I use Corel Draw 12 for technical illustrations, mostly in connection with patent applications. Newer versions have been ruined for my purpose.

As regards the photo component, Corel Photo-Paint, forget it. While it does have some exiting additions over the likes of Photoshop Elements (exammples: channel mixer), the basic stuff like brightness adjustment is not from this millennium. Brightness in Corel adjusts exposure linearly, as opposed to changing gamma like modern programs do. With modern programs, like Photoshop (Elements), when you adjust brightness, the midtones are adjusted much more aggressively than the blacks or whites. With corel, if you try to open shadows, you'll blow the highlights.

Regards, Antero