Software Review of:
CorelDRAW 9 
Graphics Suite 

So I’m going to address my comments to those using other drawing products . . . those who want to step up to a powerful, professional graphics suite.  I’m talking about you who dabble with that big company’s business suite drawing tools, earlier versions of CorelDRAW, or reduced-feature drawing packages. 

If you want a professional illustration and photo editing package for your graphic arts business, your logo designs, your web page or technical writing enhancements, or your newsletter graphics...CorelDRAW 9 Graphics Suite will do the trick.  And with wise management of your purchasing dollar, you can get a lot of power for just a little cash.

New features
If you use earlier versions of CorelDRAW or are a casual user, then the interface for CorelDRAW 9 will require some attention to finding features and using tool flyouts and docker windows.  Familiar menus for special effects and tools have changed.  The interface is actually more streamlined, and if you’re not a stickler for finding that effect in exactly the same place you used to look for it, then you’ll enjoy the new DRAW interface.

DRAW 9 pushes you in the direction of using the interactive and flyout tools, adding more tools to the flyouts.  Of course, as in CorelDRAW 8, you can dock those tools (pull them off the toolbar) if you want to see all the tools in a family.  You can dock what used to be roll-up windows and collapse these Dockers to allow more drawing space.

Additional color palettes
You can dock additional color palettes simultaneously or even assign color palettes to workspaces.  This allows you greater flexibility in choosing the correct colors for your design, whether its working in RGB or browser palettes, CMY or CMYK, or Pantone palettes, or shades of gray palettes.  The color management is improved, and based on the Kodak Digital Science.  When you save your work in a different format, such as TIFF or JPEG, you can check a feature which embeds the current color profile.

Enhanced features for web design
Corel Corporation is marketing this upgrade--in part--to web users and designers (the spiderweb motif is the first clue). Color palettes for web pages and browsers, Adobe Acrobat support (you can publish your design to a PDF file), support for over 120 types of digital cameras with the ixla Digital Camera plug-in, hyperlink preservation, and numerous shortcuts and menus for online support of color, fonts, drivers, and scripts are new in this version. An HTML conflict docker window, Internet bookmarks manager, and converting text to HTML are also included.  CorelDRAW also allows you to set the compression level and bitmap sampling for your JPEG files.

Corel pushes the www.designer.com and www.corel.com websites with shortcuts within the program, and even places a Corel.com shortcut on the desktop (which was promptly relocated to the Recycle Bin. . .I don’t need extra shortcuts cluttering my desktop, thank you).
 
 

What's new in CorelDRAW 9 Corel Corporation publishes a 41-page Adobe Acrobat PDF file that discusses the new or improved features of CorelDRAW 9 or Photo-Paint 9.  You need the Adobe Actobat plub-in for your Internet browser to view this file. You can find the link or go directly to download this document from  Corel .  Here is a summary of the new features as described on Corel website: Color palettes includes the Pantone® Matching System Uncoated and Coated color palettes Support for multiple page sizes and orientation  lets you enjoy flexible document creation Eye Dropper tool  pick up color from one object and copy it to another  Interactive Mesh Fill tool  take advantage of exceptional control and creativity when filling objects and text Image sprayer  "spray" a series of objects along a path Miniature Preview dialog box  lets you see the effects of any setting changes immediately Preflight warnings  get important feedback and information about your print jobs  Microsoft Visual Basic for Applications  create CorelDRAW_based solutions with this industry_standard scripting language Robust PDF support  lets you exchange and view electronic documents easily and reliably, independent of the environment in which they were created Job ticketing  annotate files with production details, such as setup or binding instructions, for your printing company Support for QuickTime™ 3.0 VR  create, open, edit and save single_ or multiple_node  QuickTime VR panoramas and objects

Improved tools
The Natural Pen tool (in my SIG we used it for calligraphy-type design) has been renamed Artistic Media and provides expanded options in the Artistic Media docker. The Pen flyout still offers freehand and bezier tools as well as enhanced dimension and connector lines. This last tool is useful in flow or organizational charting

The Interactive drop shadow tool is enhanced to allow perspective drop shadows, which gives an illusion of depth. You can change a shadow's direction, the distance between it and the object, its color and opacity, and the feathering of its edges.

The new Interactive Contour tool lets you create contoured objects.  This is similar to the blend effect, except that you can see the progression between the levels.

The Interactive Mesh Fill tool is a really cool effect (see screen shot) that lets you produce multipoint fills.  Instead of being limited to square, round, or diagonal gradients or blends, you can customize the effects by dragging grid nodes.

Other tool enhancements include revised node shaping features, live smoothing of lines, and an new rectangle shaping features (you can round the corners of a rectangle as a group or individually).

