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CorelDraw X5 and Corel PhotoPoint X5 Review

We are not professional reviewers, full time graphics professionals or sellers of CorelDraw.  We actually use CorelDraw and PhotoPoint in our day to day computer work, web site design and photo editing

We have been using CorelDraw since version 1.  During those early years, CorelDraw had the bigger share of the desktop graphics market.

CorelDraw Corel PhotoPoint were our 2nd most favorite Graphics Program until March 2010 when PhotoImpact was discontinued and removed from the market.. Photo-Paint is now our favorite

You can get the CorelDraw / Corel PhotoPaint Suite combination for less than half of the two competing Adobe products

Our recommendation?  If you are a graphics professional that uses this type of software every day, all day, get the more competitors much more expensive products.  Everyone else can save with the powerful suite.

Things we like about Corel, CorelDraw and Corel PhotoPoint Suite:

  • It is a powerful, professional class image editor and page layout suite.
  •  Two programs at Great power but at a better price than the very expensive Adobe Photoshop / Adobe Illustrator.
  • Corel can create web graphics with rollovers, page hotspots and the like
  • Photo-Paint and CorelDraw can do what Adobe Photoshop can do
  • Performance is better and the user interface is more friendly than Adobe Photoshop
  • Corel Draw X5 performance seems improved in Windows 7 on a quad core machine
  • Corel X5 image new cataloging component is a terrific asset and makes it easy to manage your work.  If you have use earlier versions of Corel frequently, this makes the upgrade from previous versions a no brainer
  • The price / performance value far exceeds Adobe offerings.

Things we DO-NOT like about Corel, CorelDraw and Corel Photo-Paint Suite:

  • Corel has a reputation of adding features then removing or reducing the feature set in later version
  • Corel does not include file filters for discontinued Corel software - example - there are no filters for the discontinued native Ulead Photo Impact .UFO format
  • There are no file save options for icons (.ico)
  • Corel has been adding, removing, consolidating, acquiring and changing product lines.  How can we trust that support for native Corel formats will be available in the Future
  • PhotoImpact had a very convenient 'component designer' for web buttons and other objects.  Such convenience is missing in Corel Draw X5 and Corel Photo-Paint

 

 

CorelDraw X5 Corel Photo Paint X5

Highlights:

- Corel Suite is professional class

- Great power at a better price than Adobe PaintShop and Illustrator

-New image catalog makes this version worth the upgrade from previous versions

- Consolidation of the many photo editing products has left out some filters for discontinued products

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New Review of CorelDraw X5 Suite which includes:

- Corel Draw X5
- Corel Photo-Paint X5
- Corel Capture
- Bitstream Font Navigator
- Corel Connect


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