CorelDRAW 8 Features

CorelDRAW 8 Features

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Performance and Productivity

Bitmap Display: Display quality is smoother and object placement is more precise with the powerful bitmap display feature. Users can access a keyboard accelerator while working with onscreen graphics to switch between outline display, XOR display or full bitmap representation of moving objects.
Node Editing in Selection State or Tool State: Users now have the flexibility to perform basic node editing or transformations on an object using any selected creation tool. Since node editing is a core operation, this system provides a significantly faster way to move between object creation and editing. Users that prefer the traditional CorelDraw node editing method may select Pick state to manipulate or scale an object, or Node Edit state to edit a curve. Node editing functionality is customizable and can be disabled with one click on the Property Bar.
Digger Selection: Obscured objects can easily be selected by pressing ALT while clicking the objects on screen. Once the hidden object's selection handles are displayed, the user can click the center "x" icon and move the object into view for editing.
Customizable Zoom: Commonly used levels of magnification can be saved in the zoom preset list by naming them in the Zoom Property Bar.
Intellimouse Support: CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 support Intellimouse features such as zooming and panning with the center wheel of the mouse.
Additional Keyboard Support: New functions are provided for the power user through hot key combinations such as ALT + click to select a hidden object; Tab for Show Objects When Moving toggle; ALT + click and drag for "free resize;" and Single key accelerators for Align operations (T, B, L, R C, E ). There are also separate hot key combinations available for working with text.

Streamlined Interface Controls

Flat-Look Interface: Toolbars, dialog boxes and the main toolbox sport a new flat look, which offers users a clean and uncluttered work environment. Hot tracking is supported on the desktop and within dialogs, meaning menu selections and icons become more prominent when the mouse moves over them.
Streamlined Toolbox: The Interactive Effects tools are grouped on a flyout to minimize vertical growth of the toolbox and maintain a logical grouping of tools.
Streamlined Menus and Dialogs: Dialogs are smaller and more consistent between CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 wherever possible and many menu options that are available in both programs appear in the same location. This integration makes it easy for users to transfer learning between applications.
Customization: The elements of the CorelDRAW 8 work environment including toolbars, hot keys, menus, status bar, color palette, application defaults and more are completely customizable.
Workspace: The Workspace feature lets users create custom work environments for different types of projects. Various rollup, palette and Docker window positions can be saved in individual Workspaces. These configurations display only the windows and controls most relevant to the job at hand, making it easier for users to maximize their efficiency.
Docker Windows: CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 use both Docker windows and traditional Rollup menus. Users can control the placement of the windows by docking them anywhere in the application window. When multiple windows are docked, they will be neatly grouped with tabbed pages for easy navigation.

More Intuitive Behavior

Extensive Drag and Drop: CorelDRAW 8 supports drag-and-drop colors, styles, object properties, clipart, scripts, and favorite fills and outlines. Users can drag and drop to PowerClip objects, fit text to/within a path or fit a blend to a path. The Object Manager can be used to reorder, group and ungroup objects, or drag objects between pages or layers.
On-screen Interactive Controls: The Interactive tools in CorelDRAW 8 include on screen controls that let users adjust various properties directly on an image or graphic. These easy-to-use features greatly reduce the learning curve and provide immediate feedback on the applied effect.
Grid: The Grid is especially useful when precision is important. It can be displayed as dots or as intersecting lines (similar to graph paper) by adjusting the settings in the Properties dialog.

Interactive Tools and Functions

Interactive Distortion Tool: This tool lets users interactively add a variety of contortions and interesting effects to objects. Push and Pull Distortion gravitates nodes toward the center of an object or, conversely, to the edges of the object. The Zipper feature offers an intuitive method for applying varied frequency changes to a line or curve, and the Twister feature swirls the points about a center point of an object.
Realistic Drop Shadow: Realistic, transparent drop shadows can be applied to any object in CorelDRAW 8. Users can interactively adjust the direction, feathering and color of the drop shadow. The transparency and feathering controls allow objects beneath the drop shadow to be visible, creating a truly photo-realistic effect.
Interactive 3D Tool: A 2D extrude can be applied interactively to any object in CorelDRAW 8 by clicking and dragging to set the vanishing point and adjust the depth of the extrusion.
Interactive Blend Tool: Objects and color acceleration can be manipulated on screen by clicking and dragging the midpoint controls. A blend can be applied to an irregular path by pressing ALT while dragging to create a custom path between objects.
Interactive Envelope: The Envelope feature is now interactive, allowing users to click on the tool, then on the object to invoke the bounding box. The shape of the object can then be changed on screen and various envelope options can be selected from the Property Bar.
Interactive Free Transform Tool: This tool is now available on the Shape tool flyout, and provides four interactive transformation options, including Rotation, Reflection, Scaling and Skewing. Once these transformations are applied to any object, a live on screen update will display the new object position.

