Customer Reviews

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

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(0)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(3)

 

 

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.

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.

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.

I am an experienced CorelDraw user who needed a budget version at work. I found that CorelDraw Essentials 2 is an excellent little program that delivers all the important functions of its bigger sister. I use it for posters and technical drawing.

If you like CorelDraw, you'll like Essentials 2. If you want to get to know CorelDraw before committing to the full price, Essentials 2 is a great intro to the basics -- especially with the training CD. I've heard that CorelDraw takes some effort to get started in, which is fair; I've used it for so many years that it's second nature to me.

The only functions that I really miss with Essentials 2 are:
- being able to turn off the "select items by clicking inside outline"
- being able to set the drawing scale to other than 1:1

CorelDRAW... it's reputation speaks for itself. One can do a lot with this program. The full version can be a bit pricy for a user that has a need for only some of the many features and intends it for home use. I find that CorelDRAW Essentials 2 offers me just what I need in a photo/drawing application. I won't repeat the features. Read 'em and check the price. Can you do without this in your arsenal of computer tools? Highly recommended.

I made a mistake when buying this product as I have Windows 7 and didn't pay attention to the system requirements, but I wanted to let others know that the seller of this product went way out of his way to help me out. My rating is a 5 Star for the seller. They offered to take it back right away even though it was my mistake. I couldn't have asked for more help from anyone! I really can't rate the product as it isn't for Window 7.

I was a regular user of CorelDraw 8 for Windows 98 on my older computer. When I bought a new machine, Draw 8 would not work with Windows XP, so I needed a newer program to access and edit my .cdr files. I called Corel Corp. in Canada who assured me that Essentials contained basically everything in CorelDraw 11 (and therefore my version 8). After receiving the program, I found it to be a severely stripped down program, missing most of the essential components of the earlier programs. It is really frustrating when so many of the useful features are "grayed out" or just plain missing. Save your money and avoid this one.

Even for the $50 or whatever I spent on this, this is by far the worst graphics program I've ever used. Utterly counterintuitive, it also does random things during export that I don't care to figure out how to fix. Ugh. CorelDRAW, you deserve to go out of business for releasing such a poor product. I most certainly do not recommend this.

This program was recommmended to me. I purchased a computer controlled engraving system. I was told to purchase
Essentials to convert art to vectors so my machine could read and engrave it. The "improved" and "updated" program cannot do this. I am very disappointed in it, as the previous version was not available. Since the vector capability was not part of the "improved" version, the whole progarm is useless for my purpose.