Review: Corel Graphics Suite, Part 2

Product Name/Version: Corel Graphics Suite
OS X ?: Oh Yes
Company: Corel
URL: http://www.corel.com
Category: Commercial Graphic Applications
Price: $549, $199 Upgrade
NOTE: New iMac owners, select users of certain Adobe/Macromedia products, and owners of older Windows versions may also qualify for the upgrade price in some of Corel's recent special offers. Check www.corel.com for details.
Requirements:
- Power Macintosh G3 or higher
- Mac OS 8.6+ or Mac OS X
- 64 MB RAM with virtual memory enabled for Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2; 128 MB RAM for Mac OS X
- 250 MB available hard disk space, CD-ROM drive
- 800 x 600 color display for Mac OS 8.6 to 9.2 (1024 x 768 for Mac OS X)
Date of Review: 5/17/02
Rating: Overall: 4 bounces, Pure Lust

Ratings Legend

One Bounce: Lustless

This product is uninspiring and not only lacks lust appeal, but it also lacks even the possibility of lust-production.

Two Bounces: Lack-Luster

If you need what it is that this product does, look elsewhere or wait, it lacks lust-appeal.

Three Bounces: Lustworthy

A few rough spots here and there, but overall a high quality item worthy of lust.

Four Bounces: Pure Lust

Unalloyed lust.

Part 2

(Part 1 found here)

The Not-So-Usual Suspects of Corel Photo-Paint 10, CorelTrace 10, Corel R.A.V.E. 10, & CorelDraw 10.

CorelDraw 10

"Maximize Your Workspace"

CorelDraw does a better job than most organizing the agonizing multitude of palattes, windows and options graphic programs throw at us. They deal with the concept of clutter cleanly and effectively through a single tabbed window area can can be combined with any other. If you are working with say, your Color, Object and Envelope palette windows open at once, but find the screen too cluttered, simply drag one into the other and they merge into a single tabbed window. It's quick, painless, and pretty conducive to keeping an organized workspace (unlike the sometimes unwieldy collapsing windows that even Corel/Procreate's Painter can fall victim to).

One dropped into the other

Toolbars drag in and out with ease as well

Everything is essentially split between Toolbars and Palettes. The easy rule is, if it's a Toolbar, it can rest up in your upper line of tools, and if it's a palette, it can be combined into a single, tabbed, floating window.

Headlining the mainstage of the Corel Graphics Suite is an application that certainly could stand on its own, and in fact has for many years. I have a sordid but solid history with CorelDraw. I had one gig as a graphic designer that relied solely on the application, and demanded a near factory-pace of churning out design after slightly modified design, primarily for printing onto vellum and burned for screen-printing onto t-shirts, sportsbags, hats and sweatpants. It was a quirky app at version 8 (not helped by the fact that it was running on Windows 95) but it did get the job done, no matter how quixotically. I recall the constant saving in the odd ".cdr" file, sorting through the Object Manager list for the needle in a haystack, and playing with endless strange text configurations. Fast forward to the present, and take firm notice of the new CorelDraw 10, now flanked on all sides by much more full, powerful apps like Corel PhotoPaint 10 (see part one) and totally reworked and retooled from the awkward but able days I used it. In fact, compared to what I was used to, the current state of CorelDraw 10 is a dream...CorelDraw makes use of the suite wide features of the Corel Graphics Suite, including the preflight, PDF, improved color selection, and more. But it features quite a few of its own tricks that clearly set it apart as the key application in a powerful bundle.

To jazz up the lines you make, take a look at the new smoothing and contour tools. The smoothing effect works with lines generated by the Artistic Media and Freehand tools. You can use the Interactive Contour Tool to create cool contour effects with an adjustable slider and in, out or middle guidance. The Artistic Media tool itself is particularly nice, allowing for cool strokes and brush effects, including spray and calligraphy styles. Pre-made shapes are available in the "Perfect Shapes" bank of useful objects, items and doohickeys. Tools and actions adjust in real time and tend to only be as slow as your careful decisions.

Like Corel Photo-Paint 10 also in the Suite, CorelDraw includes an informational bar towards the bottom that includes Object Information and the "Infoline" of tips for key-commands and other tricks. It's indicative of the new Corel style of providing you with the most information, and by extension more control. I think the approach is a helpful one, especially for the more technical users who will relish CorelDraw's improvements and stability. Newbies may be distracted at first by the wealth of options, but Corel has done a great job of combining organizational prowess with this informative structure (see sidebar for more on organization).

One feature that might not get the attention it deserves in other reviews (read: by single-language Americans) is the multilingual text editor. CorelDraw 10 allows for multiple languages represented in the same box of text with all your normal tools at the ready (spelling, grammar). This kind of integration is indicative of the attention the Corel teams gave Corel Draw for this overhaul. Even a single-language American such as myself (and I don't even use English very well) can appreciate the lingual the depth.

CorelDraw 10 deserves, and gets from at least me, high marks for the total overhaul and attention paid to providing an excellent user experience. It was truly night and day using the Aqua-fied CorelDraw 10 versus now primitive-feeling Windows and Mac previous versions. CorelDraw 10 is particularly responsive and stable, and I find myself making much more confident, informed artistic decisions as a result of its attention to detail.

