Company Overview

Corel (now known as Alludo) was founded in 1985 by Michael Cowpland, headquartered in Ottawa, Canada. Corel is a globally recognized graphics and creative software company, best known for the CorelDRAW vector design software. It was acquired by Vector Capital in 2003 and rebranded as Alludo in 2022, while its various well-known software products continue to operate under their original brand names.

Product Portfolio

🎨 Graphics & Creative

  • CorelDRAW Graphics Suite β€” Flagship vector graphics design software combining vector illustration, page layout, and photo editing
  • Corel Painter β€” Professional digital painting software simulating oil, watercolor, pencil, and other traditional media
  • Corel PaintShop Pro β€” Photo editing and graphic design software, a cost-effective Photoshop alternative
  • Corel VideoStudio β€” Video editing software for home users and enthusiasts, supporting 4K video editing

πŸ“„ Office & Utilities

  • WordPerfect Office β€” Office suite continuing the classic WordPerfect word processor experience
  • WinZip β€” World-renowned file compression and decompression utility
  • Parallels Desktop β€” Mac virtualization software enabling seamless Windows and x86 application execution on Mac

Core Strengths

Graphics Pioneer: A benchmark vector design product since the first CorelDRAW release in 1989

Diversified Portfolio: Covers graphic design, digital painting, video editing, office software, and virtualization

Perpetual Licensing: Most products available via one-time purchase, no subscription required

Cross-Platform: Products support Windows and macOS platforms

Key Milestones

  • 1985: Founded by Michael Cowpland in Ottawa, Canada
  • 1989: CorelDRAW 1.0 released; IPO on NASDAQ (ticker: CORL)
  • 1996: Acquired WordPerfect office suite and related applications
  • 2003: Acquired by Vector Capital, taken private
  • 2022: Company rebranded to Alludo; product brands remain unchanged

Market Position

Corel (Alludo) competes in the graphics and creative software market against:

  • Adobe β€” Adobe Illustrator (vector), Photoshop (image), InDesign (layout) compete across the full product range
  • Serif (Affinity) β€” Affinity Designer, Affinity Photo, Affinity Publisher β€” perpetual license creative suite, acquired by Canva in 2024
  • Inkscape β€” Free open-source vector graphics editor
  • GIMP β€” Free open-source image editing software
  • Canva β€” Online graphic design platform targeting non-professional designers

Related products: CorelDRAW