CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy]

by Corel

Product Features

• Award-winning CorelDRAW: graphics and page layout software
• Corel Photobook and PhotoAlbum make photo retouching, organizing, and editing easy
• Lynda.com training CD helps you discover design tips, tricks, and techniques
• Quick Start Manager: quickly and easily access applications, start special projects, and organize files
• 100,000 clipart images; 250+ templates; 500+ TrueType fonts and symbols

Product Details

• Shipping Weight: 14.4 ounces
• Shipping: Currently, item can be shipped only within the U.S. and to APO/FPO addresses. For APO/FPO shipments, please check with the manufacturer regarding warranty and support issues.
• ASIN: B0000CEPDZ
• Item model number: ESS2ENGPC
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 3, 2003
• Average Customer Review: 3.1 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (9 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #5,207 in Software (See Top 100 in Software)
  • #54 in Software > Graphics > Illustration
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes

Product Description

From the Manufacturer

Corel DRAW Essentials 2 is a simple-to-use, all-in-one drawing application, with powerful photo-enhancement tools and customizable template capabilities that allow you to create professional-looking projects with ease. You can produce sophisticated graphics, correct and enhance photos, lay out your project, and publish your work so others can easily access and view it. Manipulate ready-made templates for fast results. Correct common photo problems and add stunning effects. See your work in real time--and publish it in a range of file formats. Use the QuickStart Manager to quickly access applications and files so you can start on special projects without delay.

Features include:

• Award-winning CorelDRAW: graphics and page layout software
• Corel Photobook and Corel PhotoAlbum: to make photo retouching, organizing, and editing easy
• Lynda.com training CD: to help you discover helpful design tips, tricks, and techniques
• Quick Start Manager: to enable you to quickly and easily access applications, start special projects, and organize files
• Hemera The Big Box of Art: contains 100,000 clipart images
• Over 250 templates
• Over 500 TrueType fonts and symbols

Enjoy an array of award-winning tools.

• Powerful, easy-to-learn graphics software: lets you quickly and intuitively design Web-ready logos; lay out pages; scan artwork, and apply special effects to your designs--including drop shadows and color transparencies
• PerfectShapes: enables you to manipulate dozens of ready-to-use shapes, transforming them into any design you want
• Real-time Live Effects: let you see the results of special effects as you apply them
• Simple page layout features: allow you to wrap text around objects or photos; create unique page sizes; and organize your page layout for print or the Web
• Easy-to-use photo wizards: let you retouch photos and correct common problems with the click of a mouse, including red-eye, contrast, and white balancing
• Special image wizards: enable you to create stunning photo effects such as edges, borders, frames, shadows, special colors, and perspectives--even realistic fire and lightning effects
• Easy image browsing: makes it simple to store, catalog, and organize thousands of photos--so you can quickly find the one you want
• Drop-and-drag functionality: lets you organize photos to create instant personalized albums and digital slide shows--perfect for sharing with friends and family

Product Description

MODEL- CRLCD10011WI VENDOR- COREL CORPORATION FEATURES- CorelDRAW Essentials 2 CorelDRAW Essentials 2 is an affordable all-in-one graphics suite that truly lets you explore your creativity. Powerful drawing tools let you design graphics; lay out pages; and enhance and organize photos - all for sharing via print or Web. Create original artwork; generate Web-ready graphics; and assemble a digital photo album or slide show with drag-and-drop ease. And take advantage of intuitive features such as PerfectShapes templates real-time Live Effects and easy-to-use wizards - not to mention thousands of clipart images - that help you work faster and more easily than ever before. With CorelDRAW Essentials 2 your great graphics become outstanding.* Corel Photobook and Corel PhotoAlbum to make photo retouching organizing and editing easy.* A free Getting Started with CorelDRAW Essentials 2 CD from Lynda.com which contains helpful design tips tricks and techniques. * Quick Start Manager to help you easily access applications start special projects and organize your files.* Hemera The Big Box of Art containing 100000 free images * Over 250 templates * Over 500 TrueType fonts and symbols REQUIRES- Windows 2000 or Windows XP Pentium II processor 200 MHz or greater 64 MB RAM (128 MB recommended) 160 MB hard disk space SVGA display (1024 x 768 screen resolution) CD-ROM drive Mouse or tablet MANUFACTURER WARRANTY: 90 DAYS

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Downgrade from CorelDraw Essentials (version 1.0), June 25, 2005

By 

Jack "bdcu" - See all my reviews

This review is from: CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] (CD-ROM)

CorelDraw Essentials was like getting a vector program plus a bitmap program for one low price, but version 2 seems like a downgrade, as the bitmap graphics part is greatly crippled. v2 still contains the old but fairly stable CorelDraw 9, with some professional filters removed to lower license fees. There is nothing wrong with v9 (except it doesn't support Unicode as in v12).

But the bad part of this updated Essentials 2 is that they removed PhotoPaint 9 from the package, which was useful for people who want to save on bitmap editors like Photoshop Elements, etc. Whereas PhotoPaint was a fairly mature and stable program, the new photo organizer tools seem to get embarrassing reviews for their unpolished interface. Hopefully CorelDraw Essentials 3 will incorporate a reduced version of JASC's Paintshop Pro program, which Corel recently acquired. That will bring some balance to this unique "Essentials" graphics package.

BTW, if anyone at Corel is reading this, repackage the OSX version of CorelDraw 11 in the same way, to create a "CorelDraw Essentials for Mac". I suspect there will be a large market for Mac Mini buyers looking for a cheap and robust vector program, as well as cutting into a void in bitmap graphics before Apple makes their own "iApp" for graphics design hobbyists.

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Good for less, September 13, 2005

By 

Massimiliano Wax (Santo Domingo) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] (CD-ROM)

A very good alternative to the complete software package. This slim version is more than enough for home and small office needs: labels, brochures and other printing material.

5 of 6 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars What Gives! The Original Essentials Version is better than version 2, August 9, 2005

By 

D. Olazo "Wellington Health Center" (Dallas,TX USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] (CD-ROM)

I have been using Corel Essentials, the white with horizontal blue green box (original version) for quite some time, I decide to upgrade to the "newest version 2". So, I fork out $80 plus shipping. Got it 5 days later; I installed the software, all looks good... then I start using it, standard features from version one are GONE!
There are no upgrade gimmicks or download this or that, they were just simply removed - my most used features!

Unacceptable, I contacted customer support, they were very polite and helpful but recommended for my imaging needs to regress to Corel Essentials, the Original software I had as the new "one omits many features" the second version just does not cut it.

I am just bit dissapointed in the company but though (and give credit where is due) Corel Essentials is so far the Best I have used so I can and wont beat them up too much in their effort to sell less in a "new & not much improved" new box. (every corporation does this - from cereal to soap)
My advise, stick with the original Essentials version and save a bunch of money.