D.A.
The new CorelDraw 5.0 offers a significant improvement in the PhotoPaint image-editing application, as well as numerous new image-editing tools. CorelDraw 5.0 ($695 for the CD-ROM version, (613) 728-8200) offers morphing support in the CorelMove animation application, a run-time engine for the CorelShow presentations module, more consistent menus, an Adobe Acrobat reader for Corel Ventura, support for PhotoShop plug-in filters and many other features. Users say these are CorelDraw 5.0's highlights:
-- New lenses
These let you apply photographic effects to any graphical object. Once you apply the lens, the object maintains its status as an editable vector image. ``With the transparency lens, you can overlay a semitransparent object on top of
another drawn object to create a tinted window effect,'' says David Metcalf, president of DM2 Design (Cape Canaveral, FL), a multimedia and publishing consulting company. ``Before, you had to fake a transparency by manually modifying colors.'' Metcalf also says the magnification lens is useful for technical illustrators who need to magnify a portion of an image.
-- PowerClip
Used to mask objects by pasting them into other objects, PowerClip lets you take an image and place it into another object, such as a circle. You can also use it to paste an image of a person's face into letters that spell out the person's name.
-- Better color management
Corel incorporates the color management technology of Candela (Burnsville, MN) for improved color consistency among desktop peripherals like scanners, printers, and monitors.
-- Better support for OLE 2.0
You can now drag and drop images among the various CorelDraw 5.0 applications. OLE's in-place editing will only be supported in Corel Ventura 5
.0, the desktop publishing program that ships in August.
-- Much improved image editing
PhotoPaint, first introduced in CorelDraw 3.0, is vastly improved and can now compete with high-end imaging programs like Micrografx's Picture Publisher, users say. PhotoPaint now lets you move and edit photographic images on separate independent layers, and improved memory management lets you work with much larger images than previously. In fact, Corel will release PhotoPaint as a stand-alone program for $199 (CD-ROM version) this summer. ``Low-cost scanners and low-cost color output devices, combined with high-powered PCs, are fueling the interest in image editing,'' says David Huss, director of technical marketing at Express Star Systems (Austin, TX). ``PhotoPaint is the everyday person's photo-editing package without the high price tag.''
Illustration: Stephen Arscott, a graphics artist at the Arscott, Ticar & Kobli Integrated Communications advertising firm, won Best of Show at the CorelDraw World D
esign contest. He used CorelDraw 4.0's freehand drawing tools to draw the two people and powerlines (i.e., customized shapes from the pen tool) to create the feathers in the headdress.
CorelDraw 5.0 Adds Better Image-Editing Tools
