Since the announcement of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 at the end of March, the team at Corel has been very busy working on many fronts. In addition to the first set of 7 languages (English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese and Dutch), we’ve already released another 6 at the end of April (Swedish, Finnish, Polish, Czech, Russian and Turkish) and will add another 3 over the summer (Japanese, Chinese Simplified and Chinese Traditional).

We are hard at work on “Update 1” for CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 which will be free to registered X6 users and will be released late summer 2012. In addition to the fixes that would have been released for previous versions as part of a Service Pack, X6.1 will include additional performance improvements and features enhancements such as:

• WIA support: With PHOTO-PAINT X6.1, we will support both the TWAIN and WIA standards for scanners (for both Windows 7 32- and 64-bit).
• PS plug-in support: With PHOTO-PAINT X6.1, again in both 32- and 64-bit, we will add for a much longer list of Photoshop Plug-ins. Our tests currently indicate that Blow Up3, Radlab, Noise Ninja and Flaming Pear will work in PHOTO-PAINT X6.1. We are also trying to get Nik and EyeCandy to work, and have reached out to the developers of those companies to work with us to make this happen.
• VBA enhancements: For those creating marcos in VBA and VSTA, we will add full support the the new OpenType as well as Styles functionality.

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6.1 is expected to be the first version of CorelDRAW to be fully tested, compatible and certified for Windows 8. This means that if you purchase CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 today, you will get a free update to the version compatible with the upcoming operating system from Microsoft.

On the subject of Windows 8, I am really happy to announce our first Metro application – "Designs", which is available today in the Windows App Store for Windows 8 Release Preview. In its first iteration (consider it a preview release), you can use this Metro app to easily search CorelDRAW.com community galleries for user-generated artwork, quickly save your favourites for easy access and share image thumbnails, references and comments.

We plan to provide updates to "Designs" between now and the official launch of Windows 8, and are already looking at closer integration between the CorelDRAW / Corel CONNECT X6 trays and those included in this new Metro app.

Looking ahead, we are committed to make sure CorelDRAW Graphics Suite remains a very powerful and highly compatible yet easy-to-use package, and will provide you an increasing level of choice around digital content availability, early access to product features, online services, mobile apps, new payment options and more.

Stay tuned for more. In the mean-time, happy CorelDRAWing!