Corel 4 - a big box of tools
Posted by Kathleen Maher on June 2nd 2008 | Discuss
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Figure 1 Corel has added several useful features to its package of tools for graphic artists including tables, as shown in this example. The basic tasks required to create good-looking pieces including brochures, newsletters, business cards, ads, etc. are all here and easy to use. Note the object manager on the right side, the tabs give users fast access to hints (that usually don’t apply, but at least they’re trying) and to ConceptShare to post work online for comment and even interactive chat with comments.
CorelDraw is pretty much the alternative to Adobe’s suite of products for graphics professionals, especially Photoshop and Illustrator. The main differences between the two product families lie in their origins. Adobe was born in an Apple world and Corel arrived as one of the first graphics products designed for Windows. In those days and for many days after, there was a difference in the types of artists who gravitated toward each platform. In general full time artists gravitated to the Apple platform—it was the law of the land at the time. Those people who worked in Windows were often in-house corporate artists and frequently art was not their primary job. Obviously, we’re indulging in stereotypes here but it gets the point across.
There’s another class of worker who gravitated to CorelDraw by virtue of the features included. CorelDraw has long included tracing tools, and raster to vector conversion tools. As a result, Corel has a contingent of sign makers, pattern makers, and people who work with maps—to name three professions where raster-to-vector conversion is an important capability.
CorelDraw 4x has not forgotten its roots. As a Windows-based product, CorelDraw is easy to learn to use. In general, capabilities are where you expect them to be. Corel has updated its interface for all the modules, but there’s nothing here that will confuse or surprise long-time users and blessedly, it’s still easy to figure out. Corel has been fundamentally revamping its products to add interactive teaching tools—and there is a “hints” panel that often comes in handy. Unfortunately, it’s not psychic and doesn’t seem to know what I’m trying to do more often than not. However, help is clearly written and Corel has been beefing up its supply of tutorials including video tutorials. Along these same lines, Corel is shipping tons of clip art and other ready-made materials in the box. It’ll keep you busy.
There is still a lot in the box. CorelDraw comes with CorelDraw, for vector illustration; Photo-Paint for image editing, PowerTrace for raster-to-vector conversion, and Capture for screen captures. Other tools included in the box include a Barcode wizard, Service Bureau Profiler for pre-flights, Duplexing wizard, for two-sided documents, and the Bitstream Font Navigator to find, manage and install Windows fonts. Corel has added the Realviz Stitcher so that users can combine pictures. In addition, Corel has added ConceptShare, a collaboration tool that lets users share designs online in real time. Users can create multiple workspaces and upload different choices and others can submit their own alternatives. Markup tools allow CorelDraw users to communicate changes without using Corel’s products. The company has also added support for Adobe PDF comments, giving users another potential tool for collaboration. PDF documents can be imported with comments.
Corel has also improved its collaboration capabilities with support for the Adobe Color Management Module (CMM), which is based on ICC (International Color Consortium) profiles so that everyone can be on the same page when they’re talking colors.
Corel has paid special attention to its base with new features that are useful in sign making such as improved PowerTrace tools including the new Centerline trace which is useful for line drawings and signatures. Centerline trace lets users create a faint line tracing with black lines or to create line drawings with thick lines. In addition, users can more easily create mirror text, a useful feature for sign painting as well as being kind of a cool artistic tool.
There are plenty more new features in CorelDraw, but another one worth highlighting is the addition of table support. Users can more easily create layouts using tables or they can import tables from other applications including Excel and Windows. Unfortunately, the table tool doesn’t work exactly like the table tool in Word, so it took me a bit to get the hang of it.
Among the new features is a tool that’s dear to the heart of those who love text, Corel has added a “What the Font?” button that lets users copy a sample of text and query the software about the font style. It’s a tremendous time saver in situations where you want to duplicate the look of a piece.
Corel has also enhanced its photo editing module, Photo-Paint. Photo-Paint is designed to work within the CorelDraw family of tools and as such should not be compared to Corel’s photo imaging product PaintShopPro which was acquired from Jasc. The company insists there are good reasons for maintaining separate products although the teams now work closely together and plan to share advances with each other. While PaintShopPro has an emphasis on photos, snapshots and consumer uses, Photo-Paint was originally designed for the print industry has been updated for the web as well. Corel has added support for RAW and the company says it has support for over 300 cameras. Color and tone can be adjusted with sliders, and Corel has enhanced the tone curve tool to balance shadows, midtones, and highlights. Corel has added histogram feedback. The product has also been updated with the ability to straighten an image. (These last two come as a surprise if you haven’t used the product in a while. You’d think straighten and a histogram should have been added several revs ago—but better late than never).
Also, Corel has beefed up its Adobe Photoshop support—users can exchange files between applications giving power users the ability to take advantage of each product’s unique features.
Overall, there are still some features that some will wish worked better — going out to dialog boxes to create fills can yield some surprises. Those experienced with Adobe’s latest products in CS3 might wish for some of the tools like access to high dynamic range effects, the ability to meld layers, and the deep control of tools. In general, Corel comes up a little short in web tools but the company will be the first to tell you that they have tools to design web elements but they’re not going after the web authoring market. But, when it comes to fast, clean design, Corel has everything users need. Price: $429
