dave27's pick of the pops (CorelDraw 9 Graphics Suite in general)

Name: dave27

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Product:	CorelDraw 9 Graphics Suite in general
Date:	11.10.01 (207 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: Great flexibility and power

Disadvantages: A bit complicated

If you spend any time whatsoever playing around with presentations or even setting up websites, you'll quickly discover that a decent graphics package, one which allows both the creation of images and the ability to play around with images once you've got them, is essential.

Graphics packages are like enormous dumb beasts - if you discipline them and train them to do your bidding quickly and obediently, they can be the most powerful of servants. However, unless you take them in hand and exert control, it can quickly become you who is feeding your clumsy and bedridden monster.

The long, uncomfortable nights I've spent scanning pictures and fiddling around to get them just right are a sad and unpleasant memory and have led to more marital disquiet and conflict in Chez dave27 than almost anything else I can name.

Most people recommend Paint Shop Pro, or Fireworks (for web based graphics), and I'm sure they both have their uses and are very, very good packages, but when I started messing about with home PC's in a serious way two or three years ago, the one I managed to get hold of cheaply and then cut my enormous buck teeth on was the CorelDraw 8 suite, together with the excellent PhotoPaint 8 module.

As usual (for me at least), once you've worked out how to use a package and get it to do more or less exactly what you're looking for, it's the devil's own job to unlearn it and then relearn a new package, so when you switch it can be a lengthy exercise. I have tried to get the hang of both PSP and Fireworks, but I have always found myself struggling, until in the end I resign myself, click the familiar old icon on my desktop and lose myself once more in the glory of Corel.

It's extremely strong at manipulating pictures, especially if you master all of the filters, effects and other tools, although you don't need to use everything and Corel's enormous flexibility, myriad control
programs and dockable toolbars can be quite daunting and confusing when you come to them cold.

There is nothing of any real use which I've not found that PhotoPaint or Draw can't help me with, although I've never been able to develop GIFs with transparent backgrounds. I use Fireworks for that little feat, but one trick ponies were never my bag.

I?m afraid I don?t really use the drawing part of this package at all, so I can't really comment on the value or otherwise of these tools, but everything I've ever read about Corel has indicated that it has some of the best drawing tools around, so I've got no reason to suppose that it's any less than excellent on this front.

The CorelDraw package comes complete with OCR and scanning facilities and both are pretty effective, although the OCR can be a bit flakey and fiddly at times. You might want to use something like Omnipage if you've got the need for a lot of this stuff, but as add ins both of these facilities within CorelDraw are more than adequate.

If you are scanning documents, Corel recommends a resolution to scan at. A word of advice here. If you do accept the default resolution, you have to put up with some quite blurry images. It takes a lot longer, but I always scan at around 300 dpi and then resample to a smaller image later after using the Effects : Sharpen command to get a much more precise and quality image. The scanned image also tends to be a little on the dark side, so you normally need to play around with Brightness, Contrast and Intensity to get the best output.

The version of the package which I cut my teeth on was 8, although Corel is now onto version 10 of a product which first saw the light of day in 1989. This op is on Version 9, which doesn't really take the suite onto revolutionary ground and you'd be hard put to justify an upgrade. The bloated nature of the interface and all those dockers has not been touch
ed.

Version 8 is quite sound and efficient, but if you're buying it for the first time, you may as well go for the newest version. One reason why you may want to take the plunge is version 9's ability to convert documents into Adobe's PDF formats, although if you really want to do that you'd be better off buying the real thing (although it would cost you an arm and a leg). I have never used it, sticking to the pretty standard JPEG and GIF file extensions. Corel's natural save format is its own format, CPT, but you will have to convert to one of the main formats if you want to use the output with any othe rprogram.

Graphics packages are a bit of a personal thing and doubtless you'll have your own choice - I know I've made mine with Corel and my recommendation would be to do likewise.

CorelDraw 10 is advertised for sale on the Corel site www3.corel.com, for $549.99, with the upgrade costing $239.99. I have seen CorelDraw 9 advertised for $265 on Yahoo - http://shop.store.yahoo.com/freesoftware-shipping/ coreldraw9.html

The same site had CorelDraw 10 on offer for $319. As you can see, it is wise to shop around if you're going to get packages like these.... Good hunting.


PS There are some downsides to Corel, however, and chief among them is a startling readiness to crash at just the wrong moment, wiping out many hours (it feels like it, at least) of tedious effort. Best advice then is to make sure you save your work often rather than trusting to luck.

By the way, the pic on this site of 'The Tomlinsons' which you'll find in my profile was created using Corel PhotoPaint. It took ages to do (sad git that I am), but hopefully will give you a decent idea of what this wonderful package can achieve in the hands of a non gifted amateur with an enormous stomach or a woman with a big pile of blue hair ..... Mmmmmmm, doughnuts.....

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