CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4
Page 2
Others have used one or the other just because it was what they got due to cost or possibly from recommendations from others but I do not think one is all that much better than the other. Each has features that are nice but they both have about the same basic features and allow you to do the same things but Adobe’s Photoshop does have more features which you also pay more for.
While no means basic Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4 is your standard image editing program that does not only the basics with a photo like resizing, cropping and enhancements but many other features. You can use the Clone tool to copy one area of an image to another for touching up scratches or smoothing out backgrounds.
The Replace Color Brush Tool does much like the Clone tool but with colors from the foreground to the background for easy changing of colors. Other tools like masking, erasing and cutting all work like you would imagine to enhance, edit out or clear up individual objects of a picture to edit an image.
Some of the new features with this version of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 include RAW camera file support, Straighten Image, Histogram Feedback and Tone Curve Adjustments. The RAW file support is a great new addition that allows photographers to use the best possible file type for taking pictures with the most detail available for use in an image editing program.
RAW file format uses a loss less format from a digital camera to your storage card so that the image does not have any compression or altering when taking the picture or transferring it to a computer. This format has large file sizes but it also allows you to do the most with your image after transferring it to a computer for professional images and photographs.
Straighten Image is a feature that allows you to straighten a scanned image in the program so you don’t have to do it manually or rescan the image. The histogram feedback and Tone Curve adjustments allow better editing on images using both past edits and curves for changing colors.
These features are much like ones that Photoshop has been using and just closes the gap between the two programs in terms of features available. The tools are easy to use and with the RAW file support allows you to use a whole range of features while keeping the original quality of the image.
The new features are not all that noteworthy other than to say they work well and are nice additions but the whole PHOTO-PAINT program is easy to use. Going from Photoshop with all my image editing was simple and did not take any massive relearning, just a few terms or features are different and I was using Corel in minutes.
The Corel image editing program works well and I found it quite easy to go from Adobe’s editor to Corel’s without any headaches or problems whatsoever. Now I will go on to vector editing or CorelDRAW X4 which is a vector drawing program much like Adobe’s Illustrator.
I have never used a vector drawing program in the recent past and not on a computer near as good as mine, the closest I have come to this type of program is AutoCAD many years ago. Vector drawing is a unique approach to getting what you want on your screen and creates its own unique set of problems as well as features.
With vector drawing you can take a round object, create some cloud like patterns in black and white, edit it some and turn it into a half sphere using 3D tools. Then do some more editing and colorize your results for a 3 dimensional looking sun that is fun and to create.
If you look around the internet and see planets, suns and other round objects that are not real photos but created using some type of program chances are it was done on a vector drawing program. It is very easy to create shapes, edit them to various sizes, dimensions and colors and use them in logos, web pages and even menus and pages of software for unique graphics.
Creating these objects is done easily with drawing tools like creating circles, squares or rectangles which you can fill with color, draw text over, edit and combine. Editing these objects can be done in various ways like turning them into 3 dimensional objects such a sign made from your simple title of a website.
The use of bitmap tools where you take your vector drawing, turn it into pixels or bitmaps and edit that into spheres, or other 3 dimensional shapes without leaving the program is nice. When you turn your object into a bitmap it is all done inside DRAW so you do not have to switch to PAINT to edit the image, you can colorize it, give it artistic effects like weather or distortions and continue with the same project.
DRAW is an easy to use program and I have only started to use its features but what makes it even better is the full set of images, clipart and fonts that really add to your features and tools. You can use clipart such as icons and objects, recolor them and add them to a website to visibly show what the website or page is about or use as a logo like I have on my main website page.
The clip art comes on the DVD and includes a nice spiral bound catalog so you have an easy way to search for the types of art, fonts, or even pictures you want to use. The additional folders will be added to your hard drive when you install the program and are a bonus feature from Corel that Adobe does not include in their much more expensive program.
While much if not all of the clipart and fonts may be available from various places on the internet here it is in one folder or set of folders on your drive for easy use. Corel does have some things that Adobe does not or does not offer as readily and the wide variety of additional fonts, clipart and images is one.
Other useful and nice features are the integration with Windows Vista and search to catalog your images on hard drives, this leaves you free to do work instead of hunt and find images. The What The Font tool allows you to find fonts using the WhatTheFont website which works well, I used it right off the bat and found out a font I had that I liked and want to use on my website.
Hunting through lists of fonts is time consuming like any kind of searching and making these types of tasks like identifying fonts or finding images on your own hard drive time savers while you’re trying to complete a project. Another feature is the publishing feature so you can output a single project as one file with multiple pages, documents and images all related to the same project.
Using Adobe you would have to save or export project parts and use In-Design to group everything into a single output or file but in Corel’s DRAW X4 you can do it from inside DRAW. I can see a very definite use of being able to not closeout one program and have to open another to get a project like a website with accompanying images, files and pages together into one file for a client.
I know I have not even scratched the surface of CorelDRAW X4 but I hope I have shown a few clear advantages of Corel’s drawing and image editing suite available from Corel in the latest version X4. Another good point to make is the price, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 costs about $350 for the CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, clipart and images content and additional manuals.