CorelDraw Graphics Suite X6 review

The main CorelDraw application couldn’t be much further removed from Website Creator. CorelDraw’s Help facilities are first rate, with a Hints panel that shows pertinent information for the currently selected tool, plus short video demonstrations. It also comes with a hardback manual that – amazingly – is quite a pleasant read.

The Smear tool provides a more tactile, organic way to edit vector shapes than with the conventional Bézier handles

CorelDraw excels at making complex features easily discoverable. The workspace is bristling with handles, nodes and other controls, so many tasks can be achieved without having to delve into menus and panels. Meanwhile, the toolbox is packed with powerful features for creating and manipulating vector graphics.

New to this version are Smear, Twirl, Repel and Attract tools, which change the shape of vector graphics using brush strokes. They’re considerably more effective than the existing Smudge Brush, and closely resemble the behaviour of Photoshop’s Liquify tool. Previously, creating vector graphics was a choice between freehand strokes or precise adjustment using Bézier curves and various envelopes. These new tools fall somewhere between the two, providing a more tactile way to edit existing shapes.