Only 500 copies of Painter X Limited Edition (sold in a paint can) are available.

Mac software can let you make wonderful things, but a few apps, such as Photoshop, can enable you to make awesome works of art. Corel's Painter is such an app and on Tuesday, Corel announced Painter X, a major upgrade to its painting software. Painter X boasts a ton of new features.

• The RealBristle Painting System replicates traditional art media with individual bristles that blend and splay.

• More tools to create paintings from photos.

• The Divine Proportion tool segments your work area according to the guidelines of the Divine Proportion.

• The Layout Grid display a grid that follows the Rule of Thirds used in photography.

• The Match Palette effect matches the color intensity between two images.

• A Universal Mixer palette lets you have better control over color blending.

• Dodge and Burn tools.

• Improved color management.

• Improved performance, as well as Universal binary support.

Corel Painter X is priced at $429 for the full version, $99 for the education version, and $229 for upgrades. Corel is also offering a Limited Edition Painter X package for $499 that includes the full Painter X software, a user guide, a "Learning Corel Painter X with Jeremy Sutton" DVD-ROM, a collectors’ poster and the Corel Painter X Composition tool, all packaged inside a paint can.

You can download a 30-day trial version of Painter X from Corel.

Painter X requires a 700MHz G4 or faster or an Intel-based Mac, Mac OS 10.3.9 or later, 256MB of RAM (512MB recommended), and a 24-bit color display with a minimum 1,024 by 768 screen resolution.

We'll have a full review in an upcoming issue of Mac|Life.