Attached to the bottom of this post is a template file I created to assist you in creating custom icons for your custom shortcuts in Corel Painter. I have also added this file to my Dropbox in the Templates folder. So if you’ve installed my other template files, this one can be imported if you like.
INSTRUCTIONS:
Open the RIFF template file in Painter. This file contains several groups of layers with some layers hidden. Use the eyeball icon in the Layers panel to show and hide content.
Because Corel Painter automatically inverts the colors for the Dark Gray and Medium Gray themes, you may need to choose inverted colors when designing the icons. In other words, if you design an icon with black text, the text will appear white if you change your theme to Dark or Medium.
My template contains several layers that are grouped by theme. So if you plan to make an icon for the Dark theme, then you’ll work with the “Dark Theme” layers.
There are editable text layers for both black and white text. You can select the Text Tool to edit these. However, you are not limited to text. You can also draw or use the shape tools to create basic icons, but Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator might work better for drawing icons.
There are also optional background layers in the template. Transparent PNG files are supported, so you don’t need to add a background unless you want to. To make the background transparent, just hide the visibility of the background layer. Be sure the canvas is also hidden.
Save your icons in PNG format and then right-click on the icon you want to change in Corel Painter and choose Set Custom Icon. Make sure the file type you are viewing is set to PNG because it may be set to JPEG by default. (Bottom-right in Windows)
At first, the icon will look out of place because you will need to restart Corel Painter to apply the automatic color inversion. Once Painter has restarted, the icon should appear properly.
And that’s it! Now you should have spiffy new custom icons instead of a bunch of flowers. You can also create custom icons for Brushes and other types of content in Painter. Try it!
If you have any questions, you can learn more about customizing the Painter workspace with the Workspace Instructions in my Dropbox and by watching my Corel Painter Courses.