CorelDraw Graphics Suite X3: Serious contender?
Written: Feb 16 '06 (Updated May 14 '06)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Easy to use, great illustration tools, good photo editing, screen capture etc., unique bevel tool
Cons: Support, no lens correction for digital photos, less accepted amongst professionals
The Bottom Line: Great graphics suite for a reasonable price, though somewhat stifled by Corel's support.
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| theuerkorn's Full Review: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 for PC |
Corel has a long tradition of providing professional graphics tools for budget-minded users. Yet Adobe's Photoshop and Illustrator are taught by most "experts" as the best and often only choice. In fact, in most comparisons Corel is on a similar regular basis omitted. There are many reasons and many of them are little more than excuses. With CorelDraw being the center application, Corel's Graphics Suite provides many professional features for a reasonable price (compared to the industry leader). After all, version 13 stands for 20 years experience. (Of which I participated for roughly 12 years as a user.)
IN A NUTSHELL: X3 is 13
The initially cryptic "X3" may appear like a marketing trick to counter Adobe's CS2 (for car nuts like an homage to BMW's X3), but realistically it's nothing more than a somewhat clumsy combination of the roman numeral "X" for 10 and the number 3, together describing version 13 -- the legitimate successor of troubled version 12. On the other hand, Corel might have simply tried to squeeze an 'X' in the name as with other products in their offering like Paint Shop Pro X and Painter IX. After all, even WordPerfect Office got a "X3" designation. (Is anybody else thinking "Generation X"?)
The new and improved stuff takes center stage and with it the core application by the name CorelDraw. The Suite has been re-arranged and Corel's attempt to create flash content via R.A.V.E. apparently came to an end. R.A.V.E. is no longer included (or supported for that matter). Seemingly the same fate shares Corel Trace, but upon closer examination it's renamed to PowerTrace and now directly integrated into CorelDraw without a stand-alone GUI for separate use. PhotoPaint received a one-stop module that's specifically geared towards digital photographers and now provides powerful masking tools that are based on the previously optional plug-in Knockout. CorelCapture X3 is virtually identical to version 12. The excellent barcode generator tool cannot be found anymore. (Nice tool for box art designs.)
DETAILS
Interface: [*****] Easy to learn, yet powerful. Corel manages in many ways to achieve results quicker than the extensive layer concept of Photoshop and Illustrator. That is not to say that Corel doesn't offer layers, just in form of optionally grouped objects -- similar powerful as layers when used right. Corel's interface shines with wonderfully organized "dockers" and its ability to mimic Adobe's interface should you desire. The latest version tries to provide more interactive dockers instead of parameter windows as previously used for text formatting. However, the change is not very intuitive to the seasoned Corel user and takes some to get used to.
Rendering: [****-] Since this is a graphics suite, it's very important to really see on the screen what you will "get". Corel had no significant issues in previous versions to achieve near perfect display on a monitor and even offers it's own color and size calibration. (It's best to calibrate the rulers in CorelDraw to get a correct 100% or 1:1 magnification sinze Windows shows rendering weaknesses if you change the system resolution from the default 96 dpi.) Display update has been seemingly improved but the artifacts due to only partial screen update remains. The best way to "force" a full refresh is by scrolling a whole screen. Besides this annoyance, the onscreen display is of high quality and good speed in most applications. New is the overprinting simulation which is geared toward professional printers and simulates the color of areas where objects overlap. Color management is integrated and easy to deal with, as long as you understand the basics of the matter. Professional users will be happy to know that CorelDraw now supports the CMYK simulation values contained within Pantone's latest color guides (Color bridge coated, Color bridge coated EURO) from 2005.
Resources: [****-] Corel's Graphics Suite is relatively undemanding for a graphics program, as long as you are aware that Corel's preferences determine memory usage and presets are generally too conservative -- especially if you have a well equipped system. Version 12 had trouble with freeing up resources and occasionally run out of memory despite closing all pictures. In version X3 I have yet to encounter this phenomena, which is not to say that it's completely resolved. Despite Corel's claims of performance increases, the redraw process feels significantly slower than in version 12. This is even the case with relatively powerful hardware (Radeon x1800 XL) and seems to be pronounced for EPS fills and overprints.
Digital Photos: [****-] In the attempt to ease processing digital pictures, PhotoPaint now includes a one-stop picture processing module which is nothing more than a filter that allows adjustment of ... per sliders and record snapshots for easy comparison. Lens correction and other more sophisticated photo tools, however, didn't find their way into PhotoPaint yet. Nevertheless, the provided sliders for tint, saturation, brightness and so on are nothing new and simply combined. New is shadow and highlight specific controls as previously seen in Photoshop, which eases optimization of either highlights or shadows without affecting the rest of the picture. RAW format support is achieved via the included (free) RAW Shooter Essentials by Pixmantec. This is a rather powerful software, but due to its third-party nature not integrated in PhotoPaint. However, a newly integrated feature is the masking tool based on Kock-Out's amazing algorithms. Separating even complex objects has never been easier in PhotoPaint and doesn't have to fear competition either.
