CorelDRAW

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.