I am very happy to announce that we started shipping CorelDRAW Home & Student Suite X6 and that it will be available in the next few weeks at selected retailers around the world.
CorelDRAW Home & Student Suite X6 brings the power of CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 to hobbyists and students who are looking for a product to be used exclusively for non-commercial purpose.
Based on the same core as CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6.1, Home & Student is built from the ground-up for the users who create graphics for print and the web in non-commercial usage, e.g. for your school project or not-for-profit associations and clubs. The license is therefore strictly limited to non-commercial use. At the same time, we know that some of you have multiple computers in your household, and therefore allow the installation of CorelDRAW Home & Student Suite X6 on up to 3 different computers in the household (not in the office, remember the non-commercial use comment).
From a feature-set perspective, you get almost complete versions of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT in the box. The biggest difference compared to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 are that Home & Student Suite X6 does not include VBA / VSTA or Macro support, and some more advanced features a professional user would need are not available (such as PrePress, PreFlight, specific file formats such as CGM, advanced OpenType features, or color management options). Finally, the Home & Student version is not eligible for our Memberships offering, has reduced the amount of content on the disc and the printed Hard-cover book from Graphics Suite is not included (it is included in electronic format).
This enables us to provide CorelDRAW Home & Student Suite X5 at US$129 / € 99 in many countries around the world. We actually have this product available in English, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Brazilian Portuguese, Czech, Polish and Russia and it can be purchased from our authorized channel partners, including many retail stores in your country.
"In all fareness?" I do not complain about missing ADVANCED tools. I complain about removing important but very BASIC things. Please, don't try to put words into my pen which I did not write.
The announcement, summing-up the differences, never told us that we would be stuck with a product that is hardly of any use.
Previous versions were indeed fine for home and student use. This one is and remains a rip-off.
Just ONE example: ever tried to draw a complex shape without being able to switch to the cross hair cursor?
Was that an "advanced" feature then?
The differences with earlier Home and Student versions are enormous and make this... a rip-off.
Let those who used to work with X5 or earlier Home and Student versions be warned! The above announcement is FAR from the truth.
The phrase "some more advanced features... are not available" used in the announcement should in fact have read "many basic features have been removed too".
Telling half the truth is NOT fair business.
Can anyone tell where to find the "comparison matrix"? "Gérard on Graphics" mentions it but I see no link.
(Sorry for any errors against the English language; it is not my native tongue)
VIM,
IN all fareness you cant expect to get all advanced tools for €90, when the full version cost 600-700 euros. There is a reason to why it is limited.
If you have bought it recently then check to see if you have a 30 day guarentee. Maybe you can return it and buy the full version. Call your local Corel customer service. www.corel.com and choose your country in the top right corner.
Thank you for your feedback. Yes, the level of features compared to previous Home & Student versions is slightly less. While working on this version, we made sure that features that are primarily of value for commercial users are excluded. If there are specific features you would like to see in future versions, I would love to get more details about them and how / when you would use them.
I will post a more detailed comparison chart shortly in my blog.
Just threw away €90
This really is a rip-off.
First time that Corel excludes almost all usefull options in this version.
It's not only those "advanced" features that are missing but very important basic ones too.
I have 2 screens of Corel products registered but this one was the very last purchase I've made of this brand.
Back to X5 and try to explain to the wife why I've thrown away the money.
I purchased this because I am an experienced user of the suite, particularly Photopaint. Because I am not working at present, and wanted something to maintain my skills as well as to do some personal projects that I have been postponing for some time, I checked on the Corel website to learn the difference between this package and the far more expensive professional version.
From their website: "From a feature-set perspective, you get almost complete versions of CorelDRAW and Corel PHOTO-PAINT in the box. The biggest difference compared to CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X6 are that Home & Student Suite X6 does not include VBA / VSTA or Macro support, and some more advanced features a professional user would need are not available (such as PrePress, PreFlight, specific file formats such as CGM, advanced OpenType features, or color management options). Finally, the Home & Student version is not eligible for our Memberships offering, has reduced the amount of content on the disc and the printed Hard-cover book from Graphics Suite is not included (it is included in electronic format)." (Search this site forthe keywords "difference between coreldraw education and standard" to find this reference.
In fact, a number of very other useful features have been removed or crippled. One that is very handy for the less experienced user is Print Preview, which formerly allowed you to select what part of the image you printed out interactively. It also rendered images in a manner that more closely represented the printed sheet than the rather crude "preview" that is now presented when the print command is invoked. (It was even better than the "working screen" in this regard.)
Also, the brush selection has been scaled back, and other many useful tools are not available.
Now, I realize that this was done because they did not want to sell a program with the same capabilities for such a reduced price, and the program probably is well worth what they are charging. My issue is that they were not as transparent about what is and what is not included in the package. They have comparison charts comparing the features of the various versions (X3, X4, X5, etc.) and they should have the same for this.
I will keep the program, but I am less happy with Corel than I was in the past. Would I have bought it had I known all this? Probably not, but my needs may be more demanding than yours and I am spoiled by using the full-featured---although older--versions for years.
In summary, this is a nice program with may good features, but beware of looking at the description of the standard CorelDraw Suite and subtracting the features enumerated in the description provided by Corel. You will get much less. Apparently, the previous version actually did have all of the features minus the color separation (which relatively few home users would ever need, but pros would,) CGM, books, etc. I think I would trade my copy for it, even though it does not have some of the advances that attracted me to X6 in the first place. But if X6 Student Version as it is meets your needs, keeping this in mind, I would recommend that you give it serious consideration. Limited as it is, it is still a good program at a good price.