One of my goals in getting the Cintiq graphics tablet is that it runs Windows. This much-maligned operating system provides a wealth of software unavailable to Macintoshes. The one that I was looking for was CorelDraw, a grand piece of graphix originally from Canada. I started my digital graphics work on Windows using CorelDraw back in the 1990s and missed it a lot when I switched over to Macintosh. The Mac equivalent, Adobe Illustrator, is a cranky, overcomplicated program guaranteed to make a graphic designer throw erasers at the wall in frustration. So when I got the Cintiq I looked forward to working with CorelDraw again.
But CorelDraw has also evolved with the times and is also quite pricey, so I was hoping that my Cintiq would run my own personal copy of CorelDraw, stored in a closet since my Macconversion. The current version of CorelDraw is number 17, known to those hipsters as "X7". I have version number 12 dated 2003. The big question: would this "legacy" version from 12 years ago run on my futuristic Cintiq?
I am delighted to tell you that it does, and I installed it tonight. It works as well as when I was knocking out hundreds of decorative price tags for Trader Joe's. I have whole CD libraries of my CorelDraw graphic designs. This design comes from about 2000, when I was working for a Persian exile who dealt in carpets and other decorative objects using ancient pre-Islamic Persian design. The multiplied shapes you see here are derived from ancient Persian ornament and reproduced on CorelDraw using their excellent color management system. I did a lot of these Persian designs, including carpets, but as far as I know the rug designs were never made.
Persian rug design, CorelDraw, about 2000 up-to-millennial year. Click for closer view.
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