CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] review:4 stars (Downgrade from CorelDraw Essentials (version 1.0)) - CorelDraw Essentials was like getting a vector program plus a bitmap program for one low price, but version 2 seems like a downgrade, as the bitmap graphics part is greatly crippled. v2 still contains the old but fairly stable CorelDraw 9, with some professional filters removed to lower license fees. There is nothing wrong with v9 (except it doesn't support Unicode as in v12).

But the bad part of this updated Essentials 2 is that they removed PhotoPaint 9 from the package, which was useful for people who want to save on bitmap editors like Photoshop Elements, etc. Whereas PhotoPaint was a fairly mature and stable program, the new photo organizer tools seem to get embarrassing reviews for their unpolished interface. Hopefully CorelDraw Essentials 3 will incorporate a reduced version of JASC's Paintshop Pro program, which Corel recently acquired. That will bring some balance to this unique "Essentials" graphics package.

BTW, if anyone at Corel is reading this, repackage the OSX version of CorelDraw 11 in the same way, to create a "CorelDraw Essentials for Mac". I suspect there will be a large market for Mac Mini buyers looking for a cheap and robust vector program, as well as cutting into a void in bitmap graphics before Apple makes their own "iApp" for graphics design hobbyists.1 stars (Doesn't work for me!) - This program was recommmended to me. I purchased a computer controlled engraving system. I was told to purchase Essentials to convert art to vectors so my machine could read and engrave it. The "improved" and "updated" program cannot do this. I am very disappointed in it, as the previous version was not available. Since the vector capability was not part of the "improved" version, the whole progarm is useless for my purpose.
CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] Features:
Computer software (programs)
Graphics
Multimedia
Illustration (Illustrated)
Edit (Editing)
CD
100,000 clipart images; 250+ templates; 500+ TrueType fonts and symbols
Award-winning CorelDRAW: graphics and page layout software
Corel Photobook and PhotoAlbum make photo retouching, organizing, and editing easy
Lynda.com training CD helps you discover design tips, tricks, and techniques
Quick Start Manager: quickly and easily access applications, start special projects, and organize files

CorelDRAW Essentials 2 [Drawing and Photo-enhancing Made Easy] is the CD-ROM version. The full version can be purchased by clicking on the "CLICK HERE TO ORDER" button below for around 49.99USD.