Chuck:
I agree with you on Photoshop. I use both Corel Photopaint and Photoshop. I think Photoshop wins hands down when it comes to photo editing and manipulating graphics. PP has it's good points but PS has more.

Corel X3 is good, a lot better than some prior editions. The Powertrace thing is OK, but as someone else said, the one that comes with Flexisign and Enroute (same company) is really good, but those are super expensive softwares. I have the one in my Enroute CNC toolpath program.

I agree with enhancing your bitmaps before attempting to trace them. Just get in there and work on the things that don't look right. I usually change the contrast and such. Just my 2 cents worth. Good luck!

Thanks Larry,

This thread has been enlightening to say the least.....it is great that so many folks shared their opinions and ideas..... I learned a lot......

Illustrator CS can open CDR 10 and under files, as CMYK or RGB.

I use both Illustrator CS and Coreldraw 12, and honestly there's not a lot of difference between both. There both just as good for vectoring.

Thank you William,

I appreciate your input. The conclusion I have come to is to Keep on using X3 and upgrade Photoshop.

I will try some of the tricks mentioned here regarding pre processing as well.....

Thanks again for your help.