CorelDRAW

Whether your business is advertising, signmaking, screen and commercial printing, or a graphics studio, you’ll feel comfortable using Corel’s design tools. This company’s expertise in page layout, illustration and photo editing extends over many applications, but perfectly fits signmaking and engraving.

Corel’s new CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is a major release full of new features and enhanced functionality from text to graphics. You name it, it’s there. You’ll see how the office and the signshop can utilize these new and exciting tools.

System requirements

Be sure to notice the changes. The minimum requirements are Windows XP (Service Pack 2 or later) or Vista® (32- or 64-bit editions), 512MB RAM and 430MB of hard-disk space, Pentium® III, 800MHz processor or the AMD Athlon™ XP. Corel follows the trend to drop unsupported Windows versions such as Windows 2000. The size of the required hard-disk space verifies this package’s robustness.

Corel has moved the CorelDraw Graphics Suite forward into the future. The integration with Vista features and the use of the Internet as a work and collaboration method evidences such forward thinking.

A new look and improved usability

CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4 comprises four applications: CorelDRAW X4, Corel Photo-Paint® X4, Corel PowerTRACE™ X4, and Corel CAPTURE™ X4. Each traditional suite application has been updated with new functionality. In addition, helper applications, such as the Bitstream Font Navigator and wizards for creating barcodes and duplex printing, continue to show their value. Corel has also incorporated many web-based functions that aid creativity and collaboration.

CorelDraw is the flagship application that lets you create vector artwork and simple to complex page layouts. The application, which has been feature-laden for years, also features improved usability.

You’ll immediately see the welcome screen notice when you launch CorelDraw X4. Usually splash screens are annoying, but the new welcome screen uses a side-tabbed interface that presents information at the start of a session. It will show the last document that you were working on and buttons for selecting a different drawing or creating a new one. Tabs present tips, video tutorials and direct access to updates. You can select the beginning tab or have it not display.

On the clean and simplified interface, tools are on the left; object-specific settings can be changed from the ribbon bars, and color and line-style selections are easy to find.

The real power lies in the docking column, on the screen’s right side. The familiar Object Manager lets you see the page structure and directly selects any object on any layer. The context-sensitive Hint tab is really a boon. For each menu selection, it provides suggestions and links to Help functions. New functions can be docked in this menu at will, and you can find menus in a click on the easy-to-find tab.

You can customize the workspace layout and save the settings. Corel recognized some users work with such applications as Adobe Illustrator® or Microsoft Office. Pre-configured workspace layouts emulate these applications’ appearance.

Layout made even easier

Though most users consider CorelDraw a drawing package, it’s also a powerful text and page-layout tool. X4 has added many smart changes that smooth the tedious, and often frustrating, task of formatting text and creating tables.

A favorite new feature is live text formatting. When you select text, it will preview in place your font or size selection from the menus. You can quickly determine if you need to select a different font size, without committing the selection.

Many of us have been frustrated by trying to place a graphic in the middle of several text columns. With CorelDraw X4, it’s a snap. Lay out the text in the columns, then insert the graphic anywhere on the page. Select the graphic and the Object Properties menu. A drop-down list lets you specify how the text flows around the graphic. From there, you can move the graphic around the page until you like the placement. The text will flow in real time to avoid guessing.

Tables can make great additions to brochures and ads, but they can also be a real pain to use. The new, interactive table support makes them a snap. Just select the table tool, and drag it onto the page. You can add rows or columns, and merge cells. It’s fast and easy, using the Node tool.

Camera raw and centerline tracing

If you use a digital SLR camera, you’re probably familiar with raw formats. Canon and Nikon support this format, which allows photographers considerable control over their photos. Usually, you need a camera-supplied utility or pay extra bucks for raw support. X4 has added support for the major raw formats. Improvements such as image straightening and enhanced, tone-curve adjustments make PhotoPaint X4 a full-featured image editor.

Corel PowerTrace X4 also features improvements. Of primary interest, the centerline tracing mode capably handles line drawings. The new user interface provides more control over smoothness and color.

Leveraging the Internet

Many exciting features added to X4 use the Internet. We were especially happy to see integration with the WhatTheFont™ service. If you’ve repaired or copied an existing sign, you know how hard font identification can be. Now you can whip out your trusty digital camera, snap a photo and upload it to WhatTheFont. It will identify all the matching fonts.

The new CorelDraw Concept-Share™ collaboration tool allows you to upload, from a docker, drawings that your customers can view and annotate. Corel will offer a small site for free, and larger storage for larger shops, starting at $19.99 per month. You can restrict viewing, so only your customers see their designs.

Conclusion

All we can say is, Wow! The new features make everything flow smoothly. The real-time text preview is amazing. We’re thankful that raw support is now standard. Throw in 10,000 clipart files (4,000 are new); 1,000 new, professional, high-resolution, digital photos; and true engraving fonts that have been added to the huge (1,000+) font library, and you have a great graphics resource.

If you have a previous version of the CorelDraw Graphics Suite, get an upgrade. If you need a high-quality graphics solution at a great price, get on the bus.

Key Information

Corel Corp.

1600 Carling Ave.

Ottawa, ON

Canada K1Z 8R7

(613) 728-0826

www.corel.com

Company Profile: Corel, headquartered in Ottawa, ON, Canada, is a leading developer of graphics, productivity and digital-media software. Products include CorelDRAW®, Corel® Paint Shop Pro®, Corel® Painter™, Corel DESIGNER®, Corel® WordPerfect® , Office, WinZip® and iGrafx®.

At a Glance: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 boasts over 50 new and enhanced features. Live text-formatting previews text-formatting options and allows you to see the results before applying them. The X4 suite integrates with WhatTheFont, an online font-identification service, to quickly identify fonts used in existing bitmap designs, artwork and images. Users can control and edit layers independently for each document page, and create layers on a page-specific basis. The interactivetable feature can create and import tables. The suite integrates with Vista’s desktop-search capabilities.

Key Information