While it's not for the graphically challenged, Corel's latest CorelDraw Graphics Suite offers a sophisticated toolkit for artists and design pros that competes well with its more costly rivals, Adobe's Illustrator and Photoshop.
Corel's $399 ($179 upgrade) suite consists of three great applications that encompass a variety of graphics capabilities. CorelDraw 12 covers illustration, page layout, and vector-based drawing; Corel Photo-Paint 12 edits digital images and photos; and Corel RAVE 3 creates Web-based graphics. The enhancements in version 12, most of which apply to CorelDraw, offer more precise controls and make the programs easier to use.
Lots to Draw On
A ballyhooed new Smart Drawing tool, borrowed from Corel's Grafigo program for pen-input Tablet PCs, automatically recognizes basic hand-drawn shapes and replaces them with precise objects -- replacing, for instance, rough freehand triangles or ovals with neat and tidy ones. This feature is particularly helpful when drawing flowcharts and organizational charts; I admired the way it turned my lopsided dashes into dotted-line circles.
While the Smart Drawing tool works well, adding geometric shapes is something that graphic pros already know how to accomplish using existing tools. Some designers, depending on what they do, may switch to the new tool, but I expect Smart Drawing to be most valuable to those who are new to drawing programs.
I was more impressed with the new Dynamic Guides feature, which provides temporary guides and offers precise control for placing a shape, line, or object exactly where you want it. When you turn on Dynamic Guides, CorelDraw displays temporary blue lines when your cursor travels over specific points on objects. These lines help you snap or place objects in relation to one another. Real-time feedback appears as the cursor passes over nodes, intersections, midpoints, tangents, perpendicular points, edges, centers, and more.
A new text feature lets you see and control detailed changes to type, including leading and kerning, regardless of your zoom level, or select a portion of a text object to align. New Unicode support helps incorporate multiple languages into a design, no matter which language version of CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 you use.
Photo-Paint has gained an adequate new touch-up brush that removes defects such as dust and scratches from scanned digital images and shows the results in real time. Corel RAVE features a new symbol library that lets you store and call up frequently used objects.
New export tools support Microsoft Office as well as Corel's own WordPerfect Office (a new version of which was announced today; see the news section -- Ed.). This necessary evil (from Corel's perspective) makes it easy to export graphics created in Corel's suite into Brand M documents, presentations, or spreadsheets without worrying about file formats.
The suite retains support for Adobe formats, including EPS and PSD, and comes with SVG filters for AutoCAD, Visio, and HPGL. When exporting to AutoCAD DXF format, CorelDraw now retains line widths, line styles, text justification, and positions, as well as supporting AutoCAD color, dot-dash patterns, and line weights on import.
Test Drive
I found CorelDraw 12's interface intuitive and easy to use, as well as customizable to suit almost any design need. If you wish, for instance, you can create and save separate workspaces as well as toolbars and palettes that relate to specific tasks. The documentation was well organized and helpful.
The integration among the suite's programs is first-rate. For example, when using CorelDraw to create a flyer, I needed only to click on an embedded bitmap image to bring up the Photo-Paint editing tools to modify the digital picture. When that job was done, CorelDraw displayed the final, adjusted image.
The suite follows Corel's tradition of bundling plenty of handy templates, fonts, and attractive clip art, as well as educational materials including a video training CD. Powerful utilities include CorelTrace, a tracing program that converts scanned or manually created bitmaps into vector images; a screen-capture tool that converts images and onscreen video into files; Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications, an object-oriented programming language for creating macros that automate tasks; and Kodak's Digital Science color-management system.
As of March 1, Corel has dropped free phone support. Registered Graphics Suite 12 customers get what's called "Classic" support, consisting of unlimited e-mail and knowledge-base warranty service; phone-based support is available for $2 per minute (first three minutes free); $25 per incident; or $149 or $299 annually for unlimited support. "Premium" support is a subscription-based or contractual high-level service offered to medium and large businesses.
When it comes to creating logos, advertisements, technical drawings, and illustrations, as well as working with digital-camera images and Web-site graphics, CorelDraw Graphics Suite 12 offers a wealth of tools for designers and studio pros. Business-oriented users may find Microsoft Publisher or Broderbund's even more basic PrintMaster easier to use, but those packages have far less power, while Adobe's big-name bundles are considerably less cost-effective.
