Review by J. Sullivan

The improvements in CorelDRAW X6 encompass much more than four new editing tools and a rebuilt text engine, which I consider exciting features by themselves. The streamlining of the workflow in X6 has vastly improved. Now that the object properties docker lists all available options for a particular object in one place, editing is more streamlined than ever before, and when combined with the readily accessible object origin modifier, object manipulation and mirroring has become highly efficient. The new object alignment guides are very useful (with the default color changed to something more visible in the global options). The customizable placeholder text adds convenience to previewing page layout as well.

Corel PhotoPAINT X6 has a new, though crash-prone feature: the smart carver tool. It is potentially cool, intended to either adjust aspect ratio or remove selected elements from an image with minimal distortion. It would benefit to make use of the selection tools available in the workspace to select areas for preservation or removal. It could be a little smarter, too - after performing a compression, the preservation area shifts instead of staying over the pixels originally intended for preservation, which results in more work for further editing. There are other PhotoPAINT X6 enhancements, including an object-group clip mask, and a pass-through merge allows a lens or effect to affect objects below that to which it is applied. I had hoped to use X6 to edit RAW format photos; unfortunately, my particular Sony DSLR is currently incompatible. Corel’s website posts a list of cameras whose RAW files work with PhotoPAINT - I hope mine eventually makes the list.

I’m no fan of independent content management software, but since Corel Connect integrates so nicely into its graphics suite, I’m happy to see continued improvements made. There are multiple trays to organize content categorically and there are enhanced content search capabilities provided to persuade me to take advantage of this additional tool.

Corel Website Creator X6 seems decent, though the help guide would benefit from more images. The interface is simple but for me, like other web site editors, it turns familiar into less familiar - not that I’m unable to dissect the underlying code, it just bothers me not knowing exactly what changes are made to that underlying code every time change is made in the editor. It’s a perfectly fine tool to use when taking a project from start to finish if you have faith in the output. There are some nice looking templates to choose from (with more available for download). It’s easy to set up a hierarchy of pages in site view and then edit content with Creator’s tools. Overall, it seems well designed, though I prefer to do everything by hand.

The improvements introduced in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 are significant enough to warrant an upgrade. The native 64-bit support and multi-processor enhancements are more relevant than ever before, now that 64-bit Windows installations are more common.

I’m completely happy with CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6; there’s far more creation and much less work. There are small quirks I have found while working through all the features, but these are typical oversights, which I’ll pass on to Corel to address with minor updates throughout the X6 lifecycle. The new tools with their various options add an exceptionally versatile new functionality for both symmetrical and liquid effects with vast creative possibilities. Suite integration and project workflow enhancements are apparent and make graphic editing much more pleasant and rewarding. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 is an awesome set of tools that just got considerably better.