When it comes to graphics software, Adobe is typically the name to beat. That's why we were surprised at how easily the new CorelDraw 2018 turned our Illustrator-biased heads. In fact, the latest release has some features Illustrator can't match—at least, not without the addition of purchased plug-ins or extra steps. For a graphics program primarily geared toward the non-designer production industry and Windows-based graphic artists, it packs some pro-level features along with its touted accessibility and ease of use. Still, Adobe Illustrator CC 2018 remains our Editors' Choice for the category, due in part to its powerful integration with other Creative Cloud apps. Pricing and Starting Up CorelDraw 2018 is just one of the eight applications and utilities that ship together as the CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2018. These include Photo-Paint 2018, a bitmap editor; Font Manager 2018, which offers access to Corel's online digital content library, the Content Exchange; PowerTrace 2018, which converts bitmaps into editable vector graphics; Connect 2018, a browser that lets you access the Content Exchange; CAPTURE 2018, which takes screen shots; AfterShot3 HDR, an editor for creating HDR images and enhancing raw or JPEG images; and BenVista PhotoZoom Pro 4, which exports and enlarges digital images from Photo-Paint. View All 5 Photos in Gallery Using Corel's aforementioned Content Exchange, registered users get access to thousands of digital images and high-resolution photos; more than 1,000 fonts; 350 professionally designed templates; 2,000 vehicle templates; more than 500 interactive frames; and more than 600 gradient, vector, and bitmap fills. Everybody loves options, and Corel offers three ways to pay. To start, you can purchase a $499 perpetual license for a specific software version. Upgrades for registered users of any version cost a one-time fee of $199. Corel also offers an upgrade program, letting current CorelDraw owners pay $99 per year to get the latest version without subscribing. By adding the annual upgrade program to your CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2018 purchase, Corel promises to provide you future releases at the lowest cost—so long as your account is paid up.The benefit is that you can continue to use the last version of the software you paid for, if you ever decide to quit—a benefit that is not on offer for the subscription-only Adobe Illustrator. Corel's annual subscription model ensures that, for $198 per year, you get all the latest software updates and support for the most current operating systems, gadgets, and technology. This is similar to the way Adobe's Creative Cloud subscription plan works. Corel also offers enterprise pricing with additional benefits. Note that if you stop paying your Corel subscription, you lose access to your Corel software (as you do with Creative Cloud apps). Requirements and Device Support CorelDraw 2018 supports Windows 10, 8.1, and 7 (32-bit or 64-bit editions), provided you have the latest updates and service packs. It requires at least an Intel Core i3 or AMD Athlon 64 CPU, 2GB of RAM, and 1GB of hard disk space. You also need a system with a minimum screen resolution of 1,280 by 720 (96 dpi). CorelDraw supports higher-end USB tablets and styli with tilt, bearing, and rotation capabilities, as well as multitouch monitors and tablets. CorelDraw does not offer native Mac support. To be candid, I work best on a Mac, so I asked Corel about emulation software. The company suggested Parallels for occasional users and Boot Camp for heavy users. Those are both viable options, but I wanted to see CorelDraw at its best, and to take advantage of Corel's stylus and touch screen support, so I tested the software on a Microsoft Surface Pro running Windows 10. Unlike Adobe CC, Corel does not offer any of its CorelDraw programs on mobile platforms. So if you plan to sketch designs on the go, then CorelDraw is not your best option. First Impressions To my delight, Corel welcomes non-CorelDraw users with specialty workspaces, one of which emulates the look and feel of Adobe Illustrator, which helped me feel at home. What's more, Corel thoughtfully includes tool hover hints, video hints and tutorials, and access to their Discovery Center from the app's welcome screen. Corel offers a fully customizable UI environment with choices for desktop and window-border color schemes, icon sizing, toolboxes, and options for how your documents open. Corel enlists working artists and professional designers as part of its strategy to marry a terrific user experience with creativity and productivity. The result is a highly flexible interface with useful processing enhancements. If you are using older versions of the program, fear not. The CorelDraw Suite lets you import legacy spaces as far back as version X6. If you are hungry for more, you can visit Corel's developer community website, where you can design macros to suit your workflow. Although the toolbar and property bar are jam-packed, the features are thoughtfully organized. If you are new to CorelDraw, new to Windows, or simply used to working with Adobe products, you certainly need to devote some time understanding Corel's tools and layout. For example, some terminology is a little different; what Corel calls a fountain fill is the same as what Adobe refers to as a gradient. Features As an Adobe Illustrator snob, I was curious as to what CorelDraw offers that Illustrator does not. To maintain a level playing field, these list is about stock Illustrator, without third-party plug-ins and scripts, thoug I do call out any third-party Illustrator plug-ins or scripts I use to replicate the effects in question. The following are just some use-case examples where CorelDraw's offers advantages over Adobe Illustrator: Humans gravitate to symmetry. You see it in the current popularity of mandalas and succulents, in the classical notion of beauty, and throughout the natural sciences world. With CorelDraw's new Symmetry Tool, you can create your own multi-axis, kaleidoscopic art—in real time. I use the Astute Graphics MirrorMe plug-in and CValley's Xtreme