Corel Draw

[Gerald Johs]

Looking to buy a version of Corel Draw. Is the home and student version good enough or do I need the Graphics Suite version. Also dealing on a Trotec laser.

Gerald

[Gary Hair]

If you are a business then you need to buy the full version, not the H&S version. If you can afford a Trotec then I'm pretty sure you can afford to buy the right software for the job (aka legal software for the job)

[Mike Null]

Gary is 100% correct. The cheaper versions omit features that you'll need. Get the Suite. The PhotoPaint will come in handy more often than you'd guess.

[Gerald Johs]

Thanks for the replies, never thought about all of this.

Gerald

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

As above - the 'full' versions are upgradeable, while the student versions are NOT upgradeable.
You won't need the latest version to run a Trotec, and you should be able to pick up am older full version VERY cheaply.
I run Corel X3 here. No problems at all. I've seen X4 & X5 versions for under $100 at times. Check Amazon and Evilbay.

[Kev Williams]

I've been using X4 for a while, before that X3, which I just started using again on an XP virtual machine. Both are very similar, but since I work almost entirely with 'binary' colors, I really don't know all the upgrades -- Icons changed a bit... The one upgrade I DO notice and appreciate is the "favorites" list added to the 'page size' dropdown menu- I have several page sizes saved, one for each unique machine model, so I use that dropdown menu a lot. In X4 all my machines are saved in the 'favorites' portion right near the top, just open and choose... In X3, the entire list, which is fairly large, opens up and I have to go looking for what I want. Not much to write home about but the convenience is nice.

You can download a legal version of X3 or X4 for around $30.

My BIL has X6 and says it's a big step up from X4. But he does more actual 'graphic manipulation' than me for his at-home jobs. (most extracurricular manipulation I need done, I almost always do in Casmate). He shows me this and that, and most of it goes over my head because I simply don't need that much 'power'...

my preference as a recommend would be X4...

[Deanna Watkins]

The only problem I have had with any of the Corel X4 through 7 is, that 7 does not work with Photograv. Have talked to Photograv and Corel and neither one can tell me why. I keep an old version of x5 on an old lap top for use with Photograv, bit of a pain.

[Gerald Johs]

I've been looking on Amazon and Ebay, anything below X7, seem very reasonable.

Gerald

[Kev Williams]

Just an odd bit of trivia for what it's worth- My BIL has been a 'subscriber' to Corel since version 10. He's talked to the engineers on the phone a few times. The odd bit was, when X5 came out, the engineers told him to avoid it and wait for X6. Which he did. They gave him a few reasons but I don't remember off the top of my head.

Neither one of us has used X5 and have no clue what's "wrong" with it, if anything. I like X4, and he LOVES X6 so no harm no foul ... I know one thing he likes has something to do with how it works with fonts, which he does a lot of..

Anyway... If X6 isn't much more than X4, probably worth it. All I know is there's STILL a zillion things Corel will do that I know nothing about. Just last week I finally learned from Bert what 'post script' fill is, and all those other fills. Very cool stuff, but learning to use it can get a bit frustrating sometimes...

[Lee DeRaud]

The deal-breaker for the H&S version is the lack of VBA/macros: there are just too many useful things that can be added on to give up that feature.

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

Kev, when I bought X5, I think it was because that was the highest number that would still work on our old Win XP machines here.
X6 and above need either a 64 bit system, or need Win7 as a minimum.
I was also wanting the ability to use Open Type Font alternates & ligatures - which was not offered in X5, but was in X6 - but there are workarounds - I open Illy CS2 and select what I want there, then export it - if Corel doesn't do what I need.

Also, once you have a legitimate version of Corel Draw, and you register it, Corel will email you great deals on upgrades - far better than Fleabay prices etc.
That is, IF you want to keep uograding... which I do not, but I do believe X6 & * are significant improvements on X5.
Old habits die hard and for production I just drop into the old faithful X3...!

[Kev Williams]

X7 may need a computer upgrade, but my BIL has run his X6 on 2 different 16 bit XP Pro computers here with no issues at all- first one was my many-years-old Compaq-evo that I'm still using as a print server; 2.4gHz Pentium 4, 1.5g of ram... ran SLOW, but ran okay-- The computer it's now on and used daily is a small HP, better Intel Core2 duo-core processor and 3.5 gigs of ram-- but the same exact 16 bit XP Pro I have on most of my computers...

[Mayo Pardo]

I agree with others who have mentioned do not get a Home / Student edition.

I've been using X5 and like it with one exception. There seems to be a bug I can't figure out. I've installed Corel Connect so I can more easily browse the clip art and photos. It will work one time, sometimes twice. Then for whatever unknown reason the next time I try to open Corel Connect it won't open (it starts to but then stops) and generates an error. Then if I reinstall, it will work for another one or two times. This is on a computer that is not connected online, so updates are not the cause of it. Maybe it needs to look online and that's why it's stopping?

I still have my Corel 1.2 floppy disks somewhere around here! And 3.0 and 5.0 and 8.0 and . . .

Hey Ian - nice to see you found this place!

[Ian Stewart-Koster]

HI eMPy ! Yes... lots of good info here!
And I finally found a laser engraver for ourselves.

Unlike you, though, the oldest Corel discs I have are only version 2 - It was so huge, it came on THREE floppy discs!
Then got version 7.65, then 9 & 10... X3 & X5. Sorry I can't help you with your X5 bug though.