Two wishes for the next version...

OpenType compatibility. Right now, X3 does not access all the varities of fonts available in OpenType. What a bummer when I've purchased master fonts only to find I can't use them.

Fractal fill changes. What happened to the lovely, smooth color washes that the "Cosmic Clouds" fractal fill offered in earlier versions? Now they're horrible, blotchy messes. Please give us back the original parameters for this lovely fill.

 

Carol

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Hello Carol,

can you clarify your comment about OpenType compatibility? CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 is fully compatible with OpenType fonts as far as I am aware, and almost all the fonts that are included with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 are actually in OpenType format.

Gérard 

While CorelDRAW can use opentype fonts, it still doesn't incorporate all of the great opentype features like true small caps, ligatures, alternates, numeral variations, etc... Many of these features simply aren't available -- even through the "Insert Character" docker.

I'm a freelance designer coming from Adobe Creative Suite, but I finally opted to try the CorelDRAW Suite for a while. I'm very pleased with CorelDRAW and I eagerly anticipate X4, but full opentype support is something I dearly miss. The only apps that are fully opentype-savvy that I'm aware of are the Adobe apps, Quark, and some of Apple's stuff. It would be great if CorelDRAW caught up with this (and Photo-Paint and Ventura, too) and tried to incorporate more professional typographic features.

Thanks,
Addison

Hey Carol! You are correct about the open type support....we don't support the newer features of the open type fonts The Fractal fills should still work as they had in previous versions..it sounds like the dpi of the fill isn't being set correctly on your machine for some reason..if you open the texture fill dialog and click on Options button there are settings for the DPI that the texture fill will get rendered too as well as a maximum number of pixels that the fill will render to...can you check if your dpi is set to 300 and the text max size is 2000 px? T.

Addison:

it still doesn't incorporate all of the great opentype features like true small caps, ligatures, alternates, numeral variations, etc... Many of these features simply aren't available -- even through the "Insert Character" docker

I have asked for this in the Beta forum, but it seems like that's far too late in the process. It's good that you ask for it now so this stuff is included in the feature set for the next version.

 To show what an Open Type font can do, please check out this link: http://www.adobe.com/type/browser/landing/bickham.html

Wouldn't it be fantastic to have full open type support in Corel Draw? To not have that is very crippling if you and to use fonts with ligatures etc. It's not only script fonts that have this kind of stutt, but classic typefaces as well. They were formerly called expert fonts, but now they are all in one extended OT font file (I think).

Absolutely. With more and more "Pro" version fonts being released, I think it's inevitable that all software -- even entry-level software -- must have full OpenType support. Now I'm not calling CorelDraw entry-level, but my point is that it's going to be expected in the next version. I had thought for sure X4 would have it...

 

CorelDraw is that beautiful mix of illustration and page layout -- what Freehand used to be. It's just lacking a little in the page-layout department.

Addison:

my point is that it's going to be expected in the next version. I had thought for sure X4 would have it

 

Me too, but maybe you should view X4 as an intermediate update. Should have had the name X3.5 really. But then again, It gets harder and harder to break new ground with every release. Often it's the smaller things that needs to be adjusted. But full OT support would certainly be a major improvement and make the package interesting for many more users, especially for thos working with page layout.

Addison:

It's just lacking a little in the page-layout department.

Yes, and if we also could get some better facing page support, more stable linking of bitmaps, better pagination, multi master page templates and maybe some more stuff, Draw could seriously break into the page layout game.

Addison

I agree to you. Like Lars, I have reported about the lacking ligature support on Beta Forum. Hope to have this fixed soon.

Addison:

While CorelDRAW can use opentype fonts, it still doesn't incorporate all of the great opentype features like true small caps, ligatures, alternates, numeral variations, etc... Many of these features simply aren't available -- even through the "Insert Character" docker.

Anand

Hi Lars,

Lars Forslin:

Me too, but maybe you should view X4 as an intermediate update. Should have had the name X3.5 really. But then again, It gets harder and harder to break new ground with every release. 

We agree on many things... X4 is cool in some ways. X3 showed that very useful and relatively simple new things can come out of nowhere quickly, like smart fill and crop tool. So perhaps in X5 some amazing things will appear that we can't live without... :-)

Lars Forslin:

Yes, and if we also could get some better facing page support, more stable linking of bitmaps, better pagination, multi master page templates and maybe some more stuff, Draw could seriously break into the page layout game.

I am such a such a user, text is important to me... having linked Styles to para text frames or art text.........  ahh, then I can change text through a whole brochure design fast for different looks. If Corel dumps smart drawing function that no one uses, there will be room!!! :-P

Jeff Harrison:

having linked Styles to para text frames or art text.........  ahh, then I can change text through a whole brochure design fast for different looks

Amen! That is something absolutely necessary for document design of any sort. I was using CorelDraw to comp up web pages -- I would welcome linked styles for that as well.

 

I still wonder how come full OT support has been neglected since version 12 (around the time that format appeared in the marketplace). A lot of us have asked for that and I sincerely hope X5 won't repeat this omission.