Just look at all of the information CorelDraw is offering with just the simple highlight of a single text graphic. Note the Object Info/Infoline at the bottom, Control-Click options from the Object Manager and upper Toolbar options all for a single selected object.

Corel R.A.V.E.

Corel's Real Animated Vector Effects (R.A.V.E.) is the new kid on the block in the Suite, and is being pushed, as one of the major apps of the group. One thing CorelR.A.V.E. has going for it is its familiar feel. From the Timeline and options we're used to from similar applications, to the distinctly CorelDraw-like atmosphere and interface, CorelR.A.V.E. is comfortable to use. That being said, there are moments when the familiarity makes CorelR.A.V.E. smack of a sidekick to CorelDraw, rather than a standalone powerhouse like Photo-Paint and Draw have become. That's not to say CorelR.A.V.E. isn't powerful; the implication that it has become its own application exemplifies the number of options it has to offer. If these options were just tagged to the side of CorelDraw, it'd surely weigh down and confound most casual Draw users, and likewise if it was treated as a smaller side app (like CorelTrace) than it wouldn't get the attention it deserves.

Regardless of its philosophical place in the Suite's lineup, CorelR.A.V.E. provides a relatively harmless way to create vector animations that build with relative grace and ease. R.A.V.E. has an impressive handle on gradients and fills as well as CorelDraw's new tools and realtime adjusting capabilities. Oddly, CorelR.A.V.E. is the only app to not carry the Infoline box; this was particularly strange considering this is the app that we easily know the least about and would need the most information on key-commands and the ilk.

CorelR.A.V.E. allows you to export your creation as either a Gif animation, Quicktime Movie or Flash file. What's perplexing is, the three very different export types yield few additional output options or configurations once chosen. This is in contrast to the much-improved and detailed output options found elsewhere in the main Corel applications, including its sister CorelDraw. It's telling of the early age of this program that the depth is so limited.

CorelR.A.V.E. can create and output rollovers and URL behaviors for internet use and that includes integration in its Flash exports. (Choosing "Publish To The Web" results in just forcing you to choose the Flash export.) This is where CorelR.A.V.E. falls short of the Macromedia applications and the depth bottoms out, as it simply cannot and does not cover the same ground Macromedia has spent all this time perfecting and maturing in. Future versions of CorelR.A.V.E. may prove worth watching as the design team obviously has a keen handle on development and the application will inevitably mature. It certainly enhances an already attractive package and may offer users an easy alternative and introduction to animation, providing a stepping stone for those who never dove into Flash headfirst. But those users are increasingly rare, and with Flash MX providing a much more friendly learning environment CorelR.A.V.E. will not hold up in comparison. Whether its meant to is debatable.

The workspace, featuring a Corel-provided sample animation. Note the lack of an Infoline and the bland features of the Timeline.

Does CorelR.A.V.E. deliver? Sure, as long as you aren't expecting Corel to reinvent the wheel in their foray into vector animation, and there are still bumps in the design. For the most part any problems in CorelR.A.V.E. lie in it just not going far enough, but when you consider that it contains so many of CorelDraw's overhauled features, it really does cover some important ground. It's an app to watch, and I think I can confidently say no one will buy the Corel Graphics Suite 10 just for CorelR.A.V.E. and Corel knows that. It does sweeten the pot, but not nearly as effectively or in the smart way that Photo-Paint has come into its own. Will we see CorelR.A.V.E. mature in the same way? Hopefully, as it shows a lot of promise. Let's just hope it doesn't take as long as Photo-Paint did to come around.

CorelTrace

Headlining the second stage of Corel applications in the Corel Graphics Suite 10, CorelTrace is one of those apps that is almost useful and powerful enough to be sold on its own...but not quite. Like its sordid history of helpfulness, I still think CorelTrace is an integral part of the Suite, but it's telling that Corel doesn't bill it as a top-drawer application along with R.A.V.E., Draw, and Photo-Paint. The gist is, CorelTrace provides an adequate tracing program, of moderate power and ability. It's options are robust, allowing for Outline, Centerline, Woodcut, Sketch, Mosaic and 3D Mosaic trace commands. It's a decent bitmap to vector utility, and certainly useful with scans. (*Sigh*...If only its "Acquire Image" menu worked; But seeing as we have no OS X scanner drivers, it will have to remain a prescient but impotent command for now. At least Corel left it in so we can longingly wish for it.) To be fair, it operates fast and continues the Corel Graphic Suite standard interface with an Infoline and easy to adjust Toolbar. But while it does seem an improved-upon application, it hasn't undergone to total positive transformation as its brothers, and remains a nice bonus, but not key, application in the Suite.

Corel Graphics Suite 10 Conclusion

The Corel Graphics Suite 10 might was well be referred to as "1" with the sheer rebirth of the series. The app group is one of the most enticing and powerful packages I have seen for OS X that will please new and returning users alike. The sustained and informative standard interface, global preferences and design, consistent speed and stability and attention to detail prove that not only is Corel back, but that it's a force to be reckoned with in the development department. If this is what they do with the old guard, I can't wait to see what they will offer in the future. But for now, enjoy this truly sweet Suite that I highly and easily recommend.

- Dean Browell

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