Corel island of graphics desire in Hellenic sand box

THE OTHER NIGHT Corel held a launch party for its latest product, CorelDRAW x4, which isn't number ex-four, but number fourteen. It was held at The Hellenic Centre on Paddington Street in London, because as we all well know, Corel has major ties with Hellenic culture.

We'll be honest with you. We got there late. Really, really late - we missed the big hoo-haa about the product and saw only the aftermath, a big projector screen, fancy banners and scattered press packs.

There weren't many hacks about at all by the time we got there, mainly just Corel associates. The "we" is myself and the INQUIRER intern photographer who soon got found out to actually be my girlfriend. We did however pick up one of these press packs, which included a copy of CorelDRAW x4. Thanks Corel!

So here's the scoop on CorelDRAWx4. According to the press release we lifted, it's got 50 "new and significantly enhanced features" including all that fun stuff like templates, file formate compatibility, and blah blah blah.

Font identification is a new 'un with ex-four, a collaboration with MyFonts.com, which will allow a user to identify a font used in existing designs. There's new live text formatting, which lets you check out all your text formatting options in a preview before you apply them.

Corel also brags that CorelDRAW Graphics Suite is the only pro graphics suite which is Certified for Windows Vista Letter R In A Circle. The release says that the suite has been designed "to take advantage of the latest innovations from Windows Vista" such as integrating with the desktop search capabilities. You can still run the program on XP, though.

Also new is better file format support, now supporting files created in Microsoft Word 2007, Adobe products, AutoCAD and Corel Painter X.

We talked briefly to Nick J. Davies, Vice President and General Manager of Corel Graphics and Productivity Products, so says his card. He assured us that the steep pricetag of £329 for the full version and £229 for the upgrade if you're already a Corel user is well worth it, but then, he would, wouldn't he? According to him, for small business interested in producing their own stuff, the price tag warrants what the program can do.

He told us that his products are Big In Germany and that he's not really worried about piracy. I'll be honest, he told us a lot more, but when you're half cut you tend to only remember half, too. Nick also assured me that even the least tech-savvy, or the most creatively challenged, would be able to make something impressive easily by using one of Corel's templates. "That's what I do," he said, "use the templates and say I did it!" You cheeky sod, you!

After our little talk we circled the room picking at various orderves and rinsing the last of the wine and champagne. By this point there were only really PR people and Corel marketing folk in the room so me and my accomplice ventured over to the stereo, plugged our iPod in and hurt everyone's ears with painfully trendy music. Like The Horrors, and Spandau Ballet. µ