Corel Launch - X4

Last night I attended a release party for Corel DRAW GRAPHICS SUITE X4. Talk about impressive, the new suite features a great many improvements. I was one of a large group of journalists who were wowed by the new features and shown them in true Corel style. The Corel X4 Suite includes the latest incarnation of CorelDRAW X4, Corel PHOTO-PAINT X4, PowerTRACE X4 and Corel CAPTURE X4. New features include: A new interface with improvements designed to maximise its use under Vista including support for the large thumbnails offered by Vista. A dedicated Save As Template feature which will make lots of user very happy, especially corporate users. Vastly improved file format support which offers support for Adobe CS3 formats. Acrobat 8, Microsoft Word 2007 files and great support for Publisher PUB files. Colour management based on Adobes Color Management Module (CMM). New powerful drawing and autotracing options which include CAD friendly Centerline tracing. A whole bunch of free Fonts, Templates, Images and Clipart. Supporting apps and features like Bitstreams Font Navigator 2006, embedded font identification with MyFonts "WhatTheFont?!" capability. It works great ... The biggest visible improvement comes in the use and implimentation of Tables for use in layouts. Other improvements include the ability to be able to use and assignement of non printing of master elements and guidelines on layers. The new ConceptShare feature is awesome in that as an included feature in the application you can share, collaborate and get feedback on design projects with clients and colleagues alike. I can see non diesigners using this feature as designers have been using Acrobat for this purpose for many years now... All told Corel DRAW X4 is an excellent tool which will appeal to many users designer and non designer alike. Oh and cheers, thanks for an excellent evening Corel... Look for a more indepth review later next month, Corel DRAW GRAPHICS SUITE X4 will retail for £386.58 inc. VAT and an upgrade will be available for £175.08 inc. VAT.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3 Lacie Hard Drive Bundle

Corel Corporation announced the latest bundle offer for their flagship product CorelDRAW® Graphics Suite X3 that will provide purchasers of the suite with extra storage space for large image and multimedia files. "Between 1st September and 31st December 2007, customers across Europe are eligible for a free external memory hard drive from LaCie in stylish F.A. Porsche design worth £69 when they buy a full version of Corel’s Vista compatible design software CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X3." Customers buying from resellers are asked to download an application form from www.corel.co.uk/lacieand send it to the address specified with proof of purchase. The hard drive is then shipped within 30 days. When purchased through Corel’s Store, the bundle is shipped within 5 days. Application forms will be accepted until 15th January 2008. Sounds like an excellent deal to me ...