CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3
Complete graphics editing and designing application
suite.
By Jon Deragon,
Visca Consulting
Wednesday, July 18, 2007; 4:00pm EST
Corel has long been a leader in the graphics suite market, and their
latest release, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 is sure to solidify
their position at the top. X3 continues the tradition of the
pervious releases by building on the solid foundation of an
application suite used by millions over the years. This release
features not only refinements, but all-new time saving features and
changes to help expedite designer's production timelines.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 comes complete with CorelDRAW X3 the
vector based illustration program; PowerTrace (which is now
incorporated into CorelDRAW for ease of use) for bitmap to vector
conversion; Photo-Paint X3 for bitmap editing and production; 1,000
fonts and fonts manager; 10,000 clipart images; and 1 hour of
training videos from Linda. A copy of Bitstream Font Navigator is
included to assist in loading the included fonts to your
workstation.
Corel claims more than 40 new features and over 400 enhancements to
this version of CorelDRAW and one way to get to know these new
features is by their nifty "Highlight What's New" option. Every
program should have this, it allows you to select a previous version
of the program � and then it will highlight all the menu items in
the drop downs that did not exist in that version, compared to X3.
Making it easy for you to see the new things you can take advantage
of.
One area of definite improvement is in application performance. Load
times are faster than previous versions, and especially faster than
its competition - which seems to get slower and slower with every
new release. The program feels more responsive and tasks are
performed generally much quicker than before.
CorelDRAW X3 from an interface point of view is similar to Version
12, the previous version. We truly liked how some of the tools and
new labs incorporated numerous ways you could view originals and
compare them to the adjustments being made within that tool. This
includes live image adjusting; side-by-side original and adjusted
image editing; snapshots of various adjustment versions; scaling of
the images and more. It is clear the developers thought through
carefully what designers needed to make their life easier, and
implemented it! Our hats off to you!
We are particularly impressed with the new Cutout Lab and Image
Adjustment Lab. The Cutout Lab uses a lite version of the powerful
Corel KnockOut engine to allow for expedited cutting of intricate
detail and difficult to cut images. A classic example of this is
trying to cut a person's head from a background� Usually cutting
hair from a detailed background is a nightmare, but with the new
Cutout Lab it's a snap! Similarly, the Image Adjustment lab takes
the work out of making common image adjustments such as tint,
saturation and brightness by bringing all these tools into one
single space workspace so you can adjust in combination and compare
against the original in the numerous ways discussed earlier. One
feature we would like to see added in future versions is the
retention of original bitmaps so that objects can be rescaled
without loss of image quality.
Font handling has been improved to display font names in their style
for easier browsing of your font library. It also provides drop
downs to display available font style variations such as bolded or
italicized and displays the font with those properties. Another
innovation is the ability to fit text to path in CorelDRAW; it is
truly the most intuitive implementation of this type of feature we
have ever used. Unfortunately Corel Photo-Paint did not get the same
treatment and still depends on an older method of fitting text to
paths. Having more control over such things as font sharpness would
have been another nice addition.
In addition to its already incredible array of file formats
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 can import and export, it now supports
secure PDF exporting; perfect for distribution of paid or
confidential content. Increased compatibility has also been added
for Adobe Illustrator, PhotoShop, Corel Paint Shop Pro, Microsoft
Office and JPEG. Additionally, the newly included Pixmantec
RawShooter helps to streamline RAW file conversion.
If you are new to the CorelDRAW suite, you're in very good hands.
Comprehensive in-program Help Topics; Tutorials; a new context
sensitive Hints feature; an Insights from the Experts section; over
100 design templates to help you get started; a paper copy of the
CorelDRAW Handbook, and even training videos. It just doesn't get
much better then that in terms of helping users get acquainted with
a program.
We did encounter a small number of minor bugs, such as sliders that
sometimes were difficult to adjust to exact numbers, "dials" that
would sometimes not rotate properly to adjust beveling, and some
text drop shadow issues that caused distortions unless you
reposition the text. The application sometimes hesitated when
loading some image files or when displaying your font library for
the first time after loading. While all these are minor, they will
hopefully be addressed in a future patch or service pack. New
effects and textures would have also been nice to see; many of the
effects and paint textures are several versions old and their dated
look would not be practical for use in modern business or web
applications.
Overall, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 really does offer a tremendous
amount of graphics power, offering a complete solution for all of
your image needs. We liked the thoughtfulness that went into many of
the new enhancements, and would definitely say this is more of a
major upgrade than just an incremental upgrade.
System requirements include a Windows Vista, XP (with service pack
2) or 2000 based system with a minimum of a Pentium 3 1.4GHz
processor, 256MB of memory, and 60MB of available hard drive space.
The application ran incredibly smoothly on our test box (Pentium 4
3.6GHz, 1GB memory, ATI X800 running at 1920x1200 resolution). This
product utilizes a product-key copy protection system which
communicates with a centralized server for activation of your
license.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 is available from major electronics and
computer retailers, as well as from the Corel web site as a
shippable product or immediate download. The full product retails
for a very reasonable $399USD, $179 for the upgrade, and $99 for the
academic license. Check for often promotions that include bundled
add-in software for free when purchasing from their web site.
Product support includes unlimited web-based support and one
courtesy telephone support incident. Additional priority support
incidents can be purchased for $25 each. The Corel web site offers
patches and service packs as downloads, comprehensive knowledge base
and discussion forum. This product is available immediately.
PROS - Optimized faster performance; cut-out lab
speeds up cut out work tremendously; image adjustment lab brings
together commonly used image adjustment tools for easy editing;
great enhancements for comparing image adjustments such as
adjustment versioning and side-by-side comparing; incredible
assortment of help options; complete all-in-one graphics solution at
a very reasonable price.
CONS - Small handful of minor bugs; would have
liked new realistic textures and effects; lacks ability to better
define font sharpness; ability to scale bitmaps while retaining
detail would have been 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/
|