Path 2 Live Rotate Mirror plug-in with Illustrator to make these types of symmetries. Creating a long shadow (or block shadow) in most programs is a multistep process that involves blending and merging shapes. In CorelDraw 2018, the new Block Shadow Tool does it in a single step. To create long shadows in Illustrator, you need to create a graphic style (a macro) to automate the tasks and then merge and tweak the blend manually. The Impact Tool is both new and unusual. It creates tapered starbursts (Radial setting) and tapered motion lines (Parallel setting). Both effects are endlessly customizable and the resulting graphics respectively create a trendy focal spot or feeling of acceleration. There is no similar tool in Illustrator, so I usually make this type of graphic manually. The new Pointilizer is an awesome custom halftone generator that's not limited to the regular dots that make up most halftones. Pointillizer uses any shape you like and offers loads of variable parameters. I use Lost Mind's stand-alone application, VectoRaster, in conjunction with Illustrator to get the job done in my professional work. Anyone wanting to make a photo mosaic (a composite image made up of hundreds of photos), can now do so easily. Corel's new PhotoCocktail feature can take your curated set of photos and create a masterpiece. There are several Mac and Windows programs that also do this, but I like that Corel offers this natively. Those distinguishing features aside, CorelDraw is an admirable contender for graphics professionals. Though Illustrator has capabilities not found in other applications, I find CorelDraw quite capable, especially when used in conjunction with its suitemates. Some additional (and useful) Corel features include a simple onboard work timer, built-in QR and UPC code generators, a text statistics reporter, a table builder, 3-point ellipse tool, and an interactive dotted line tool with color control. My key activities with programs like this are typography and vector illustration and editing. CorelDraw 2018's features in both areas impress me. For example, I like CorelDraw's type handling and dedicated Opentype panel for accessing advanced typography attributes, even if it's not as handy as Illustrator's pop-up glyph chooser. CorelDraw also has great tools for both simple and complex illustration work. Rest assured that you can find everything you need and more, including advanced color control options and a direct conduit to your WordPress site. Although not evident from its name, CorelDraw is a full-fledged page-layout application too. It's like having InDesign and Illustrator in the same program. Corel also adds a dash of Photoshop CC into the mix; it can perform filter-based effects on raster images, create rasters from vectors (and vice versa with the trace function), and more. Performance With its 2018 release, Corel focuses on boosting productivity in the creative arena. It empowers users with app-wide workflow and under-the-hood innovation and performance enhancements. For starters, the application responds quickly when I draw simple lines and shapes with the Surface Pen—I experienced no perceptible lag. To ensure a snappy rendering experience, the new version of the program now allows users to choose GPU acceleration over the default CPU when working with system-gobbling complex vector graphics. Enhanced integration and support for the Microsoft Surface Dial let users interact with an augmented contextual interface and streamline their particular workflow quirks. Corel even switches from the traditional desktop mode to the touch workspace in tablet mode on my Surface Pro smoothly. It didn't miss a beat when I reattached the Surface's keyboard either; the UI reverts back to the desktop mode automatically—and of course, you can customize that process. Sharing and Output Production houses are the meat-and-potato users of CorelDraw, so it's a sure bet that with the mammoth variable mix of designers, production people, file-types, clients, vendors, and machinery requirements, Corel has to be on the ball about prepress interaction, file exchange, and output capability. To that end, Corel has improved EPS and third-party PDF importing and use with their GPL Ghostscript feature. The software exports to 48 file types including Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, JPG, PNG, SVG, and TIFF. It can open 35 file types including, Adobe Illustrator, AutoCAD, EPS, HTML, PDF, PowerPoint, SVG, and even old FreeHand files. More Than One Way to Draw Years ago when I tried a version of CorelDraw that Corel briefly produced for the Mac, it was lackluster compared to Macromedia Freehand (my then-tool of choice) and Adobe Illustrator. I simply didn't see how it could ever compete with those design industry standards. Now, it's a divided graphics world, where I have read the raving fan mail of as many devout CorelDraw users as Illustrator fanatics. There is a minority who use both, but my research found that each application has its loyalists. Indeed, Corel knows its majority user base: service bureaus, graphics professionals in vinyl and signage, fabrication and garment industries, occasional-use office workers, and non-Macintosh enterprises around the globe. Those folks almost universally swear by CorelDraw. On the other hand, designers who grew up with Macs, attended typically Mac-only design schools, or simply have a bias toward Macs (as I do) defend and swear by Illustrator. But maybe we are missing out. I wouldn't hesitate to recommend CorelDraw for your use, but Adobe Illustrator CC 2018 remains our Editors' Choice for vector graphics software. That said, although it's a Windows-only program, and I'm a Mac-loving designer, the feature-rich offerings of CorelDraw's latest release have changed my perception of CorelDraw 2018. I think I'll join that minority who benefits from using both programs. CorelDraw Graphics Suite 2018 Bottom Line: CorelDraw is a powerful, capable graphic design app, one that offers some native capabilities that even Editors' Choice Adobe Illustrator requires plug-ins to replicate.

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