Enhanced Drawing and Editing Tools

Knife Tool: The enhanced Knife tool allows curve segments to be "welded". In CorelDRAW 7 the Knife tool cut objects from one point to another. In this release, freehand cuts can be "drawn" across an object or several cuts can be made by pressing SHIFT while clicking the points along a path (similar to the Bezier tool). At the second cut point, the Tab key can be used to toggle between different resultant shapes, displaying both sides or just one side of the object.

Fill/Outline and Color

Interactive Color Mixing: Interactive Color Mixing lets users experiment with on screen color. Color is added to the selection in approximately 10 percent increments by pressing CTRL while clicking on any color in the on screen color palette.
On-screen Pop-up Palette: When the user pauses on any color well in the on screen color palette a pop-up palette appears displaying 49 variations of saturation of that hue.
Interactive Fill Tiling: The on screen Interactive Fill Tiling feature can be used to directly scale, skew and rotate fills within an object. When a filled object is rotated, the fill automatically moves with it.
Palette Editor: It is easier than ever to add or remove colors from custom palettes.
Fill Open Curves: This feature fills objects with open paths, creating a better representation of where objects lie in relation to each other.

New Text Features

Fit Text to Frame: The Fit To Frame option can be selected from the Text menu or added to the toolbar, allowing users to fit paragraph text to a frame with a single click.
Show Text Frames: The Show Text Frames feature lets users view empty text frames at the click of a button, then experiment with different layouts by reflowing text to different text frames on the page.
3D TextArt: Apply exciting 3D effects to text with the new 3D TextArt option. There are controls for adding multiple lighting sources and textures as well as the ability to rotate, pan and zoom the 3D text.
Text Font Size Shortcuts: Font size can be changed quickly and easily using the following shortcut keys. CTRL + numpad 2: decreases font size by 1 point. CTRL + numpad 4: decreases font size to next size in font size list. CTRL + numpad 6: increases font size by 1 point. CTRL + numpad 8: increases font size to next size in font size list.
Embedded Graphics: The Windows clipboard can be used to copy a graphic and paste it into an Artistic or Paragraph text selection. This is a fast and easy way to create unique logo designs and interesting page layouts.
Other Text Enhancements: Several text enhancements have been added to boost productivity: When users return to the font list with a text object selected, the list will automatically open at the text object's font, rather than at the beginning of the list. The Edit Text dialog is now modeless, meaning it can be kept open while the user works on a document. If the user pauses while entering text, the text object selection handles will be displayed. This lets users resize or reposition the text object without leaving text editing mode. Once typing is resumed, the handles disappear, and the program reverts to text entry mode.

File/Document Management Tools

Enhanced Object Manager: The Object Manager is now displayed as a Docker window, combining tools for both object and layer management in one dialog.
Corel Versions: Managing revisions to CorelDRAW 8 files is easy with Corel Versions. This program provides an overview of all archived files in a history list and allows users to retrieve any archived file when a previous version is required. Corel Versions can also be used to identify text differences between documents.
Object Locking: Objects can be locked on the drawing surface to prevent inadvertent changes or movements when editing other portions of the drawing. This feature ensures precision and accuracy when editing complex images.
Placeable Import: Users can easily import multiple files to CorelDRAW 8, saving time and effort. When the cursor displays the file name, the user can click anywhere on the page to import the file to that specific location. The object is displayed at its original size. It can be resized proportionally by clicking and dragging or it can be placed without respect to the aspect ratio by pressing ALT.
Guidelines as Objects: Guidelines offer more precision when working with graphics. Like objects, guidelines can be multiselected, rotated, deleted or placed at precise locations using the nudge feature.
Enhanced Undo: CorelDRAW 8 supports Undo across File Saves, which allows users to return to a previous point in the design process, even if they have already saved their work.
Custom Page Size: Non-standard page sizes can be saved to the list of preset pages.

New Effects and Enhancements

Smart Duplication of Objects: Repeating patterns are easy to create with the Smart Duplication feature. Once a duplicate object is created and moved to a new position, the Duplicate option will use this new translated position to place the next duplicates.
Support for Duotones: Duotone support has been added to CorelDRAW 8 and can be accessed from the Bitmap menu.
Bitmap Inflation: This feature offers automatic or manual expansion of a bitmap and ensures that effects are properly aligned on the image.

