We had two choices when it came to graphics software. There
was CorelDRAW and there was Adobe Illustrator. The choice between the two was fairly
straightforward, given that CorelDRAW enjoys a much better mind share in the country.
Also, there’s the little fact that while Adobe refused to respond to our requests for
information, Corel went out of their way to help us.
1989: CorelDRAW 1
DRAW 1 came in 1989, in 5.25” floppies claiming to provide
“superb freehand drawing and incredible text control on all popular printers”.
1991-94: CorelDRAW
2, 3, 4, and 5 DRAW 2 came in 1991. By the time version 3 was out (May 15,
1992), the feature set had improved substantially, with editable previews, unlimited
layers and what has by now become standard for DRAW–roll-up windows. Clipart and
fonts have always been abundant with DRAW–version 3 had 153 fonts and “over
4,600” clipart. Also, new applications–Chart, PhotoPaint, and Trace–were
added. DRAW 3 was listed at $149 for the CD and $249 for both CD and floppies. By the time
DRAW 4 made its appearance, the number of fonts had grown to 750, with clipart growing to
18,000, not counting animations and flics. A new package, CorelMove was added.
DRAW 5, which was officially launched on May 27, 1994,
added high-resolution stock photographs, style sheets, templates, and a whole lot of other
goodies. The biggest addition to the suite was Ventura, which Corel had purchased from
Xerox, and originally sold as a separate product.
1995: CorelDRAW 6
Version 6 was meant for Win 95, and was launched on August 24, 1995. By
now, the list price had gone up to $695 and included three new applications–Corel
Presents for making presentations, Corel Dream 3D for 3D modeling and rendering, and Corel
Motion 3D for 3D animation. DRAW 6 later made it to the Mac world too.
1996: CorelDRAW 7
Slightly more than a year later, on October 8,1996, version 7 saw the
light of day. While the price stayed the same, clipart now stood at 32,000, while fonts
and high-resolution photos were a thousand each–the same as with the previous
release. New applications, like Texture, Scan, and OCR-Trace were also added. CorelDRAW is
currently into version 9, and among other things, has incorporated features from Xara and
PhotoPaint.
Incidentally, how many developers are required for a
software like CorelDRAW? The Corel puts the figure at 70.