CorelDRAW 2021. Is it worth it? What is new?

CorelDRAW 2021. Is it worth it?  What is new?
Steve Spence

Well, CorelDRAW 2021 has been out for awhile now and you have likely been bombarded with ads and pop-ups urging you to upgrade to the new version. Should you?
Of course, only you can decide if the new version if worth the investment and to make that decision, you need to know what’s new in 2021. I find several major additions and although they are features, I wouldn’t use very often but when I need them, the new version meets the challenge.

One: The big feature is being able to draw in perspective. Of course, you could always do this with the line tool and some time, but the new version does it almost automatically for you. With the new program, you can draw a “rectangle” and make it into a perspective such as the side of a box. Click and drag and you can create the second side in the same or a different perspective. With another tool, you can click and drag a top in the same perspective. Not anything you can’t create with the older versions, but the 2021 version is lot faster and easier to be sure. If you do very much drawing in perspective, this is a must-have.

Two is a multiple page feature which I will use a lot. You probably know you can have multiple pages in the same job. Sometimes I might have 15 or more pages in a really complicated project. The bad thing about this is you can’t see but one page at a time – but no more – now you can see all the pages at once or just the ones you want. You can also move objects from one page to another or align them for multi-layer work. You can also mix different types of bitmap images such as jpeg, png, pdf, etc.

Three is for those who might want to change a color in a bitmap image. Both PhotoPaint and the new CorelDRAW offer a much better ability to change selected colors than before and any changes you make are non-destructive which means you just have to click once to return to the original image. This is a feature sublimators should appreciate. Especially when a customer brings you an image and says, “I want this picture but change the color of the red car to blue”. With this feature, it takes only a couple of clicks.

I guess fonts will always be a pain in the neck, but the new version makes an attempt to better organize them. Using FontManager which comes with CorelDRAW, you can store and organize your fonts in whatever way works best for you. A new feature allows people who have Corel on multiple computers to copy all the fonts from one computer to another or to a server so everyone has the same choices.
Some other new features included include the ability to zoom in and out so you can work on a drawing in full-screen view and then with a click, see it in actual size. A “Find and Replace” feature has been wanting in previous versions but with 2021, it has been much improved. Also, there is an automatic feature that will take your artwork and size it to fit a page. You can even specify the size of the margins.

So, is 2021 worth the money? To me it is. Time is money and this new version will allow me to work faster and easier using several of the new features. Truth is, I’ve been using 2021 since the day it was released and although I have to scratch my head occasionally when a feature calls for using the new Docker system, I feel very comfortable with it. And of course, there are videos by CorelDRAW highlighting all the features and independent reviewers on YouTube demonstrating the features as well.

If you don’t already have CorelDRAW’s latest version, you can order it through your Condé Representative.