Improved Connectivity

Improved Filters: Import and export filters for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Adobe Illustrator (AI), GIF, and Corel Barista formats have been improved in this release.

The Internet

Publish to the Internet: In addition to enhanced WYSIWYG HTML export, users can export to Java using Corel Barista. Images can also be exported to transparent or GIF, as well as JPEG format.
Bookmark Manager: The Bookmark Manager tracks Internet bookmarks added within CorelDRAW 8 files.
Make HTML Compatible: This feature takes the guesswork out of HTML publishing by automatically removing formatting that is not supported by standard Web browsers. This ensures that final Web documents display as accurately as possible.
Small Page Format: Users creating Web button graphics can save a custom page size as small as 16 x 16 pixels for standard interface graphics.

Enhanced Color Support

Professional Color Management: The ColorSync 2.0-standard color management system has been licensed from Kodak to ensure accurate color representation during scanning, display and printing (using ICC profiles). There is also built-in support for acquiring colors using a spectrophotometer and a standard color system such as Colortron.
Palette Editor: The Palette Editor provides an intuitive way to add colors to existing palettes and to manage custom palettes.
Color Harmonies: Select compatible complimentary colors using the Color Harmonies color selector which superimposes different shapes on a color wheel. By moving the shapes around the color wheel, users can see which colors look best together.
Color Profile Wizard: The Corel Color Profile Wizard (formerly the Color Manager) is used for editing ICC standard profiles.

Ease of Use

Scrapbook: The enhanced Scrapbook offers easy access to Corel's FTP site and allows users to drag and drop CorelDRAW clipart, photos, graphic designs, and favorite fills and outlines to CorelDRAW documents.

Help and Documentation

CorelTUTOR: The improved CorelTUTOR sports a browser-like window that allows users to navigate tutorials with ease. Many new topics have been introduced to make it easier to get to work using CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8.
Hints: Context-sensitive hints change depending on the object and tool selected.
Documentation and Online Help: A full-color reference manual provides conceptual and procedural information on the applications and utilities in the box. Electronic help includes context-sensitive help (F1), What's This? help and the fully detailed Online Help.

Web Page Editor: Symantec Visual Page

CorelDRAW 8 Features

Click on a thumbnail to enlarge it. Use your browser's "BACK" button to return to this review when done.

Performance and Productivity
Bitmap Display: Display quality is smoother and object placement is more precise with the powerful bitmap display feature. Users can access a keyboard accelerator while working with onscreen graphics to switch between outline display, XOR display or full bitmap representation of moving objects. Node Editing in Selection State or Tool State: Users now have the flexibility to perform basic node editing or transformations on an object using any selected creation tool. Since node editing is a core operation, this system provides a significantly faster way to move between object creation and editing. Users that prefer the traditional CorelDraw node editing method may select Pick state to manipulate or scale an object, or Node Edit state to edit a curve. Node editing functionality is customizable and can be disabled with one click on the Property Bar. Digger Selection: Obscured objects can easily be selected by pressing ALT while clicking the objects on screen. Once the hidden object's selection handles are displayed, the user can click the center "x" icon and move the object into view for editing. Customizable Zoom: Commonly used levels of magnification can be saved in the zoom preset list by naming them in the Zoom Property Bar. Intellimouse Support: CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 support Intellimouse features such as zooming and panning with the center wheel of the mouse. Additional Keyboard Support: New functions are provided for the power user through hot key combinations such as ALT + click to select a hidden object; Tab for Show Objects When Moving toggle; ALT + click and drag for "free resize;" and Single key accelerators for Align operations (T, B, L, R C, E ). There are also separate hot key combinations available for working with text.

Streamlined Interface Controls
Flat-Look Interface: Toolbars, dialog boxes and the main toolbox sport a new flat look, which offers users a clean and uncluttered work environment. Hot tracking is supported on the desktop and within dialogs, meaning menu selections and icons become more prominent when the mouse moves over them. Streamlined Toolbox: The Interactive Effects tools are grouped on a flyout to minimize vertical growth of the toolbox and maintain a logical grouping of tools. Streamlined Menus and Dialogs: Dialogs are smaller and more consistent between CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 wherever possible and many menu options that are available in both programs appear in the same location. This integration makes it easy for users to transfer learning between applications. Customization: The elements of the CorelDRAW 8 work environment including toolbars, hot keys, menus, status bar, color palette, application defaults and more are completely customizable. Workspace: The Workspace feature lets users create custom work environments for different types of projects. Various rollup, palette and Docker window positions can be saved in individual Workspaces. These configurations display only the windows and controls most relevant to the job at hand, making it easier for users to maximize their efficiency. Docker Windows: CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 use both Docker windows and traditional Rollup menus. Users can control the placement of the windows by docking them anywhere in the application window. When multiple windows are docked, they will be neatly grouped with tabbed pages for easy navigation.

