I think it really all comes down to personal preferance. Allhough its always good to know both. I only know Illustrator but have been told great things about Corel so I kinda wanna check it out now too...just to know. I would say go with whichever you are more comfortable with. I can't compare the features for you ( since I don't know Corel. Come to think of it..I'm not much help at all huh....LOL! Sorry LTG!! ) Hehe! I am sure that come Monday when everyone is back on the board you will get some good help here! )



Who says doodling isn't constructive?!

It's ok d-zine. Actually, I already have Illustrator and a very old version of Corel Draw- v4. Just wondering about it since it came up in another thread. Kind of wondering if it's worth having both or if I would ever have a need for both or if I should put more time in learning one over the other as well as the basic differences.

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.

hmmm...no strong opinions on this topic, I guess.

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.

LTG...I'm not sure but you might be able to run a search on this...I know the topic has been covered ALOT, I'm just not sure if it ever got its own thread....but check it out k!



Who says doodling isn't constructive?!

LTG, I've meant to respond to this but I forgot. [img]/emoticons/ibf-iamstupid.gif[/img] I've had a lot of experience with both programs and I will state that Corel Draw is by far a better program. It has more features than Iliustrator ever dreamed of. If I worked in a closed system it is all I would ever use for page layout and vector work. But! It has some problems when you take corel files out of their native program. I think their biggest mistake is that they never really promoted it. I'll be the first to admit that Adobe folks are a hard sell. But if Corel had ever really tried I think they could rule the industry.



'I used to be with it. But then they changed what it was. Now what I'm with isn't it, and what's it seems weird and scary to me.' Abraham Simpson

I would bet there are others to back Kool up on this one. I have heard some ppl say nothing but great things about Corel. I am interested in playin around with it and learning it myself...but....yu know..no money to get the program right now so...LOL!



Who says doodling isn't constructive?!

thanks Kool - Keyare mentioned in another thread that he thinks Corel is the better program also - seems to me that you guys have the experience and knowledge to give a good assessment.

thanks d-zine - I'll have to try another search - I did one day but I didn't I come up with any threads that compared features

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.

i think its all about personal preferance.... by the way seeing as your all talkin about corel and illustrator, i have a question, does anyone here know how if i create a file in illustrator and i want to convert it to corel... how do i do this so that when it gets there the text stays formatted the same.. the other day i converted a file and a paragraph got seperated into seperate lines!!! ((hope you understand what i'm talking about!))

I prefer CorelDraw (CD) but can't put my comments up right ... gotta get back to work. I have some strong thoughts on the subject. Of course, it will depend on what you use it for. I've used CD since version 4 and am now using vers. 11 (Version 12 was released about 3 weeks ago). Until November, I was forced to use Illustrator and I just hated it. In contrast, I think that Adobe did a great job with Photoshop. I think it's superior and easier to use than CorelPaint. I'm not totally biased!!!

Corel has newsgroups that you can also post to, but you must access through your email software. If you want the address I'll send. Those who post to it are also very helpful.

Like I said, I'll write again later.

Cowtoon, I'll look forward to hearing more from you and yes, I'd appreciate the address. Thanks. I used to use corelpaint years ago (v4) but like you say - photoshop is great - I'd have a hard time giving it up. I rummaged through my software cds and found a 'coreldraw essentials' that I'd gotten with one of my printers a while back. It says it is version 9. I guess I spend some time messing with it.

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.

ok ... here's the address for the CorelDRaw (CD) newsgroup. You can select the version you want to subscribe to. I will assume you know how to add a newsgroup to your outlook express or outlook. If not, let me know and I'll give you the steps. cnews.corel.com
Please note that you can only access this forum from your email - not through your browser.

OK LTG ... get comfortable ... I got a little carried away with this. I hope it helps more than it confuses.

On Ill vs CD.
In addition to creative graphics, I do spec drawings using CD.
I've been using CD since 1994 and I'm used to it and find it easy to work with, so there's a chunk of bias here.