Illustrations: [*****] CorelDraw! has always been the most powerful of the included applications. Most impressive new feature is the photo-realistic bevel tool which creates stunning 3D impressions previously seen only in photo editors. The new (non-destructive) cropping tool is a true timesaver in CorelDraw. With extensive DTP-like features (i.e. multiple page layout) and sketching aids (i.e. shape recognition, object snap etc.), it sure doesn't have to hide from an Illustrator or Freehand. Putting dimensions with leaders etc. on a drawing is just as easy as aligning text to a curve and tweak it to your needs. Even placing text in boxes and letting it flow around any given object is an easy task. Draw a complex star with only a few mouse clicks or pick a special character from the docker, many things are easy yet powerful (if you desire to dig deeper). Layering technology is relatively basic, but complemented by a good object management. Drawing and modification function are plentiful and not too many users will find limitations. (As with all drawings programs, the work-around may be in some cases labor intense but still possible.) Technical illustrations are good supported, but Corel's own Designer is a better match with extensive 3D support and more technical drawing aids.
Printing: [*****] Corel's print preview is complemented by a preflight check that's very intuitive and descriptive. Enabled double (interfering) color correction? Corel will warn you and provide solutions. Pictures with low resolution don't slip through either. Overall print quality on home printers (inkjet and laser) is very good to excellent. Be aware that ignoring preflight warnings can result in severe print quality degradation! Corel's print feature allows to collect several opened pages (CorelDraw) or pictures (PhotoPaint) on a single page and even arrange and scale them at will right in the preview. (This is something I am still missing from Adobe's and Macromedia's programs.) Preparing files for a print studio requires the correct settings which are best obtained from the service provider, but often they will prefer the Adobe format anyway. Regardless, always make sure to ask for the proper settings (bleed, gutter, safe area etc.).
Support: [**---] Corel doesn't exactly have a shiny record in supporting users after the sale. But even before that, the Mac OS is not supported, and with that a great part of designers. Technical support is reasonably helpful, though slow. While sometimes one might get Corel to acknowledge a problem, that still doesn't mean that it will actually provide a solution for it (other than pointing you to the next version). Overall, Corel appears to be in thrift mode regarding support -- too little for some professionals. However, if you're used to solving problems yourself that may be okay. Available literature (tutorials, magazines etc.) for CorelDraw and PhotoPaint is relatively scarce. A few design studios and very few print houses support Corel's file format and conversion to AI or a neutral TIFF is often required.
Web Design: [*----] With the death of R.A.V.E., Corel's Graphics Suite X3 has even less to offer for web designers. While PhotoPaint offers a good support for graphical menus and web design -- similar to Photoshop -- that's still hardly a good tool to design a whole site. (Everything is done via graphics and a HMTL editor is still needed to place actual text etc..) PDFs can be generated for use on a website or most typical formats like PNG and Shockwave are supported too. But that's for graphics only. Overall, Graphics Suite X3 is rather limited for web design and no match for Macromedia (Adobe) Studio 8.
Extras: [****-] Just like the Trace tool, the previously separate Barcode Generator is now fully integrated though via the Corel lauch button (plug-in). Need barcodes? This tool is great! The also excellent screen capture program CorelCapture (now in version X3) is working good with very little changes. (Think of it as a turbo-charged Snag-It but without the text capture.) Modifications were not necessary anyway. Other useful tools included are SB Profiler, Duplexing Wizzard and FontManager. Duplexing Wizzard is a neat little tool to turn a single sided printer into a (manual) double side printer and eases handling by halting the printout in order to turn a page. (This can be easily achieved by printing uneven pages first and the reload and print the even pages, but Duplexer is a neat tool nevertheless.) SB Profiler is a more serious application, which allows to automate the transfer to Service Bureaus (SB) in a custom profile which determines whether native Corel files will be used or PDF or a specific print file. The profiler is actually for printers to send a correct configuration file to clients and eliminate data exchange users. (Not too many print shops actually provide this service!)
SUMMARY
Corel has not revolutionized its Graphics Suite with release X3, but powerful yet easy to use tools were always in this package and a few more were added and some others refined. I am glad to see the tablet support fixed in X3, which was broken in v12 and no patch was ever made available. (The bug was known for more than a year!)
From today's point of view there is three main competitors and each seems to have a firm grip on its particular niche. Corel may not earn top rankings with professionals and for webdesign that's basically useless due to the lack of many vital function that Dreamweaver 8 (to name the best of the bunch) handles with ease.
For printing and screen graphics, CorelDraw offers great functionality that in some ways requires a lot more work in Illustrator or Freehand. That's not across all functions and tasks, but respectable nevertheless. PhotoPaint's compatibility with many Photoshop plugins allows access to a vast library of extensions and supported effects.
Corel's Suite feels different from Adobe's and many "professionals" use that as an argument against Corel. I find Graphics Suite easier to use with regard to other Windows programs and in some cases (i.e. transparency gradient) CorelDraw and PhotoPaint allow faster results -- unless you have to revert significant parts of the design to the original state. Corel is quite capable of sophisticated graphics and layouts, but sometimes lacks the transparency and often doesn't preserve the original data (a strong point for Photoshop).
Given the relatively small price tag (in comparison to the more established packages), CorelDraw Graphics Suite X3 offers excellent tools and good performance. There is nothing that it could not achieve -- sometimes with less and other times with more effort. (Think not only of bar codes and embroidery as unique features that not of the competition offer from the start.) Overall, the lack of support and acceptance in the design world may be the main argument against Corel's package.
© 2006, theuerkorn
Recommended:
Yes
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