD and BMP files.

Exporting Pictures
If you wish to create a backup, edit your image in another program, or upload it online, you have to export your picture into a different format. This option is found halfway down the 'File' menu.
Hotkey: [Ctrl] + [E]

About The File Types
Photoshop PSD
*.psd

Drawbacks
This filetype wll not work with many common programs, (it will work with GIMP and - obviously - Photoshop).
The filesize is HUGE. Tip: merge all your layers before exporting

Advantages
It will preserve all your layers, if you wish to keep them (and work on them in another program).
I suspect the quality is better.
Supports transparency.
This is the only file type that will preserve your higher DPI settings (this is a bug in ArtRage).

Best for storage and editing.
TIP:You can export as a PSD and then resave it as a PNG or JPEG.

Portable Network Graphics PNG
*.png
Raster format
*approved replacement for GIF

Drawbacks
This file size is quite large - smaller than PSD files, but not good for uploading, unless you are creating print files.
Does NOT preserve DPI (300 ptg will become 96 png)

Advantages
Good quality, especially for lots of colours. Doesn't degrade with repeated saves. Good for exporting and using as a good quality file to create other files with.
Supports transparency.

Joint Photographic Experts Group JPEG
*.jpg, *.jpeg, *.jpe, *.jfif
Raster format

Drawbacks
Lower colour quality and the image degrades more with further editing. Also severely loses quality with repeated saves.
Again, loses DPI when exported - 300 DPI becomes 120 DPI.
Does not support transparency - any transparent pixels will become white.

Advantages
Small size, so good for uploading, good for text and crisp, limited colours (usually best for photographs).
Many sites will only accepts JPEGs and GIFs for avatars and banners.

Graphics Interchange Format GIF
*.gif
Raster format

Drawbacks
Limited number of colours (256), lower quality and does not preserve DPI. Very poor at handling detailed images.

Advantages
Very small, and can be animated (using multiple images and a program such as unFREEz

BITMAP BMP
*.bmp, *.dib., *.rle
Raster format

Drawbacks
Approximately ten times larger than an equivalent PNG image.
Does not support transparency

Advantages
Very basic, and well supported file type, used in most Windows programs.
Preserves all your information (except DPI, again)
Can be compressed significanlty, as most of the data is redundant.

Tagged Image File Format - TIFF
*.tiff, *.tif,
Raster format

Drawbacks
Not supported by many programs - has many different subtypes, and most readers can only read certain ones (however, most printers will take this format now)
Not usually websupported.
Again, does not retain original DPI from the PTG file

Advantages
Very good quality and flexibility.
Does not degrade with further editing.
Not insanely large.
Retains transparency.

Best for the web JPEG, GIF, PNG (depending on quality and size desired)
Best for printing TIFF, PDF (not available from ArtRage itself), PSD, PTG (directly from ArtRage)
Best for storage, further editing and backup PSD, PTG

Importing Pictures
To open and paint with a picture or photograph in any of these formats, go to File>Import Image

Import will create a new painting and you will lose anything you are currently working on.
Hotkey: [Ctrl] + [I]

Importing to Layer
File> Import Image to Layer... will add the picture into the picture you have open, on a new layer.
TIP: you may have to resize the image or the canvas
TIP: this allows you to have a 'backup layer' underneath or add multiple pictures onto different layers, and to transform (shrink, rotate and move around the canvas) the pictures you import.

Alternative import methods
Add a Reference Image
- from the Refs tab on the left of the bottom center bar, or via Tools>Open a Reference Image on the menu bar across the top.
Hotkey: [Ctrl] + [R]

This will add a small 'pinned on' picture in the corner, that you can move around and zoom in on.

Add a Tracing Image
- from the Tracing tab in the middle of the bottom center bar, or via Tools>Tracing Options...>Load New Tracing Image on the menu bar across the top.
Hotkey: [Ctrl] + [T]

Once loaded, you can go to Edit Tracing Image and move around, tile, resize and change the opacity (to hide it or make it very visible). You can NOT flip or crop it.

TIP: You can use Convert Tracing Image to Paint on this Layer as a much less demanding method of adding images into large ArtRage pictures. Just be careful to add a new layer or it will cover up previous work.
You will have to Clear Tracing Image afterwards, as the trace layert will still be there.

This is also an easier way (ie less demanding, if your computer is struggling) around editing existing layers - exporting them, and then add them as tracing images at the desired size and position.

Images used in this picture:
ArtRage website promotional image.

Original artwork.

If anyone wishes to add to or correct anything mentioned here, or ask further questions, please comment below, or contact me on here, or via DeviantART or on any other site you find me on.

Go back to the menu along the top and select EDIT.
On the dropdown menu, you will see the options to resize the canvas, and rescale the picture. Resizing the actual canvas will add borders or crop your picture. You can choose between pixels, centimetres, inches and millimetres.

Why Resize or Rescale?

Rescaling the image is another term for shrinking or stretching it. Obviously you may want a smaller version, occasionally you may want a larger one
- for example, you have a sketch, and now want to colour it in greater detail, or have coloured the background quickly at a smaller size
- you can also get some interesting effects from tools, by colouring then rescaling.

Why Change Canvas Size?

This will let you crop the image or change the composition by adding more space along certain edges. You can move the existing painting around in the preview window.

Too small? Go to the DeviantART version and fullview it.

For some very useful information for graphic designers on sizing for everything from postcards to browsers, see the Designers Toolbox

Background painting

Beat

The default DPI of each new ArtRage canvas - and of your average webpage image - is 72 DPI. This is fine if you have a very large image, it's a test print or just for around the house, is going to be viewed from far enough away that your eye can't detect the tiny details anyway - or is something like this fantastic painting of Two Ninjas. However, this tells the printer to print each pixel at the size of 1/72 inches. This is comparatively pretty big.



