Coreldraw X3 launch turns into wake for lizard

A Corel product launch turned into a wake for a dead lizard after the luckless creature went the way of all flesh the day before it was due for a moment of glory.

The company had adopted a new chameleon logo for its flagship Coreldraw X3 graphics suite and chose the reptile house at London Zoo as an appropriate venue for yesterday's press launch.

Chris the Chameleon was deputed to star as a living logo. But Amanda Bedborough, executive vice-president of Corel International, said at the start of the event: 'I am afraid Chris died last night.'

So journalists had to be content with a Chinese-made toy chameleon that glowed in multiple colours when squeezed.

The new X3 suite includes four programs: Coreldraw for illustration and page-layout, Photo-Paint for image editing, Capture for screen grabs and Pixmantec's Rawshooter Essentials for editing photos taken using the Raw file format.

In addition you get a handbook with expert advice and a collection of 10,000 digital images.

New features of Coreldraw include the integration of Powertrace, which converts bitmaps into editable vector images and enhanced features for cutting out image areas.

Both Draw and Photo-Paint integrate an Image Adjustment Lab for making the best of poor-quality images.

The X3 suite, launched on the same day as the Wordperfect Office X3 , will be available in February at £386.57 (£329 ex VAT) for the full product, £99.87 (£85 ex VAT) for the student and teacher edition.

You can also upgrade from a variety of Corel products for £149.