Corel CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 by Author’s Name

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As an opening caveat, this review focuses on Photo-Paint, one of the many programs offered in the Graphics Suite. I have used nearly every version of Corel PhotoPaint since version 3, so I feel fairly authoritative on the program’s evolution over the past 15 years or so, but I rarely use any of the other members of the Suite. I know I’m in the minority (everyone prefers Adobe Photoshop) but I’m an old dog who hates to learn new tricks, so I stick with PhotoPaint. Both programs work on different “conceptual philosophies” so switching between them is more than just learning a new interface.

I primarily use Corel PhotoPaint to create artwork from scratch, but about 20% of my usage is editing photos. I bought X3 to upgrade from version 12, and to my disappointment I found few meaningful changes. In fact, there have been few major changes or updates for several previous versions. It seems Corel is satisfied with including a few more tools or effects, which are usually just raster effect algorithms, and often accomplish something that you could already do with the existing tools. For instance, the red-eye removal tool – you can already do that with the color replace brush with a moderate degree of tolerance for red, you could desaturate the eye (to remove most of the color), or you could mask the eye area and adjust the red color tone.

Despite the lack of significant evolution, the core of the program is still the same – it is a solid contender as a photo editing or raster graphics drawing board. Once a user becomes proficient with Corel, there is little that he or she cannot accomplish with ease.

Besides adding essentially redundant tools, Corel missed the opportunity to improve the code and fix bugs. The notoriously buggy interface still occasionally freezes and crashes, and a reoccurring error (which I’ve seen in many versions of the software) pops up when you copy a small-sized object. This will cause a data loss from the object, and the image will be replaced with pixilated gibberish. The program still uses an archaic method to straighten images and photos – I actually use Google’s Picasa to straighten images, then put them back into Corel for detail work. Tone and color can be fully controlled, but you have to juggle various different tools to arrive at where you want to be. Creating PNG alpha transparency exactly as you wish has always been unnecessarily challenging with Corel – while it seems Adobe handles this with no trouble. Other tools, commonly used by illustrators, have not been updated in many versions. For instance, the texture tool, where the artist can apply a texture (or its bumpmap) to an object or masked area, still does not allow the artist to scale the texture (one feature I REALLY want), nor does it easily scroll the texture to find the best place (it still relies on early-90’s-ish X and Y coords to shift the texture around on the object)

But I could gripe about features not updated or included all day – that’s easy to do with any software. The bottom line is this is an overall good program, especially if you (a) are not used to Adobe’s way of doing things and (b) are looking for a cheaper alternative. I would certainly recommend this program to you.

If on the other hand you are a Corel PhotoPaint veteran and are thinking of upgrading, I would not bother if you have any version past 11. It really will not offer you anything critical you do not have already. I hear x4 updated PhotoPaint, and x5 should improve it more. Hold out for one of them, if you can.

I understand that software companies strive to give new versions of their products “new” or “better” appearances but in my opinion toos and defaults should be recognizable from version to version as much as possible. I have used versions of Corel since CorelDraw!3 I just moved to X3 from 10 and find that the trace tool works better but the mechanism is somewhat cryptic. I would have great sympathy for a buyer that is using it for the first time if they had never used an older version simply because I could only figure it out through past knowledge and trial and error. The results were great but the methodology lacks some of the intuitiveness of the past versions. The pallettes are far less comprehensive thn version 10’s pallettes. I truly wish I had version 8’s pantone pallette back even though it is incomplete it was so much better layed out. i will never understand why black has to be at one end of the pallette and white at the other, waste of time… The tools are all there but they appear different. I went to work in X3 fright away and found I could work effectively on day one but I did resort to version 10 (which I have kept on my system) a few times in the first week to perform operations that I coupdn’t figure out in X3 which were simple in 10. The Help files are circuitous, apparently never actually getting to the point. The on line tutorials are great for the absolute novice but useless to anyone who actually has worked with vector art before. The Export to AI is still a little inaccurate even after all these years. (You cannot select a line terminus and expect it to be there in AI) The EPS export filter doesn’t always want to be readable in Adobe either. The price is excellent, the product spectacular in its own right and I am happy with my purchase. I expected a little more in this version than I got but no less than I had with additional compatibility. I still need to have a copy of Illustrator on my machine to deal with people who have only that program.

Excellent program, good price, they keep making it better. I started with version 3 so 10 versions higher this one is makes it super.

I’m in awe about what this program can do, but I’ve yet to be able to use it to its fullest. It’s not user friendly and I’ve been designing photo brochures, and marketing literature and multi-media presentations for years with other design software.

The Corel_Tutor is unwieldy to use and only illustrates the simplest projects. It takes a week to learn the glossary used for the program. And if you don’t use it daily, it’s easy to forget the glossary and toolbox icons.

I was hoping the “student & teacher” edition would be more instructive, but it’s not.

I’m currently searching for a tutor who will teach me the complexities of using this program with a hands-on approach.