Title: X5 Review – General Review

Blurb: In this article we will start our review of the new Corel X5 Graphics Suite.

Well well. It has been just over two years and our friends at Corel have finally followed up their flagship version of CorelDraw to a new version, Dubbed X5 the new version carries on with the previous naming conventions of the last two versions. So you can be sentimental and call the new version CorelDraw 15 or go with Corel and call it X5. What ever you want to do is fine.
I have had the new version for the last 3 months and must admit the movement from Beta to Released candidate was welcomed. The one thing you can always count on with beta software is that it is a work in progress. And when it comes to software “work in progress “ means a lot of crashes.
The purpose of this article is to do a general review of the new release. In future articles we will be dissecting the new version feature by feature. So let us get started and let us review this new version.
As with any previous versions of CorelDraw the new version has more than one program that is included in the release. In this version Corel has included the following programs.

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What the Font

CorelDraw X4 Review – WhatTheFont and the Search Function

You know one of the things I always do when I am eating is save the best for last. Thus I usually eat my vegetables first, starches second and meat last. The same can be said when I am doing reviews of software I will typically save the better parts to last. I will throw in some juicy parts but finish off with some real good ones. Although I still consider the improved print merge function in Corel X4 my favorite the last two items we will look at today can be pretty impressive. … Continue Reading

Print Merge in CorelDraw X4

If you have been following my columns for the last number of years you know that I have preached the use of the print merge function. As far as I am concerned the one technique that most CorelDraw users fail to utilize is the print merge function. Personally I refuse to do an order for anyone unless they supply the names of everyone in a text file. Not only is it a pain in the butt when you have to type in each name, but you also have to spell check each one of those names. In some cases it takes longer to do the text input than it does to do the actual job. … Continue Reading

This month we are going to look at the upgrade to the trace function that Corel has included with the new suite. If you have been using X3, Corel’s previous release you know that the trace function was revamped. The new trace function in X3 was awesome. That is as long as the artwork that we have received is good. In X4 Corel has added a new feature to the trace function. This new function is the centerline trace. The idea behind the tool is to create a single line instead of the usual inside and outside line that is created when we do an outline trace. CorelDraw’s definition of the centerline trace is as follows …”The Centerline Trace method uses unfilled closed and open curves (strokes) and is suitable for tracing technical illustrations, maps, line drawings, and signatures. This method is also referred to as “stroke tracing.” … Continue Reading

Well the new version is called CorelDraw Graphics Suite X4. I guess for us old timers we could also call it CorelDraw Graphics Suite 14. The last time I checked 14 was not bad luck like 13. But I guess calling the previous version X3 means that the next version should be version X4. … Continue Reading

Before we go into talking about Corel’s engraving fonts we first need to know what we consider to be an engraving font. Tome an engraving font is not a font that “looks” like a so called engraving font but is one that more resembles a font that we typically use in a rotary engraving machine. You could make the argument that Windows fonts for the laser are engraving fonts but when I think of engraving fonts than I will think of those for a rotary machine. This is what Corel was attempting to give us. … Continue Reading

Outline Line Width

One of the issues I have had with Corel over the years is their lack of representation into the awards, engraving and sublimation industry. So although I always like to accentuate the positive I will have to start off with a negative. This negative goes along with this lack of discussion with us. By default now CorelDraw’s line width is .007. This creates a headache for people like me because my phone and my email are going to be inundated with people who are going to draw a line and find that their machine is going to raster the line and not vector cut it. There is an easy fix for this but alas I really wonder why we have to go through this. … Continue Reading