Product Reviews

Rather a long time ago now, CorelDRAW was the first graphics application to run under Windows, and this is its 14th major release. As always, it attempts to distinguish itself with a fresh look, this time based on more attractive icons and toolbars. The startup Welcome Screen has also been reworked, and offers quick access to the New From Template command, which provides a much expanded range of presets to base your design on.

The biggest interface change will be felt by Vista users, as X4 uses larger thumbnails and Explorer's preview pane to improve visual file handling, while support for metadata means you can quickly find files from across your entire hard disk based on attributes such as author, date, and any keywords you've assigned.

CorelDRAW's file format support has also been extended. X4 adds the latest Adobe Acrobat, Photoshop, Painter, Word and Publisher formats as well as for the two main CAD standards, DXF and DWG. Also welcome to technical drawing users will be the new support for centre line as well as outline tracing in PowerTrace, which converts images and scans into editable drawings.

As a vector drawing program, one area in which CorelDRAW has always scored highly is in its suitability for text-based publications. In X4 there are new commands for mirroring text blocks, enhanchements to print merging, and a completely new interactive Table tool. Other improvements make it possible to add and control layers independently for each page in a multi-page

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publication, an impressive feat when Adobe's rival drawing program, Illustrator, is still limited to single-page projects.

CorelDRAW's font handling also stands out. To begin with, X4 comes with over 1000 OpenType fonts, along with software to manage them. This release also introduces live font preview. You no longer need to apply each font to your text to see how it looks; instead, you simply hover your mouse over a font name and the currently selected text will preview the typeface in situ.

Also of benefit is a tie-in with MyFont.com. If you're tracing an image, such as a logo, and want to know what typeface it uses, you need only click 'WhatTheFont?!' and an online wizard walks you through identifying - and optionally buying - the font. Another web link is to the ConceptShare service, which lets you quickly post designs to a central site where you can then invite others to view them and comment. This would be fun except that it costs anything from $20 to $200 a month depending on usage, which is daylight robbery.

Photo finish

The suite also includes the Corel PHOTO-PAINT image editor. This shares X4's improved interface and file support, and adds new photo handling capabilities such as enhanced tonal range editing, image straightening, and new 'lenses' for effects such as converting from colour to black-and-white or mimicking photographic filters. In addition, PHOTO-PAINT now supports a wide range of Camera Raw formats, though the lack of any image management tools means the program is better suited for preparing the occasional picture than processing hundreds of photos.

Despite some nice additions, there's not enough here to persuade existing users to upgrade, especially at £269. And the suite still falls awkwardly between consumer territory, where it looks expensive, and professional, where Adobe's Creative Suite is really the only credible choice. But Corel's suite is cheaper and easier to get to grips with, and the fonts and clip art are worth having - so maybe CorelDRAW will last another year or 14.