CorelDRAW & PHOTO-PAINT Essentials X6

[Michael Mumford]

This is my first post in the forum. I have been ready a lot on this forum and will be buying a FS Laser in the near future. I have also been readying about Coreldraw. I see the software seems to be hard to learn or just difficult because it is such a big program, Has any one used CorelDRAW & PHOTO-PAINT Essentials X6? I see this is only $79.00! Thanks for any help.

Thanks
Mike

[David Rust]

Hi Michael,

I took a look on the Corel website at "CorelDraw & Photo-Paint Essentials" there is pdf file that compares Essentials to the Graphics Suite. The Essentials looks very limited. I recommend you get the full CorelDraw X6 Suite if it will be your main program for processing Laser jobs. Don't make the mistake that I made... I bought the Full Suite off of Amazon at a great price only to discover it was a pirate copy and Corel won't support it. Since I am selling products I had to buy an official copy from Corel to be "legal"

I taught myself how to use Corel from free online tutorials, after 3 months of practicing in the evenings I was comfortable doing jobs for customers.

You are right, the program is big, I am still learning a lot the more I do on it. Here is a tip... start a Word Document and keep notes on how to process things in Corel, like "Cliff Notes", it is a great reference when you haven't done something for a month and forgot how... like removing the background or processing a pic for engraving on granite...

I purchased Corel before I bought my laser so I could practice....

Good luck, I hope it all works out for you!

[Ernest Martin]

I started out using Corel Draw 9 and kept upgrading and upgraded from X5 to X6 this winter. I'm not really familiar with the essentails version but I to would think that for a laser engraver the extra money would be well spent. If your only doing vector cutting then you might be okay with the essentials but once you get to graphics that's were the Suite probably would come in better. Like David Rust said there are many free online tutorials.