CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 review

There’s a danger that this sort of high-end power adds complexity, which in turn could alienate CorelDRAW’s non-professional users. To counter this, Corel has worked on making the program more friendly all round, with improved descriptive help in dialog boxes and more explanatory tool tips. In addition, alongside its existing online help and Hints docker, Corel now supports X5 with a full printed guide and over two hours of video tutorials.

There are almost 30 docker windows to get to grips with, so you still couldn’t call CorelDRAW X5 intuitive, but the learning curve and whole working approach is certainly far easier than Adobe Illustrator’s.

Additions and improvements

Many of X5’s core tools have been enhanced. With the Rectangle tool you can now control rounding, scalloping and chamfering of corners direct from the Property bar, and also set whether these should be fixed or scaled when the rectangle is resized.

The two-point Line tool enables you to force the path perpendicular or tangential to an existing object, while the new B-Spline tool lets you add smooth curves via control points. For creative work, the Art Media tool now offers dozens of preset brush styles, while for absolute precision when drawing and positioning objects and nodes, you can use the new Object Co-Ordinates docker.

One of CorelDRAW’s most popular features – PowerTrace, which allows you automatically to convert a bitmap into an outlined or centre-lined drawing – has also been reworked for X5. With complete control over corner handling, colour merging and overlap removal, PowerTrace delivers smoother and more easily editable results then before. And for centreline tracings, the new Join Lines docker lets you quickly tidy up paths by automatically extending broken lines to bridge gaps between them.

Once you’ve drawn or traced the shapes that make up your drawing you need to control each object’s fill. CorelDRAW has built up plenty of formatting power over the years, including gradient, pattern and texture fills but, in expert hands, the most naturalistic shading is delivered by gradient meshes. This is especially true now that X5 has simplified its default mesh, enabled transparency as well as colour handling and added an option to smooth away hard edges automatically.

The simple flat colour fill has also seen improvements. The Colour Eyedropper tool now provides onscreen feedback of CMYK and RGB/Hex values as you hover your mouse over drawings or the desktop. Even better, when you click or drag, the Eyedropper now automatically switches modes ready to apply the sampled individual colour.

Meanwhile, for managing groups of colours, CorelDRAW X5 adds a handy new Document Palette, which automatically lists all the colours applied to the current drawing. This palette is saved in the file itself and makes it much easier to apply colours consistently throughout and across projects.

New tools

X5 has done a reasonable job of enhancing CorelDRAW’s existing functionality, but it’s desperately crying out for some brand new power to catch the eye. The new feature that Corel hopes will fill this role is Corel Connect. This acts both as a simple standalone application and as an integrated docker window, allowing you to browse or search through CorelDRAW’s large collection of clip-art drawings and photos, and then quickly incorporate them into your work.

At this point longstanding users may well be slightly bemused, remembering that CorelDRAW X3 used to provide a similar feature that was dropped in X4. The Scrapbook docker allowed you to browse Corel content held online, and was arguably a more modern solution. However, Connect scores with its ability to search local drives and networks for non-Corel content, its optional standalone operation and the Tray panel that lets you collect together potential options before deciding which ones to use.

Useful though Connect is for quickly knocking up eye-catching artwork, it is neither as new nor as powerful as Corel would like to make out, and it’s typical of this release as a whole. Rather than breaking new creative ground, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 focuses on developing and making the most of existing content and features.

It’s still a major advance on the disappointing X4 release and there’s no doubt many new users will be better off – both financially and productively – choosing Corel over Adobe. However, Corel’s existing users will quickly spot that CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X5 delivers few compelling reasons to upgrade.

Author: Tom Arah