The most powerful option is the embedded Cutout Lab. The masking and selection options are comprehensive, but needlessly complicated. The Cutout Lab makes it easy to select and remove objects from their backgrounds. The windows can be dragged out of the dock and left to float, or placed back, but manipulating the order in the dock is awkward and confusing. The main workspace window has the dockable window to the right, where windows can be placed or rolled up. Familiar tasks and windows can often have unusual names, or not work in the manner you'd reasonably expect.

The Objects can be layered and blended using modes similar to the ones in Photoshop.

It doesn't, for example, use layers, but instead features objects. However, while programs such as Elements and PSP offer Photoshop-like environments that are easy to pick up and use, PHOTO-PAINT is idiosyncratic and largely unintuitive. The Image Lab is a new feature that, while offering good colour temperature options, feels a little lightweight.įor the purposes of digital photographers, it's PHOTO-PAINT that's the most interesting element, offering an alternative to Photoshop and Corel's own Paint Shop Pro. That's not an awful lot, but there are extras such as a Pixmantec RawShooter 2005 picture converter and enhancer that's quite decent, barcode scanners, Corel PowerTRACE and font managers. This means that you get CorelDRAW, the illustration program, Corel PHOTO-PAINT, for photo editing, and Corel CAPTURE for screen captures. These days the package has slimmed down, concentrating on the core elements that people want and use. Gone are the days when CorelDRAW came in a spine-straining box, packed with all manner of business-management tools plus the illustration program that lent its name to the entire suite.

Duncan Evans assesses what the graphics powerhouse has to offer the digital photographer

Corel draw x3