CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 Completes Design Tasks Faster New Dynamic Guides and Smart Drawing Tool Eric Grevstad
Mon 1/12/04 -- The newest version of Corel Corp.'s flagship graphics package will reach retail shelves in February for $399 (upgrade $179). CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 offers intelligent tools that promise to let both business users and graphics professionals perform common design tasks in half the time.
The suite combines CorelDraw 12 for illustration, page layout, and vector drawing, Corel Photo-Paint 12 for digital imaging, and Corel RAVE 3 for motion-graphics creation. CorelCapture 12 and CorelTrace 12 are also included, as are Bitstream's Font Navigator, Kodak's Digital Science color management system, 1,000 TrueType and Type 1 fonts, and 11,000 clip-art images and photos.
A new Smart Drawing tool automatically recognizes shapes like circles, triangles, arrows, and parallelograms, intelligently smoothing curves and applying symmetry and balance to freehand line drawings. Dynamic Guides let designers place an object or draw a line exactly where they want it, with temporary on-screen guides and customizable tick divisions that move the cursor in even increments to help pinpoint the perfect spot for placing text or objects; a Snap To Objects feature offers real-time feedback and guidance for snapping to nodes, intersections, tangents, midpoints, edges, and baselines.
A new touch-up brush removes defects such as dust and scratches from digital images in real time, while changes to text such as kerning and leading appear in real time regardless of zoom level. CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 also intelligently selects the best format for export to Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office business documents.
