CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11
Complete graphics editing and designing application
suite.
By Jon Deragon,
Visca Consulting
Tuesday, November 24, 2003; 11:00am EST
Corel has long stood for quality graphics software. CorelDRAW Graphics
Suite 11 is the latest version of their popular suite of creativity
tools. Version 11 continues a long tradition of product refinement and
improvement to keep it in the top ranks of its market segment.
For people unfamiliar with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite, it combines a number
of powerful applications including CorelDRAW their artistic drawing
and design
program, Corel PHOTO-PAINT their digital image editing tool that is
perfectly up to the job of high end web graphics development; Corel
RAVE 2, the latest version of their vector based animation tool. Also
inclusive of the package are hundreds (in excess of 900) great fonts
to expand on that dismal collection included with your base operating
system library; and an expansive collection of clip arts, royalty free
stock photos and utilities to help you out such as duplex printing;
font management; image tracer; texture designer / editor; and much more.
In this review we will focus primarily on the PHOTO-PAINT component of
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 as
a majority of our readers will be more focused on the web design
functionality of the suite. The
product is a snap to install, and of the 4 included CD-ROM's, one is for
the applications. We recommend installing any service packs available.
Load time on our text box (Dell Dimension XPS; Pentium 4 3GHz; 1GB
memory; SATA hard drive; Windows XP Pro) was excellent for such a
large program. Upon loading, the interface is immediately friendly -
icons are easy to read, there is a large default workspace and the
dropdown menus also use icons to illustrate functions of filters,
effects and tools. It definitely doesn't stop there, you can then
customize it to your exact liking, brining in tabbing dockers, adding
multiple pallets, adding and removing tools and choosing what status
bars are or aren't along the bottom. You can even make the floating
dockers transparent for when the workspace starts to get cluttered
with various images. It is quite simply an excellent
"working environment" that is well suited to both novices and people
that spend the better part of their day working on graphics.
Once you dive a bit further, you will be very pleased by the number of
editing tools, drawing tools, effects (over 100) and image manipulations tools
you have at your disposal, all with a low learning curve and intuitive
execution. All of them make it a one-stop-shop for photo retouching
and editing or designing of web graphics. You can also run batches to
cut down on the time taken to do changes to large volumes of graphics
like resizing, compression and more. Tools such as the Drop Down
Shadow tool and the Interactive Object Transparency Tool are
incredibly easy to use to produce excellent effects. We did note
however that certain combinations of factors caused some of the
effects tools and text editing tool to "crash" the program. Generally
it is a stable program, but there are the occasional bugs that crop
up. When this occurs, its built in crash management functionality
allows you to quit, save your work and quit or continue working.
The ability to edit the palette is for the most part well executed
allowing you to import from a wide range of popular preset palettes
such as Trumatch and Pantone. Or create your own palette from scratch
selecting the colours you want, even grabbing here and there from
other palettes. Colour Management makes it incredibly
easy to adjust the colour palette for screen, print or web
optimization. Version 11 adds red eye removal, symbols support and
image slicing and roll over effect tools. The new and improved cut / paste / copy
tool changes colour of unselected area rather than sometimes
distracting dotted lines outlining the selected area. It does take a
bit of getting used to the selecting and deselecting with the new
method compared to prior versions.
We believe the environment in Corel PHOTO-PAINT and for that matter
all the applications in the suite, have a better, faster, learning
curve than its primary competition Adobe Photoshop 7, and we found
many of the tools shared between the two products, easier to use and
equally robust in Corel's offering. The consistent use of real time
interactivity in all of CorelDRAW Graphic Suite's tools and effects
incredibly convenient.
Software and hardware requirements are well inline with what is on
offer and both the Windows and Mac are contained in the same retail
box: Windows users require Windows 98 and above; Pentium II 200MHz
processor or greater; 128MB of memory; 200MB drive space. The program
produced blistering performance on our test box. Mac users require Mac
OS 10.1 and above; a Power Mac G3 or above; 128MB of memory and 250MB
drive space.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 11 has a recommended retail price of $799CAD, an
upgrade price of $299CAD and a very reasonably priced full academic version is
also available from authorized academic and school stores. Users of Corel Graphics Suite 10 should
consider the upgrade, although there are few major changes, there
are many refinements, better file browsing and saving, and
significantly improved program stability. Users of Version 9 and below
are highly recommended to upgrade. First time buyers of such a
graphics package will be wondering whether to buy Corel's or Adobe's
offering. When you combine the lower cost, friendlier
interface, and better learning curve of Corel, it would be the
recommended choice for a majority of users.
PROS - Interface; customizability of working environment;
previewing of all effects, filters, tools and compression; palette
customizability; dockers flexibility; low system requirements;
competitive price.
CONS - Bugs related to some editing, effects and text tools;
better text pathway tools would be nice.
About The Author
Jon Deragon is president and founder of Visca Consulting, a firm
specializing in web site design, development and usability for
businesses of all sizes. His many years in the technology industry has
enabled him to write quality, in-depth product reviews to assist
businesses make more informed technology purchases. He welcomes any
questions or comments you may have regarding his company's services,
this review or interest in having your company's products reviewed.
info@viscaconsulting.com
http://www.viscaconsulting.com/
|
