Corel Painter 8 Inspires Creative Artists, New Version of Popular Digital Sketching and Painting Application Due This Spring.

Business Editors/High-Tech Writers

OTTAWA--(BUSINESS WIRE)--April 10, 2003

Corel Corporation, (NASDAQ:CORL) (TSX:COR) today announced the upcoming availability of Corel(R) Painter 8 (TM). In collaboration with some of the industry's most talented artists, Corel has developed a powerful new version of Corel Painter that can digitally replicate natural media like no other product.

Across the world thousands of creative professionals use Corel Painter to give expression to their ideas. These ideas take shape in films like Men in Black II and Spiderman. From story boarding and pre-visualization, to package design, advertising and photography, Corel Painter 8 amplifies artistic expression as ideas are transformed into art and industry.

"Corel Painter 8 replicates the subtleties of an artists' hand with stunning accuracy," said Brett Denly, vice-president of global marketing at Corel Corporation. "This realism makes Corel Painter 8 an essential tool for digital artists and technical illustrators as well as story-boarding and production artists. These professionals require dependable tools that accelerate the creative process and deliver flawless results."

To ensure Painter 8 replicates the experience and output of traditional media tools, Corel worked closely with professional artists during the development of the product. Corel Painter 8 gives artists freedom, power and flexibility, offering compatible tools that allow them to remain competitive in their industries.

Unleash Your Creative Power with Painter 8

-- Mix your own colors - The new Mixer lets you mix colors

interactively as you would using paint and a palette

-- Experiment with over 400 new brushes - Includes new brushes

for more than 30 different mediums

-- Design your own brushes interactively - The new Brush Creator

is created specifically to let you design your own custom

brushes in a visual, interactive environment

-- Create sketches from photographs - The new Sketch Effect lets

you convert photographs to pencil drawings easily while giving

you control over the amount of paper grain, heaviness of the

pencil line, and level of detail

-- Paint with digital water color - The new Digital Water Color

is ideal for hand painting line drawings, touching up

photographs, and creating simple water color washes

Painter 8 Lets you Increase your Productivity

-- Redesigned Interface - The new streamlined interface provides

easier access to tools, and makes it easier to choose brushes

-- Keep track of brushes - The new Tracker palette keeps track of

your most recently used brushes so you can navigate between

brushes quickly

Corel Painter 8 Lets you Stay Compatible

-- Open and save Adobe(R) Photoshop(R) files - Enhanced support

for opening and saving Adobe Photoshop files, including layer

sets, layer masks, and channels

-- Hide and reveal areas of a layer - The redesigned Layer Masks

let you hide and reveal areas of a layer without making

permanent changes

-- Create and store masks - Use alpha channels to create and

store masks to modify, separate, and preserve specific areas

of an image

-- Upgrade easily - Painter Classic and Adobe Photoshop users can

now purchase the upgrade package of Corel Painter 8 at the

upgrade price

The Artists' Take

Illustrator Keith MacLelland, who has designed work for clients like the Washington Post, moved from traditional media to digital art when he was introduced to Corel Painter and a Wacom(R) tablet. "Corel Painter 8 gives me the freedom to mix and match mediums and the results are utterly amazing."

The tools in Corel Painter 8 let Mary Vogt, a costume designer for major motion pictures, such as Men in Black II, transition her work to the digital medium easily. "The updated user interface allows me easier access to the tools and features. Corel Painter 8 allows me to focus on my art, not my software."

Chet Phillips, who has been using Corel Painter for the last 11 years, has landed digital illustration contracts with clients such as American Airlines and Warner Brothers. "The best thing about Corel Painter 8 is that it allows me to be productive and creative at the same time," he says. "In the commercial art world where things are usually needed yesterday, I love the ability to open a new file and jump into creating an image immediately. Unhindered by the constraints of traditional art making tools, I am free to combine mediums, such as digital water color, pastels, and oils, with amazing results."

Pricing and Availability

Scheduled for availability across North America in early May, Corel Painter 8 will be offered in upgrade and full versions on both the Macintosh(R) and Windows(R) platforms. Corel Painter 8 full version has a suggested retail price (SRP) of $299 US. In keeping with Corel's commitment to rewarding customer loyalty, existing users of Corel Painter(i), will be eligible to purchase Corel Painter 8 at the upgrade SRP of $149 US. A special edition to foster creativity in educational institutions will be available at an SRP of $99 US.

More information about Corel Painter 8 can be found at www.corel.com/painter8 .

(i) Registered users of Adobe Photoshop 5.5, Adobe Photoshop 6, Adobe Photoshop 7 (excluding Photoshop Elements, Photoshop LE and trial versions), Fractal Design Painter 4, FractalDesign Painter 5, MetaCreations Painter 5, MetaCreations Painter 5.5, MetaCreations Painter 6, Corel Painter 6, Painter 7, MetaCreations Painter Classic, Corel Painter Classic and procreate Painter Classic (all versions of Corel Painter and Corel Painter Classic) are eligible to upgrade to Corel Painter 8.(TM)

About Corel Corporation

Founded in 1985, Corel Corporation (www.corel.com) is a leading technology company specializing in content creation tools, business process management and XML-enabled enterprise solutions. The company's goal is to give consumers and enterprise customers the ability to create, exchange and instantly interact with visual content that is always relevant, accurate and available. With its headquarters in Ottawa, Canada, Corel's common stock trades on the Nasdaq Stock Market under the symbol CORL and on the Toronto Stock Exchange under the symbol COR.

(C) 2003 Corel Corporation. All rights reserved. Corel and the Corel logo are trademarks or registered trademarks of Corel Corporation and/or its subsidiaries. All other product, font and company names and logos are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective companies.