Others say...

"Look no further------It smokes PhotoShop!"
If you're a die hard PhotoShop fan like I was, you need this program. NEEEEEEEED it. It does all the things that Photoshop does, plus some, and guess what guys? It runs FASTER than Photoshop ever did.

Trust me, I'm a digital artist, not some grandma fooling around with the contrast levels on her grandaughter's baby pictures- and I tell you that this is the program you need if you're serious about your art. You can do line drawings, vector graphics, 3-d design, photo editing, image animation and movie editing, and it's got one hell of a painting set up very similar to PhotoShop but the effects are faster, there are no lags, and they are even more tweakable than PS was.

And guess what guys? If you've got years worth of old PhotoShop files that you're worried about losing? You can buy this product and be saved, because Corel Draw Graphics Suite will open PSD files (among many many others) so you won't lose your images OR layers. You can keep right on working with your art without losing anything.

It's also got an "in program" pressure sensitive draw pad configuration- so you don't have to argue with Photoshop and go outside of the program to readjust your draw pad every few days.

I can't tell you guys enough, save the $700 you'd spend on PhotoShop and buy this and a Waacom draw pad instead- not only will you be glad you've got $400 bucks left in your pocket, you'll fall in love with the ease of creating your art all over again, just like back in the day when all it took was crayons and some construction paper. That's just how good Corel Draw Graphics Suite 12 is.

"BUGGY"
Hey, I've been a hard core user of CorelDraw since it's inception, and people I have nothing but praise for this product, alas, Version 12 although with some terrific features it is the most bugged software I have ever used, I have found so many bugs that I have reported to Corel that I may as well be a QA tester for their future BETA's.

I've been a proponent of Corel and their products for the last 14 years, now I'm (finally) moving to Illustrator, considering that it has caught up with features and the usability of Corel. Hey If you want to whip off rinki-dink design, simple signs or basic illustration this tool is for you, but if you do anything complex, expect crash, after crash. I have a log of over 1300 application failures in 1.5 years on 3 different systems, that Corel Tech's couldn't figure out. Maybe it was with the Transfer of power at the company, who knows.

I foresee the Draw product defunct within 3 years. Unless they truly tighten up the software issues that plague the product.


"An top-of-the-line Graphics Suite"
I've been using Corel products since version 2 or 3 (I just don't remember), when the whole program (Corel DRAW those days) could fit in three 5 1/2 inch floppy disks. Every upgrade since then has been amazing, and they fulfill every niche that's left unexplored in the previous one.
A very easy-to-use interface and a very user-friendly application is what you'll get with the graphic suite 12. Of course, it demands a lot from your hardware (and I mean A LOT), but with the right configuration of hardware and operative system, you'll be almost as crash free as with a Mac (well, not quite... ;-) ). The integration between the components of the suite is seamless and very easy to implement. The automatic updates keeps your software up and running with the latests releases; and the portability of objects to Office and other Windows based programs results in optimizing my time. I use Corel for everything, from page layout (leaflets, magazines and newspapers), to image editing, to pre-printing jobs.
Taking in account the cost and the frendliness of the application I always wonder how people still buys Adobe.
Just buy this and you wont regret it

"Very Good Mid-Range Graphics Suite"
Coreldraw 12 is great for one of two types of people:

Expert users of Adobe products that want a legal version of a illustration and image editing program at a low price...

& Beginners/Graphics Enthusiasts who want a good suite of software that can do pretty much all they want inexpensively.

I actually really like CorelDraw 12 - it reminds me so much of Freehand with bits & pieces of Illustrator thrown in. You can use it to make press-ready CMYK or Spot Color designs or digital PDF files. It's a wonderful little drawing program...and cheap!

Photopaint is a bit tougher to like. Since I have been in love with Photoshop since 1998, I can't ever adjust to a new image editing program. The idea of lenses and non-damaging filters is awesome but the little things of selecting / cropping / drawing / painting / etc. seem overly complicated, weak in effect or missing altogether. Plus, the Type tools and non-damaging effects are virtually non-existent. I really like PP but I can see where it needs a lot of work!

Rave is also a neat little app that reminds me of Livemotion. I never quite figured out how to use it 100% (I can whip something up in Flash super fast nowadays and back in 2002 I was Livemotion's biggest fan!) but with another release, it may be something to check out.

This is a great bundle of software for people needing to do anything graphic design related but don't want to spend $800+ to get the Adobe apps!

"Corel have added great features and taken away others"
I have used Coreldraw for almost 6 years everyday in my job from version 9 thru 12. I was so comfortable with Coreldraw 9 and it was very easy to learn. It was an amazing program for screenprint and embroidery purposes. I upgraded to 11 and they changed all the icons on the toolbars, alienating all the Corel 9 users, but the basics of the program where still there. This is a minor point as its still a great program. Luckily Corel 12 has the same toolbar look as 11 so I'm now used to it. Corel 12 is a much more stable program than 11 and I have yet had a problem with it crashing.

Corel have added some nice features, including the smart drawing tool. You can draw a rough shape and the program will convert it a clean square or circle. This can save alot of time if you want to lay things out quickly. You can also take a clean straight line object and easily give it a jagged edge with the move of the mouse.

The Corel program in general is easier to use than Illustrator as its more down to earth, and alot more direct to achieve the same effects.
The options to customise the program are mindblowing, as you can set all your own shortcuts, add and remove certain tools and even re-design the look of the icons if you wish. There is also a setting to make Corel look like the Illustrator workspace so that anyone stepping over from Adobe will not feel out of place.

Corel have always had easier print options than Adobe. The seperation and prepress tabs are easy to follow and change. Luckily this hasn't changed since previous versions.

It also has a wide range of file supports, including EPS, JPEG, Adobe Illustrator and DXF. The other programs that come in the suite easily compete with the Adobe CS suite. Especially Corel Trace, which does an excellent job of tracing bitmap images to Vector.

Unfortunately I have come to realise that Corel 12 has lost certain small features that all the previous version have kept. When you use a program everyday you get used to shortcuts and methods of designing. But now Corel 12 makes you go the long way round. Small things like not being able to edit an object if its grouped to others, and not being able to make simple changes to nodes without accessing it with the shape tool.

These are all minor things that otherwise make for a great design program for the fraction of the price of Adobe CS. I highly recommend it.