More Intuitive Behavior
Extensive Drag and Drop: CorelDRAW 8 supports drag-and-drop colors, styles, object properties, clipart, scripts, and favorite fills and outlines. Users can drag and drop to PowerClip objects, fit text to/within a path or fit a blend to a path. The Object Manager can be used to reorder, group and ungroup objects, or drag objects between pages or layers. On-screen Interactive Controls: The Interactive tools in CorelDRAW 8 include on screen controls that let users adjust various properties directly on an image or graphic. These easy-to-use features greatly reduce the learning curve and provide immediate feedback on the applied effect. Grid: The Grid is especially useful when precision is important. It can be displayed as dots or as intersecting lines (similar to graph paper) by adjusting the settings in the Properties dialog.

Interactive Tools and Functions
Interactive Distortion Tool: This tool lets users interactively add a variety of contortions and interesting effects to objects. Push and Pull Distortion gravitates nodes toward the center of an object or, conversely, to the edges of the object. The Zipper feature offers an intuitive method for applying varied frequency changes to a line or curve, and the Twister feature swirls the points about a center point of an object. Realistic Drop Shadow: Realistic, transparent drop shadows can be applied to any object in CorelDRAW 8. Users can interactively adjust the direction, feathering and color of the drop shadow. The transparency and feathering controls allow objects beneath the drop shadow to be visible, creating a truly photo-realistic effect. Interactive 3D Tool: A 2D extrude can be applied interactively to any object in CorelDRAW 8 by clicking and dragging to set the vanishing point and adjust the depth of the extrusion. Interactive Blend Tool: Objects and color acceleration can be manipulated on screen by clicking and dragging the midpoint controls. A blend can be applied to an irregular path by pressing ALT while dragging to create a custom path between objects. Interactive Envelope: The Envelope feature is now interactive, allowing users to click on the tool, then on the object to invoke the bounding box. The shape of the object can then be changed on screen and various envelope options can be selected from the Property Bar. Interactive Free Transform Tool: This tool is now available on the Shape tool flyout, and provides four interactive transformation options, including Rotation, Reflection, Scaling and Skewing. Once these transformations are applied to any object, a live on screen update will display the new object position.

Enhanced Drawing and Editing Tools
Knife Tool: The enhanced Knife tool allows curve segments to be "welded". In CorelDRAW 7 the Knife tool cut objects from one point to another. In this release, freehand cuts can be "drawn" across an object or several cuts can be made by pressing SHIFT while clicking the points along a path (similar to the Bezier tool). At the second cut point, the Tab key can be used to toggle between different resultant shapes, displaying both sides or just one side of the object.

Fill/Outline and Color
Interactive Color Mixing: Interactive Color Mixing lets users experiment with on screen color. Color is added to the selection in approximately 10 percent increments by pressing CTRL while clicking on any color in the on screen color palette. On-screen Pop-up Palette: When the user pauses on any color well in the on screen color palette a pop-up palette appears displaying 49 variations of saturation of that hue. Interactive Fill Tiling: The on screen Interactive Fill Tiling feature can be used to directly scale, skew and rotate fills within an object. When a filled object is rotated, the fill automatically moves with it. Palette Editor: It is easier than ever to add or remove colors from custom palettes. Fill Open Curves: This feature fills objects with open paths, creating a better representation of where objects lie in relation to each other.

New Text Features
Fit Text to Frame: The Fit To Frame option can be selected from the Text menu or added to the toolbar, allowing users to fit paragraph text to a frame with a single click. Show Text Frames: The Show Text Frames feature lets users view empty text frames at the click of a button, then experiment with different layouts by reflowing text to different text frames on the page. 3D TextArt: Apply exciting 3D effects to text with the new 3D TextArt option. There are controls for adding multiple lighting sources and textures as well as the ability to rotate, pan and zoom the 3D text. Text Font Size Shortcuts: Font size can be changed quickly and easily using the following shortcut keys. CTRL + numpad 2: decreases font size by 1 point. CTRL + numpad 4: decreases font size to next size in font size list. CTRL + numpad 6: increases font size by 1 point. CTRL + numpad 8: increases font size to next size in font size list. Embedded Graphics: The Windows clipboard can be used to copy a graphic and paste it into an Artistic or Paragraph text selection. This is a fast and easy way to create unique logo designs and interesting page layouts. Other Text Enhancements: Several text enhancements have been added to boost productivity: When users return to the font list with a text object selected, the list will automatically open at the text object's font, rather than at the beginning of the list. The Edit Text dialog is now modeless, meaning it can be kept open while the user works on a document. If the user pauses while entering text, the text object selection handles will be displayed. This lets users resize or reposition the text object without leaving text editing mode. Once typing is resumed, the handles disappear, and the program reverts to text entry mode.