Precision: I can tell my text where (horizontally and vertically) to be positioned, where its centre should be. I can tell any image where to be and where it's centre should be. I can do the same with guidelines. The snap-to-guidelines could be improved. I overcome it by zooming, then I get the snapping that I want. Just try to determine where a guideline should be or is ... made me crazy. All of these can be determined to 1/1000 of an inch. You can choose whatever units you want.

Dimensions: I can apply dimension lines/values with CD. Width, length and angles.

Beziers: I find it quite easy to work with node edit tools in CorelDraw. In Illustrator, absolutely every time I try to edit a node in a shape, it's a by-gosh and by-golly thing.

Selection: I prefer the way the CD handles object selection. It hasn't changed. Engulf the objects by drawing a marquis around them and they are selected. In Illustrator, if your marquis touches an object when you draw your marquis, it's selected. Large object are hard to select in Illustrator without selecting just about everything else on the screen. This is my personal preference.

Copy/Paste: In CorelDraw, when I copy an item, then paste it, it gets pasted exactly where it was. I use this to my benefit so many times. In Ill, I have to hunt around the page to find the pasted object. This is most annoying when I'm zoomed in. I think they get pasted in the middle of the page. I would like to think that perhaps this is an option that can be changed.

I don't like all the palletes that Illustrator places all over my screen, but maybe Ijust didn't get use to it. I'm still trying to get used to it in Photoshop.

Unless I don't know what I'm doing in this next comment ... I cannot import Illustrator images into CorelDraw as vectors. They always show up as bitmaps. So much for converting all the files at work into CorelDraw for future modifications.

Fonts: Illustrator seems to have a handier properties/toolbar/palette for making quick formatting changes. It also seems to have an additional component when selecting font attributes.

Here's an odd one, if I'm remembering correctly (not entirely sure). I cannot use the mouse to scroll when I'm in Illustrator. In CorelDraw, depending on the pc, the wheel mouse does indeed work, however, you cannot always get what you want. On one pc, the wheel will behave as zoom in/zoom out, then on another pc, it will scroll up and down the page (no matter what your zoom is). I haven't been able to determine why you get one or another. I suspect it's a bug in the program.

With CorelDraw, you can export to many many formats. I haven't explored this in Illustrator and hope I don't have to (lol).

Well ... that should give you something to chew on. Again ... I hope it helps. Good luck.
PS ... If I'm wrong on my criticisms of Illustrator, I don't mind hearing about it. I don't know the probably very much at all. I found it tedious to find things I needed, but I ahve a CorelDraw mindset, which doesn't help, I suppose.

wow - thanks Cowtoon!

I've opened and messed around with coreldraw essentials twice and I've already noticed what you said about the beziers. I've gotten around the selection irritation in illustrator by using the direct selection tool and holding the shift key down to select only the specific items I want by clicking directly on them. I guess I'm used to the pallettes so they don't bother me much. I'll be sure and look for the differences you've mentioned and probably discover some as I go along.

I had an problem yesterday with something created in Illustrator and saved as an eps not printing right (fuzzy, not sharp, edges) when I imported it into quark. I remember reading somewhere that the problem can sometimes be saving the eps with a preview - but I haven't gone back and tried resaving (in illustrator) and reprinting to see if that changes anything. I tried opening the eps file in coreldraw to see if I could resave from there but it wouldn't open. Maybe I'm doing something wrong - I'll mess with it again today and see what happens. Maybe it's just quark being flaky.

I'll probably give it some time before I rush out and order an upgrade for Coreldraw after remembering the CD Essentials that I had - that'll probably be enough to let me compare the two programs and see if I actually prefer one over the other. Thanks again.

If it wasn't for the last minute nothing would ever get done.

Don't 'open' with CD ... import. Big difference, unless that's what you did. I'm rather bizzy today ... will check back later if things settle down. Might have to respond from home again like I did last night, but I also have a busy evening before that can happen.