[Miniryu]

I am very intrigued. I picked up a demo copy today at CompUSA and it looks pretty good. Since it is a 30 day demo, I am waiting until I have time and some projects to do until I install it. In the meantime, I was wondering what other people's experiences are.

I do need to get new design software soon, I am still using Photoshop 5 and Illustrator 8. Now that I don't get free software from school, price is a big factor as to what I purchase, and I don't think I can afford AP and AI (although my brother can still buy everything at he student price for me).

Has anyone tried out Create by Stone Design? Or what about Canvas ? How do these stack up to Corel? I read the MacWorld reviews, and they seem to think Corel has an edge over the two.

[bluedog]

For industrial use and dealing with service bureaus and printing companies the ONLY solution is the Quark/Photoshop/Illustrator/Freehand combos (they're starting to use InDesign with PDF workflows).

If you're designing for yourself or printing an occasional thing that's not for hire then you may be fine with Corel. I would recommend buying the student versions of Adobe and upgrade if necessary. If you already own a license for the earlier versions, the upgrade prices are not so bad.

I bought PS at version 3 and upgraded to 4-6. I haven't yet bought 7 for home, but use it at work.

Canvas and Corel were competition back in 1996, but today its like the MS-Office versus all the other 'office suites.' They might be around, but you can't do business efficiently with other companies without having a copy of Office.

Did you know Adobe is 2nd to Microsoft in size? They are the 2nd largest software company (less than half of Microsoft's size I believe, and the next company is half again the size of Adobe).

I'm really intrigued by the Stone Design software but haven't had a chance to try it out. There is a reason that Adobe is as large as today -- developing innovative technologies such as Postscript and their Typography is huge.

Try out Corel, but think about what you will be doing with it and ask your printing company/service bureau what they think about you submitting Corel files to them.

[Miniryu]

Originally posted by bluedog:
For industrial use and dealing with service bureaus and printing companies the ONLY solution is the Quark/Photoshop/Illustrator/Freehand combos (they're starting to use InDesign with PDF workflows).

If you're designing for yourself or printing an occasional thing that's not for hire then you may be fine with Corel. I would recommend buying the student versions of Adobe and upgrade if necessary. If you already own a license for the earlier versions, the upgrade prices are not so bad.

I bought PS at version 3 and upgraded to 4-6. I haven't yet bought 7 for home, but use it at work.

Canvas and Corel were competition back in 1996, but today its like the MS-Office versus all the other 'office suites.' They might be around, but you can't do business efficiently with other companies without having a copy of Office.

Did you know Adobe is 2nd to Microsoft in size? They are the 2nd largest software company (less than half of Microsoft's size I believe, and the next company is half again the size of Adobe).

I'm really intrigued by the Stone Design software but haven't had a chance to try it out. There is a reason that Adobe is as large as today -- developing innovative technologies such as Postscript and their Typography is huge.

Try out Corel, but think about what you will be doing with it and ask your printing company/service bureau what they think about you submitting Corel files to them.

So it sounds like the main drawback to Corel is the industry standard as far as file types go. This is really a shame, since another company can produce and excellent product but not have a chance. If there were a way to convert Corel files to Adobe would things change? I have just heard so much bad stuff about AI and AP lately.

[Miniryu]

dude, this forum is so dead that I don't even feel guilty reposting this in another forum.

[art_director]

As Bluedog said, Corel works but it won't cut it for pro use. Plan on using it just at home? Then you're fine. Want it for bill paying work you're not. Simple as that.

What ever you do *avoid* buying Quark v.5. It's ****, especially for the money. Try out the InDesign 2 demo, I bet you'll like it.

[Miniryu]

Originally posted by art_director:
What ever you do *avoid* buying Quark v.5. It's ****, especially for the money. Try out the InDesign 2 demo, I bet you'll like it.

Thanks. I'm looking into that InDesign; it's a shame about Quark though, I really liked hat program.

[SwarmyCurve]

Blah, Corel gets a thumbs down from me.

The new Freehand MX is excellent, IMHO... much better than Corel Draw. Of course, Photoshop is better than Corel Photo-Paint.

[ratchetcat]

When I was doing tons of prepress work, I *always* used CorelDraw. Why? Because it's a freaking Swiss Army knife for file formats and prepping work -- you can open almost any file format in it, edit it, and prep a spec-perfect EPS or PDF from it. Seriously. Granted, I was using version 9 on Windows (and still do), but I can't imagine the utility of the software has decreased over the last three years.

Also, I've *never* had a problem using CorelDraw for paying 'Pro' work. I've done many extremely complex illustrations in it and hundreds of layouts and simple graphics. The only thing you need to do is make certain you output the file in a format a printer can work with -- PDF or EPS. You'll be fine, because Corel exports PERFECT EPS and PDF files.

Oh, and another insanely cool thing about Draw is that it's very scriptable. I've never used the Mac version, but on Windows you can set up scripts to auto-generate layouts and manipulate objects on the page programmatically.

I can't understand how Corel got the bad rap it has in the professional community. I'd take it over Illustrator or Freehand any day of the week.