CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is a professional vector drawing program that comes complete with a full set of clipart, connection to a font recognition website and the bitmap image editor Photo-Paint.
Ease of Use, Performance: 24/25
Look & Feel: 24/25
Features 24/25
How much I enjoy 25/25
Total: 97/100
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 is the 14th version of this suite of vector drawing and image editing programs from Corel that includes new features along with some enhanced classics. The Corel suite is a well established and well reviewed program that has been around long enough to have plenty of updates and revisions.
CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is a handy set of programs for use as image editing, publishing and illustration programs used for creating web pages, illustrations, brochures and signs. The program comes complete with tools to create, edit and publish not only single documents but collections of images, pages and illustrations for use as websites, business brochures or client projects.
CorelDRAW X4 can be used by the novice or amateur as a suite of programs for photography image editing to use as a first program for your photography. The inclusion of other tools like the entire DRAW program would future proof your creative process when it comes time to go beyond the single image to create web pages, brochures or other projects.
The suite works well as a single point for photographers to jump in at above a single program like Adobe’s Photoshop in the smaller expense and inclusions of vast tools used in the DRAW program. You can use photographs not only in the image editing but also in the DRAW program to create useful and unique web pages, images for use in business or even creative image editing for personal use.
The biggest contention between users of both the Corel programs and Adobe’s is usually that one is better than the other but the main concern is what your company or workplace uses. The differences in programs are not all that great but the main difference is in what you are used to or what you need to export or send as a working product for completion.
Some companies use Adobes products as it is now becoming more of an industry standard but I have found plenty of companies and individuals who are using Corel products as well. While many use one or the other some of course have their preference by not only their use but particular features but I really don’t want to get into a debate on which to use.
I will get into the features and what is so good about the CorelDRAW suite that I received for reviewing including the extras as well as the two main programs in the suite. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 includes the main programs CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT as well as some support and other programs.
The CoredDRAW suite includes CorelDRAW, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, Bitstream Font Navigator, Corel CAPTURE X4, Duplexing Wizard and Service Bureau Profiler. The program also installs several folders that contain extras including Clipart, Fonts, Objects Photos and documentation for the suite.
The CorelDRAW is your vector drawing program that draws images and objects using mathematical formula that is only dependant on the screen resolution. When using an image editing program like Photoshop or Corel Paint you are editing with pixels that are small squares of color.
When programs and images are in pixels the size of the image and how well it looks the closer you get is dependent on the size of the pixels and how many are per square inch. Vector imaging programs draw these pixels according to the screen resolution so the individual pixels may be smaller in any given object according to the screen size of the desktop viewing the image.
In a pixel based picture or image the screen resolution has no factor in what the picture or image looks like, it will be the same sized pixels no matter the screen resolution. So using a vector based graphic or image means across any computer an image will look the same according to the screen resolution and not the image size.
This makes the most sense when working on various computers such as a network or the internet and this is also why many website images are nice using vector programs. No matter who is viewing the picture or image it will look the same according to the screen resolution only becomes a factor when smaller screen resolutions are used.
The images or objects in vector based graphics also scale according to the screen resolution of any one persons computer so the image will look good regardless of screen resolution to a point. If you go down to smaller resolutions like 800x600 of course just about everything is going to look a bit blocky and not as good which is to be expected.
So using a vector based drawing program is better for many situations like website pages, educational programs and parts of software like logo’s and menu pages with various graphics. You can also combine the two processes and create logos with both vector based and image edited graphics and objects for the best of both worlds.
CorelDRAW even includes a process to convert a selected image to bitmap format or pixel based so you can perform certain artistic and 3 dimensional effects that you would not otherwise be able to. Both the CorelDRAW and Corel Paint are as easy to use as any other image editing program I have tried; you just need to learn the various terms and uses for tools and features.
Some tools or features may be named a bit differently but if you are not used to any graphics or image editing program this is just a matter of learning how Corel does things. One example of this is the tool to resize or change the current selected object to a different size or resolution.
In Photoshop you would use the Image Size tool but in Corel you use the Image Resample tool which is both pretty easy to understand as well as use. Other tools and features have a little different terminology or naming but some are exactly the same across several programs like Crop, Paint or Fill.
In fact I found that there are several tutorials and step by step guides that work equally well for either program that helps you learn new or common features. I used an Adobe tutorial on creating a sun with the Corel PHOTO-PAINT and DRAW programs to create my own sun and had no problems with each step as both programs are easy to use or figure out.
When talking about which program is better, yes, I will get into the fight between Corel and Adobe, I really don’t think either is “better”. Corel and Adobe have their hard core fans and others who use it because that is or was what their company used or was available.