New bitmap effects
CorelDRAW 9 includes fifty new special effects for bitmap images.  A screen shot of shows samples taken from the CorelDRAW “what’s new” window.  As with earlier versions, you can transform your vector image to bitmap, then apply special effects.  If you’re running CorelDRAW on older Pentiums, be patient while you wait for the effect to be applied or previewed.

If you need to convert bitmap to vector art, as in the past, CorelTRACE will covert the image.  If you need to capture and modify screen images or screen shots, CorelCAPTURE will run as a TSR, letting you use a hotkey to capture the image.  You can then edit or crop the bitmap screen shot in CorelDRAW or Photo-Paint.

Productivity improvements
Some new improvements are not for the casual user.  CorelDRAW 9 includes a new feature called common workspaces. This allows you to exchange files between DRAW and Photo Paint for the PC, and between the PC and the PowerMacintosh, making it easier to exchange work between platforms. Support for Visual Basic 6 lets developers build custom business solutions. This VBA6 support also includes Microsoft Forms Package and support for ActiveX controls.

The package also offers greater support for prepress users.  A wizard walks you through the steps of packaging your work for service bureaus and better Postscript support is included.  Also a section of the Print dialog box checks your work for possible printing problems.

Purchasing the program
The CorelDRAW 9 Graphics Suite street price is about $450 for the whole suite, or about $179 for the upgrade.  The program is available at software retail stores and online software stores as well as directly from Corel Corporation.  I bought my CorelDRAW 8 upgrade for $225 from a software wholesaler in 1998; I found the CorelDRAW 9 upgrade at a “member’s only” warehouse for $139.  The package included the manuals. My only quibble with the CorelDRAW 9 packaging is that the CDs come in cardboard sleeves.  Personally I like multi-CD jewel cases, but since so many users now keep CDs in wallets, I guess its practical for Corel to substitute cardboard sleeves.

The graphics suite includes 

• CorelDRAW 9
• Photo-Paint 9
• Canto Cumulus 

(a media or art manager that recognizes over 110 file formats)
• Corel TEXTURE
• Corel TRACE
• Corel CAPTURE utilities
• Digimarc Digital Watermarking
• HSoftware Squizz plug-ins for bitmaps
• 25,000 clipart images (10,000 new!)
• 1,000 high resolution photos
• 1,000 TrueType and Type 1 fonts.

If the price at an auction seems too good to be true, it probably is.  Unless the seller is offering a shrink-wrapped, registrable software that he or she won at a conference or convention, you may be bidding on illegal software.  There are unscrupulous sellers at the auction sites who sell pirated or copied software with serial numbers.  You can use the serial number to install the program but can’t register the program. If the software is unregisterable (unless you obtain a “Not For Resale” package from the publisher or an authorized distributor), then the sale is not legal.

The minimum requirements
CorelDRAW 9 can be used on the Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT 4.0 operating systems.  The minimum system recommendations are 32 MB RAM, a Pentium 133, 2X CD-ROM, and SVGA monitor. I really wouldn’t use CorelDRAW on a minimum use machine because it places a large demand on resources.   Currently I’m using Pentium II 300 with 96 MB RAM, and I have to wait minutes for some features to apply. 
You need a minimum of 100 MB hard disk space, but that is only for a compact installation.  Plan for a 190 MB installation with a minimum of fonts installed. Even with this typical or custom installation, you won’t be loading all the Corel graphics or productivity tools.  Don’t even think of loading all the fonts.  Windows 95 or 98 doesn’t like you to load over 500 fonts and if you have too many fonts already loaded, you’ll get warning messages during the install.

Installing the program and FONTS
I compared a custom installation to the typical installation and didn’t see a need for a custom installation.  While I didn’t need the extra tools that I could add in the custom installation, I did need to change the destination directories and that was allowed in the typical installation. 

The typical installation also allows you to select the fonts you want loaded.  Sigh!  So many to choose from, and as much as I wanted to load all the funky kidstuff, trendy, and crazy headline fonts, I had to limit myself to previewing what was offered and only loading what I thought I might have an immediate need for in web design, greeting cards, flyers, etc.  In the end, I know I’ll probably only use a tenth of what I chose, because those cool “crazy creatures” or party fonts have limited use.

The Libraries Catalog provides samples of the fonts, so its better to minimize the font load to the default list, and add a single font as you need it. If the default list duplicates what’s currently in your font library, then don’t load any fonts at all. 

Conclusion
For a little bit of money, CorelDRAW offers a lot of power for the graphic artist, and cool tools for the casual user. I rarely upgrade my software with each new release, and I almost passed up this version of CorelDRAW, but I’m glad I didn’t. The enhanced tools and improved web design support make CorelDRAW 9 a worthwhile investment.