Touchscreen interface increases artistic precision, immediacy.
Boudewijn Rempt’s life is a mosaic. He has a master’s degree in comparative linguistics from Leyden University in Holland. He’s a linguist who specializes in the Sino-Tibetan languages of Eastern Nepal. He’s a sculptor. He’s also co-founder and CTO of Magdeburg, Germany’s KO GmbH, the software company that makes Krita, a popular painting application that is using touch to make the experience more like traditional painting.
“Having touch available gives Krita an enormous boost because it’s more tactile. For everyone who wants artistic precision, at whatever level, you gain a sense of immediacy with the touch interface," said Boudewijn Rempt, co-founder and CTO of KO GmbH.
On a traditional desktop monitor attached to a desktop PC, users “paint” with a keyboard and mouse. On touch-enabled devices, the experience is completely transformed.
“With touch,” Rempt said, “we can easily put things where we want. Give it a flick. It feels more natural.”
In fact, touchscreen painting with Krita might be better than what people have done for thousands of years with a brush, paint and paper. Painting software has experimented with mimicking what real paint actually does, such as changing color as it dries. Rempt recognized that art comes from the artist, not the tool. Sometimes, the tool gets in the way — even the real thing, as when the color of dry paint surprises the artist. Krita users weren’t interested in software that mimicked “the real thing.” They were interested in a tool that enabled a truer expression of their artistic vision.
Krita, an open-source application that is part of the Calligra Application Suite, was first released in 2005. The latest version was released in November and the application developers worked with Intel engineers to optimize it for Ultrabooks with 3rd-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors running Windows 8.
Rempt believes that Krita can reach full potential on touch-enabled Ultrabooks. “There used to be tablets, and people saw poor resolution and low speed,” he said. “It was not a good user experience. The time for good technology has finally arrived.”
The artist with an easel at the park on a sunny day might just be replaced by the artist with an Ultrabook. Krita can be used to create lines, colors and shapes that are exactly what he or she has in mind, and artists are not limited by what a physical paint brush can accomplish as the program can manipulate painted objects and “undo” using touch.
“Having touch available gives Krita an enormous boost because it’s more tactile,” Rempt said. “For everyone who wants artistic precision, at whatever level, you gain a sense of immediacy with the touch interface. Now you’re working directly.”
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Will Touch Technology Improve Art?
Touchscreen interface increases artistic precision, immediacy.
Boudewijn Rempt’s life is a mosaic. He has a master’s degree in comparative linguistics from Leyden University in Holland. He’s a linguist who specializes in the Sino-Tibetan languages of Eastern Nepal. He’s a sculptor. He’s also co-founder and CTO of Magdeburg, Germany’s KO GmbH, the software company that makes Krita, a popular painting application that is using touch to make the experience more like traditional painting.
“Having touch available gives Krita an enormous boost because it’s more tactile. For everyone who wants artistic precision, at whatever level, you gain a sense of immediacy with the touch interface," said Boudewijn Rempt, co-founder and CTO of KO GmbH.
On a traditional desktop monitor attached to a desktop PC, users “paint” with a keyboard and mouse. On touch-enabled devices, the experience is completely transformed.
“With touch,” Rempt said, “we can easily put things where we want. Give it a flick. It feels more natural.”
In fact, touchscreen painting with Krita might be better than what people have done for thousands of years with a brush, paint and paper. Painting software has experimented with mimicking what real paint actually does, such as changing color as it dries. Rempt recognized that art comes from the artist, not the tool. Sometimes, the tool gets in the way — even the real thing, as when the color of dry paint surprises the artist. Krita users weren’t interested in software that mimicked “the real thing.” They were interested in a tool that enabled a truer expression of their artistic vision.
Krita, an open-source application that is part of the Calligra Application Suite, was first released in 2005. The latest version was released in November and the application developers worked with Intel engineers to optimize it for Ultrabooks with 3rd-generation Intel Core i5 and i7 processors running Windows 8.
Rempt believes that Krita can reach full potential on touch-enabled Ultrabooks. “There used to be tablets, and people saw poor resolution and low speed,” he said. “It was not a good user experience. The time for good technology has finally arrived.”
The artist with an easel at the park on a sunny day might just be replaced by the artist with an Ultrabook. Krita can be used to create lines, colors and shapes that are exactly what he or she has in mind, and artists are not limited by what a physical paint brush can accomplish as the program can manipulate painted objects and “undo” using touch.
“Having touch available gives Krita an enormous boost because it’s more tactile,” Rempt said. “For everyone who wants artistic precision, at whatever level, you gain a sense of immediacy with the touch interface. Now you’re working directly.”
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