COREL DRAW GRAPHICS SUITE 12

When Corel starts to sell its software by weight it’ll have a massive advantage over the competition. Its Corel DRAW Graphics Suite12 (£421 inc. VAT) has a shipping weight of some 2kg, but of course the four CDs are only a tiny part of the package. There’s a hefty user guide, and a second book that’s ring bound to guide you through the mass of symbols, clipart, photos and objects that span three of the CDs. This Suite consists of three graphics applications: Corel DRAW 12 for illustrations; Photo-Paint 12 for photo editing; and R.A.V.E.3 for creating motion graphics. Although this goes some way to justifying the heft price tag, it doesn’t explain why the US market only pays$399 for this suite.

You’ll note that this software is only compatible with Windows 2000, Windows XP and Tablet PC, and this is exactly the type of software that you may want to use on a Tablet as it makes full use of the pen-based system. For many years Corel has made a feature of its support for Wacom tablets and tools, as they are far more intuitive than a mouse for an illustrator or artist, and of course that’s native to a Tablet PC. The rest of the Corel system requirements are far lower than Microsoft demands for these versions of Windows, but we strongly recommend you have plenty of memory and a decent processor if you intend to use this software fully – and at £421 (inc. VAT), we hope that you will. The new features in DRAW are intended to speed up working, so the software intelligently recognises the shape you’re drawing and it now has a Snap To tool, which has been a feature of CAD packages for years. Dynamic Guides also help you to layout illustrations far faster, and when the work is complete you can choose to save it as a PDF or export it to either Microsoft Office or WordPerfect Office. Basically, it sets resolution at 96dpi and flattens the drawing out. These changes are good, but they certainly aren’t worth a £200upgrade from version DRAW 11. Ifyou need some hardcore graphical software this suite is very good, but it’s scarily expensive.

RATING: 7

PRICE: £359/£421 (EX/INC. VAT)
KEY FEATURES: UPDATED DRAWING SOFTWARE THAT SPEEDS UP YOUR WORK
OS COMPATIBILITY: WINDOWS 2000/XP/XP TABLET EDITION
CONTACT: 01628 589800 WWW.COREL.CO.UK