This book is intended mainly as a user’s guide to CorelDRAW version 6, the Windows 95 version of Corel’s graphics package. It goes beyond the limits of a normal user’s guide and adds much in the way of author’s comments and evaluations of the software.

This is an extraordinarily long book. There are 36 chapters grouped into eight parts, plus two appendices. The two-level, 23-page table of contents and 59-page index are both long and detailed. Nevertheless, it is still not easy to maneuver around such a huge volume. The main reason for this difficulty is that too many details of too many programs are covered, and these programs are not all related to one another. They include DRAW, Photo-PAINT, DREAM3D, PRESENTS, OCR-TRACE, MOTION3D, and DEPTH. The CorelSCRIPT program is not included in the package, but there is a chapter dedicated to it anyway. It is clear that the author is trying to be as complete as possible.

Another reason for the difficulty is the colloquial writing style. It is so colloquial that the reader may feel that he or she is reading a magazine or newspaper article instead of a book. Though this style makes the text flow more easily for a casual reading, it makes “reading for a purpose” somewhat painful.

Starting with an overview, the first part of the book states that “drawing” is vector-based and deals with curves, while “painting” deals with dots. It then summarizes the major features of the software package, and ends with a complete example of making a drawing using the software package.

Part 2 elaborates the central point that all vector-based objects are treated in the same manner (as curves) in CorelDRAW. This is followed by Part 3, which explains text manipulation.

One noteworthy feature of the software is the high customizability of the user interface. Part 4 is dedicated to this feature, which is available in all CorelDRAW tools.

Part 5 covers special effects. Part 6 is called “Doing It,” which is a bit misleading. This title implies hands-on tips in using the software; in fact, this part is about the works created by some professional Corel designers.

Part 7 describes DRAW’s interfaces to the outside world. Part 8 describes other tools in the suite.

Throughout, the author uses grayed text boxes to provide hints or comments. “Author’s note” and “inside info” boxes give tips and background information on certain features. The “watch out” box describes common pitfalls, and “new for 6” describes new features in version 6 of CorelDRAW. There are also illustrations and exercises to help the reader understand the software. These all help the reader learn the capabilities of the software.

A companion CD is included. It contains product demonstrations, utilities, and practice files that describe exercises used in the book. Appendix B is dedicated to the contents of this CD. Like the CorelDRAW 6 package itself, this CD requires Windows 95, except for a few of the utility programs, for which Windows 3.1 is sufficient. Although the demos and utilities are self-sufficient, the practice files cannot be used without CorelDRAW 6. This limitation should be pointed out in the book, but unfortunately it is not.

Other than being too long and too wordy, this book serves fairly well as a guide. The evaluation of the software package looks reasonable.