File/Document Management Tools
Enhanced Object Manager: The Object Manager is now displayed as a Docker window, combining tools for both object and layer management in one dialog. Corel Versions: Managing revisions to CorelDRAW 8 files is easy with Corel Versions. This program provides an overview of all archived files in a history list and allows users to retrieve any archived file when a previous version is required. Corel Versions can also be used to identify text differences between documents. Object Locking: Objects can be locked on the drawing surface to prevent inadvertent changes or movements when editing other portions of the drawing. This feature ensures precision and accuracy when editing complex images. Placeable Import: Users can easily import multiple files to CorelDRAW 8, saving time and effort. When the cursor displays the file name, the user can click anywhere on the page to import the file to that specific location. The object is displayed at its original size. It can be resized proportionally by clicking and dragging or it can be placed without respect to the aspect ratio by pressing ALT. Guidelines as Objects: Guidelines offer more precision when working with graphics. Like objects, guidelines can be multiselected, rotated, deleted or placed at precise locations using the nudge feature. Enhanced Undo: CorelDRAW 8 supports Undo across File Saves, which allows users to return to a previous point in the design process, even if they have already saved their work. Custom Page Size: Non-standard page sizes can be saved to the list of preset pages.

New Effects and Enhancements
Smart Duplication of Objects: Repeating patterns are easy to create with the Smart Duplication feature. Once a duplicate object is created and moved to a new position, the Duplicate option will use this new translated position to place the next duplicates. Support for Duotones: Duotone support has been added to CorelDRAW 8 and can be accessed from the Bitmap menu. Bitmap Inflation: This feature offers automatic or manual expansion of a bitmap and ensures that effects are properly aligned on the image.

Improved Connectivity
Improved Filters: Import and export filters for Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), Encapsulated PostScript (EPS), Adobe Illustrator (AI), GIF, and Corel Barista formats have been improved in this release.

The Internet
Publish to the Internet: In addition to enhanced WYSIWYG HTML export, users can export to Java using Corel Barista. Images can also be exported to transparent or GIF, as well as JPEG format. Bookmark Manager: The Bookmark Manager tracks Internet bookmarks added within CorelDRAW 8 files. Make HTML Compatible: This feature takes the guesswork out of HTML publishing by automatically removing formatting that is not supported by standard Web browsers. This ensures that final Web documents display as accurately as possible. Small Page Format: Users creating Web button graphics can save a custom page size as small as 16 x 16 pixels for standard interface graphics.

Enhanced Color Support
Professional Color Management: The ColorSync 2.0-standard color management system has been licensed from Kodak to ensure accurate color representation during scanning, display and printing (using ICC profiles). There is also built-in support for acquiring colors using a spectrophotometer and a standard color system such as Colortron. Palette Editor: The Palette Editor provides an intuitive way to add colors to existing palettes and to manage custom palettes. Color Harmonies: Select compatible complimentary colors using the Color Harmonies color selector which superimposes different shapes on a color wheel. By moving the shapes around the color wheel, users can see which colors look best together. Color Profile Wizard: The Corel Color Profile Wizard (formerly the Color Manager) is used for editing ICC standard profiles.

Ease of Use
Scrapbook: The enhanced Scrapbook offers easy access to Corel's FTP site and allows users to drag and drop CorelDRAW clipart, photos, graphic designs, and favorite fills and outlines to CorelDRAW documents.

Help and Documentation
CorelTUTOR: The improved CorelTUTOR sports a browser-like window that allows users to navigate tutorials with ease. Many new topics have been introduced to make it easier to get to work using CorelDRAW 8 and Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8. Hints: Context-sensitive hints change depending on the object and tool selected. Documentation and Online Help: A full-color reference manual provides conceptual and procedural information on the applications and utilities in the box. Electronic help includes context-sensitive help (F1), What's This? help and the fully detailed Online Help.

Web Page Editor: Symantec Visual Page