Item: CorelDRAW Graphics Suite
Rating: 7
Author: Mandy Cramer

Overall Satisfaction with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is not my top choice for a graphics program, however, it has certainly improved from years before. It is really nice for creating mockups for future product designs, but the graphics are somewhat flat or better for clean vector art as opposed to high detailed photographic quality artwork or graphics.

Pros and Cons

Pros

It makes really nice mockups.
Flat style artwork is also really beautiful.
It is less expensive than competitors.

Cons

I don't think it is well suited for photographic quality artwork.
There aren't as many editing tools.
Layering isn't as good as competitors.

Return on Investment

CorelDraw is good for situations where my clients didn't have access to Adobe.
I love it for vector artwork which I do a lot of.

Usability

Just like any design program or suite, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't do graphic design professionally. If you're not adept at learning a program or experience, it isn't a program you can just pick up and start using easily. Outside of the learning curve, it's a nice program with a decent user interface.

Support Rating

I haven't had to use support for CorelDraw, but if I had any questions, I always look up online tutorials or forums via web searches. I believe if I had a problem I could easily get help, though it would have to be within their normal business hours like any other company.

Alternatives Considered

Adobe Illustrator CC

If I had to choose between Illustrator or CorelDRAW, I'd probably pick Illustrator because I'm more comfortable and familiar with it. That doesn't mean it's necessarily better than CorelDRAW, just what I prefer. However, I do think of the two programs, for someone who is learning, CorelDRAW is easier to use when figuring out how to create vector graphics.

Other Software Used

Adobe Acrobat DC, Adobe Photoshop, Canva

Likelihood to Recommend

I would only recommend CorelDraw if someone didn't have access to Adobe products. It's really nice for creating flat graphics for web or UI or anything like that, but for more photographic things, I don't recommend it as much. I think it is good for easy layouts but I wouldn't really use it for making magazine or book layouts.

Comments

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Create beautiful vector graphics in a long-standing program