I have used Corel Draw versions 5, 6, 7 and 11 over the years.  The two basic types of graphic editing packages in the Corel graphics suite have been vector (Draw) and bitmap (Photo-Paint).  Somewhere between versions 7 and 11, a three-dimensional package (Dream 3D) was dropped and an animation package (R.A.V.E.) to support Macromedia Flash was added.  Some support for movie animation was already in Photo-Paint and all the products are integrated at a basic level.  One of the subtle but significant benefits that Corel has always provided are the additional fonts and starter graphics to aid in your personal projects.

I try to avoid arguing about what is the superior graphics package.  Times change, and so long as "the job gets done quickly," everybody is satisfied.  Open source packages seem to be growing in popularity.  The current market leader is Adobe, a company which started out by creating a 2D page description language for any laser printer called PostScript.  Adobe bundles software into different suites and since they have bought Macromedia, a standard combined package of software is called the Adobe Web Bundle with core programs from both Adobe and Macromedia. 

Technically, the corresponding Corel Draw product is Adobe Illustrator.  I say 'technically' because people can refer to both the Corel suite of programs and the vector drawing program using the same name, and here, I referring to just the program itself.  When trying to share files between these programs, remove all hidden / non-printing materials and make sure all linked files are also transferred.  Objects in hidden layers may be merged with objects in visible layers.  One must allow for editing time and not expect the transferred work to look exactly like the original work!  Both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop, the corresponding program for Corel Photo-Paint, are great products.

House Pictures

Usually, with scanned in images or digital photographs, deleting and retaking the snapshot will save a lot of post-editing time and energy.  Here we have an example where the camera could not compensate for the bright outdoors vs. ambient room lighting so editing with Corel Photo-Paint was necessary to lighten the room but leave the view out the windows mostly untouched.  The person taking the photo could have covered the light sensor on the camera to force a flash, however, with this particular digital camera the scene outside would have then appeared a wash of blurred light.

Epigraphy

Epigraphy is the study and interpretation of ancient inscriptions.  Below is an inscription in a wall, overlooking a courtyard, at the remains of a former palace, in Oman, that is said to have belonged to the Queen of Sheba.  I tried to enhance the image as much as possible.  The alphabet used is a form of Southern Arabic, but I am not certain whether or not to classify the writing as fully Sabaean, or the language the Queen of Sheba would have spoken.  The characters seem to pop right out of the stone but are actually engraved into the stone.  The way etching was done around the edges, I would speculate at one time the stone had a border which has since disappeared.  There is the chance this engraving was carved long before the palace was built.  Reusing existing stone blocks would have been economical.

The writing style itself seems to indicate a pragmatic society where information is communicated in an organized manner, without taking the extra time to embellish each character.  The implication is the writer was being "paid" to be neat, but not artistic, and if time was important, then other documents or activities were not being done while the writer was working on any one project.

Be aware my Version A transcription is only approximate.  I made a variety of guesses and cannot just go visit Oman to obtain better photographs, and perhaps only discover some parts are simply unreadable due to weathering over the centuries.  What needs to be done now is someone who understands what is being communicated to fill in the blank spaces in the middle, around the edges and correct my assumptions, for instance, repeated characters are unusual in the text and perhaps any repeats are mistakes.

My characters generally do not take into account slight variations in writing style, for example, the character with two circles connected by a line comes in two different sizes but I portrayed only one size.  Likewise, the character that looks similar to a squashed M tilted sideways, seems to have a 'formal' and 'cursive' form.  Was squashing two characters together and in the process, slightly deforming one of the characters -- an accident?  If you, the reader, has any answers, such as what the message means, please send me an email and enlighten me!  There is also a small chance most other people have not noticed the slight character variations I am talking about, but the work is too carefully done not to at least consider the possibility these variations are intentional.

To reiterate with pictures, not all the characters made of circles are the same size:

Question:  Are the deformed characters below and to the left really necessary or is the writer trying to convey a combined character meaning?  The middle picture just below shows the difficulty in trying to decide whether there are two or three characters present -- I guessed three, but knowing more about the language would greatly help my interpretation.  The white line in the third rightmost picture is a crack in the stone.

    versus         and    

I did create two separate characters for the two following images although some people would disagree and say the difference does not change the meaning of the message and these two character mean exactly the same thing.

    versus    

The person carving by hand tried to make straight lines, and appears to have run out of space for the last line.  Printing on paper is not as durable as engraving the message in stone, but modern advances such as the ability to snap characters to a flat gridline or uniformly duplicating a character are great.  Corel Photo-Paint was used to increase the contrast of the original photograph.  The image was imported into Corel Draw on a layer designated not to be printed and characters were drawn on a different layer over the image.  I can email any interested party the 1.3 MB Corel Draw file.