Corel Draw 9 Review - Tony Thomas' Techtrends

Corel Draw 9 Packs a Punch

by Tony Thomas

Picture Courtesy of Corel

I have been using various incarnations of Corel Draw since 1992 and have found it to be a wonderfully versatile graphics package. Although it is technically a drawing package, I have always viewed Corel Draw as a graphics integration tool since you can use it for page layout, for combining bitmap and vector images with text in a single document and numerous other non-drawing tasks. As the program has evolved, more and more non-drawing features have been added making my description of the program even more valid.

My first look at Corel 9 indicates that the package has matured and become more refined. The program offers a myriad of features, yet it isn't totally overwhelming. I was able to perform many tasks without referring to the online help system. This package is a powerhouse! As a result, the minimum system requirements are pretty massive. I was able to run it acceptably on my AMD K6/233 system, but that is probably the low-end. In terms of disk space, the program takes up about 110MB of disk space. Not bad considering its power!

There really isn't very much that you couldn't do with Corel 9.0. The integration of bitmap and vector editing is seamless thanks to the included Corel Photpaint which can run from within Draw. (By the way, Photopaint has become a comprehensive bitmap editing package which ranks up there with any other package.) The bitmap effects are especially spectacular. And I found the PDF export function and the ability to create HTML to be valuable additions. Those who work professionally will appreciate the program's palette editor, preflight testing, color management and imposition features.

The included fonts, clipart and supplemental programs (Corel Script, Corel Capture, Corel Trace and Canto Cumulus Desktop make the program a true bargain. You'd need to spend 3X-5X the price to get what Corel 9 has in the box. Bottom Line: If you do a lot of graphics on the PC platform, Corel Draw 9.0 is the application you need.

For more information visit: http://www.corel.com