What was your favorite version of CorelDRAW

I started using CorelDRAW back in Version 3. I loved CorelDRAW 5! I then had to learn and fell in love with 11 now I am using X4 and still love the new things I find when I poke around. I've used all the versions in-between but I do have my favorites.

Does anyone remember or use a program called DrawMATE? The last version they made that worked with CorelDRAW was version 10. That was a great add on program by a company called Stahls' Lightning Graphics. Now all we have is Smart Designer from DAS. Good program but are there any others like that out there.

Just wondering, I hope that everyone has a great 4th of July weekend.

Ron Bastian

Ron,

I think I would agree that Draw 5 was one of my favorites. Part of that was
because it came with Ventura, a program that Corel has since ignored.

I don't think there are any other add-ons as comprehensive as DrawMate or
Smart Designer, but that doesn't mean there aren't alternatives out there.
The problem is that Corel has done an absolutely awful job of
supporting/promoting third parties. Thus users have to do a lot of research
to find out what exists. I'm constantly searching for that type of thing and
there are still a lot of products that I don't know about.

It seems to me that I evolve as Corel evolves, I love X4 because it is just where I need it to be right no in terms of features that I'm using.  I however can say that about previous versions too.  But man the spot color work in PP and the expanded gamut postsers is where it's really at for the large format printing right now.

CorelDRAW X4 is for me the best version.
I actually liked version 10 when it came out and it worked great for me.
But no doubt X4 (14) is my favorite version.

I have no doubt about this: X4 is the best of all.

I also love the v. 2.0, 3.0, 5.0 and 9.0

I loved ver 7, but X4 the best until the new version release.

Hi R,

I hold Ver 9 in high regard, very stable, fast / responsive.

X3 brought in great new tools such as smart fill, crop tool, virtual segment delete, amazing spot color support throughout for many effects such as live drop shadows, lenses etc. The new text dockers were a shock... this inexpensive new text docker for X3 makes them bearable IMO, since twice as many controls in the same amount of space. Way more convenient.

Fillet tool good idea, but very primitive & tedious operation IMO. The commercial live fillet macro makes it much better. The bevel tool was new, but  primitive in the controls since no live feedback and representation of light angle. No preset allowance either.

X4...whatthefont.com integration, concept share, independent layers per page, "artistic" tables (as opposed to regular excel/word/html table implementation)... Close integration for Vista searches/thumbnails.Live text feature.. I turn off ASAP, since on my system it slows me right down.

I don't use any of the above features, so X4 for me was not an critical upgrade over X3.

X3 never had X4's Toolbar alignment problems... I really hope this is fixed in next ver:

 

Text dockers were still not optimized for X4, so several users did it themselves.

The usual complaints about icons popped up, even after enormous expense of new icon set for X4. IMO they should allow Draw/PP to be skinnable or at least have a 24 bit PNG for entire UI that users can modify/trade/back up. Currently I understand the icon set to be paletted, which is very limiting.

X4 has some good things such as:

1. New option for powertrace so results aren't knocked out
2. greeeeaat new "print merge to new document". My favorite single thing about X4. :-)
3. latest generation import filters
4. latest gen VBA

There's always room for improvement in basic tools such as this one I'd proposed:

Here's another tool: moving nodes under a "nib area"

I think proposed by Hywel, I just animated the concept:

Jeff. I remember similar feature in KPT Vector Effects for AI. Corel sells KPT Effects Software on Corel's web site. So who the owner of KPT. Corel? In this case why Corel doesn't use of KPT features?

My favorites.........all things considered, ver.4, ver.7 and X3.

Heck, I still use version 7 (when I send to my cutter) with DrawMate to this day.

 

6, 8, 12, x3 and now X4  My favorite always being the latest build due to the many new features that make my renderings that much easier

 

 

My favorites versions: 5, 9 and 10 (only this even number issue). Version #6 was the worst of all.

Nowadays my current version is X4.

CorelDRAW X4 objections:

• Does not works quite well editing paragraph texts.

• Poor (few) colors for customizing icons.

This one, I really like. Nice graphic to demo exactly what I would like to see, Jeff. Thanks.

Silvio Win:

• Another (old) problem that they can not resolve satisfactorily: Corel Trace is too bad. The performance is poor, making it almost unnecessary.

It should be faster than it is now when using 1-bit files, since very little to think about. CorelTRACE and Streamline have no problems, they are very old programs.

Also, there should never be any limits on the size of file you send to it.

I pointed out that since it has a new technical drawing mode, it needs to allow for hi-res technical drawings - perhaps 600 DPI monochrome at 24" x 36". Why take time to capture highly detailed scans when PT can't accept them?

Silvio Win:

But, nevertheless, CorelDRAW Suite is still the best in its category.

Yes, the price is very fair for the value of technology that we receive.

CorelTurk:

So who the owner of KPT. Corel?

I believe they own the technology now. Kai went and bought Castle in Germany. :-) Musings

CorelTurk:

In this case why Corel doesn't use of KPT features?

I feel they should integrate at least a some kind of "goo" effect into PP.

During version 12 era I recall they sometimes offered KPT as free incentive to buy CorelDRAW Suite.

As for vector effects, I don't think Corel sells these since they only worked in Illustrator.

If you are curious, Uwe Maurer is very close friend of Kai, he shows Art Rage 2.5 here.