If you want to print something with a bit more detail (including colour gradation) for yourself or someone else, you should be looking at scaling it up to 200 DPI, which translates to printing 200 pixels to an inch. This also increases the file size.









For professional print quality, detailed artworks and sale, you should be setting your canvases to 300 DPI. This is also usually the minimum file resolution on most POD (print on demand) sites - such as Cafepress, Zazzle, DeviantART and RedBubble.

Of course, you can always go even higher!

If your files have too low a DPI, it can scale down to a smaller size, for higher quality. For example:
28 inches at 72 DPI is 2016 pixels. This becomes about 7 inches at 300 DPI.

Something to think about
Most of the requirements for DPI when printing, comes from photography - which usually contains very crisp edges and fine lines, which blur easily. Most ArtRage work would be more like an oil painting and tiny edge blurring would not be noticeable. 100 DPI may be quite sufficient,
This doesn't help with the imposed requirements of PODs online, of course (except by changing the file setting to a higher, artificial, DPI). The only way to be TRULY sure is to actually test it.

More information
DPI and commecial inkjet printing of ArtRage paintings A discussion on the ArtRage forum
Also see the DPI chart on DeviantART

1. ArtRage uses a lot of system resources
Probably true for all graphics programs.
It is very demanding at larger resolutions. Some computers cannot: reach larger sizes and still paint easily (it will hang and you will have to wait for it to catch up)
Use the larger size on the soft palette knife (Tip:the flat palette knife and the edge palette knife usually have no trouble - use these or turn off 'autodry' to mix up your paint before fine tuning it with the soft palette knife.)

2. DPI in exported pictures: (drawn to my attention by Aunt_Betsy on Zazzle and also buried in the ArtRage forums)
For any file type except .psd (Photoshop), exported ArtRage to PNG files will be labelled at 96 dpi and JPEG will become 120 dpi (maybe less, if you start with less - I always try and use 300dpi or higher, so I haven't tested this).
This applies to .png, .bmp, .jpg... everything but .psd.

PSDs include all the layers, cannot be opened by some programs (eg paint.NET) but can with Photoshop (obviously!) GIMP, Corel and some others. They are also extremely large.

DPI and ArtRage DPI is basically a label telling your program or printer how many pixels to cram into each inch. 50 pixels means the picture is more spread out than 250 pixels.

ArtRage works directly with pixels and only 'labels' the DPI of the file when you export it. (It's still a good idea to set it to 300 or higher before you start painting within ArtRage, of course.)
This means that if you start with a 3000x2000 file, with 300 dpi those pixels are already there - IT WILL PRINT THE SAME after you export it, even if the file dpi label is back at 96 dpi.
BUT some printers and programs will object anyway.

TIP: You can manually relabel the dpi. ALL this means is that instead of spreading it out so that each inch contains 96 pixels, it will shrink the overall projected print size to 300 pixels per inch (for example). The quality is the same - unless you mess around with it too much, of course.

TIP: If you start with a large enough file, it does not mattter what the DPI is.

TIP: Esport it as a .psd and resave it as a .png or .jpg for online uploading and easier printing.

A useful link about DPI and PPI: DPI and PPI Explained

3. PNG Transparencies
While you can create a transparent PNG file, certain programs and sites have trouble with the format used. What happens is, instead of no background, it will shows as BLACK. For example, DeviantART submissions - at the smaller views, opening these PNGs in Paint.NET...

I have a suspicion that it is connected to whether they are 8, 24 or 32 bit PNGs, but I don't know enough about this. (if anyone knows the exact reason, or a fix, for this - PLEASE COMMENT?)

Workarounds
Set the preview/view at larger size (works on DeviantART but I haven't tried this elsewhere)

For example:




But at a larger size:





Also: and

Or
Try resaving elsewhere (eg GIMP?) or saving it as a PSD which can aslo handle transparencies.

Use the links at the bottom of the list at the right, or try these links below to:
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Canvas Presets


ArtRage 2 ISO size canvases from Sickfish on DeviantART

Default canvases sizes for A5 up to A2 portrait and landscape paintings at 300 dpi (Especially useful to avoid guessing when printing)

ArtRage Paper Tutorial

"I have had the great pleasure to be using Art Rage for a while now. It is a 2D traditional media art program available from Ambient Design. This is the software I have employed to create most if not all of the imagery you see in this blog. One of the subtle strengths of Art Rage is the ability to derive realistic interactions with the surface being painted or drawn upon. This ability to customize the substrate impressed me so much that I chose to create a short tutorial on the method I use to create custom papers and canvases. That is what follows here:"

Go to Fashmir's Art Journal for a walk-through tutorial on creating your own custom papers and canvases

Usually,
C drive> Program files>

Ambient Design>ArtRage (a folder for whichever version/s you have) >

Artrage 'start' button
ArtRage (version) release notes
Resources (folder)>
Colors
Grains
Pickers
Stencils
Presets
Tracing Images
As well as the manuals and shortcut key pdfs and some system files.

Please make a donation, to persuade me to keep writing! $1 or $50, I appreciate it all.


If you've read all the way down here, chances are you found this lens useful, interesting or just mindboggling. It takes a lot of work - not including the... research (painting is fun!) and often I update when I should be doing assignments. Like now.

If you DO have anything to contribute - a link to someone else, a writeup of your own, even a bit of feedback on broken links, typoes or the lens in general - please consider leaving it.

If you really liked it (or are just feeling generous) and like my art, please take a moment to go visit my Fantasy Shop on Zazzle or the art prints and cards on RedBubble?
(note: Zazzle is US-based, and RedBubble is in Australia)

For an overview of my art, galleries and shops, see my general links and profile lens.