Corel Draw! Not professional enough?

[ro|jo]

I'm using Corel Draw since the first time I work on design/layout projects. But most of others designer i know are using Illustrator! What do you think what are the advantages of both. Please share your experience - maybe someone knows both programs.
Thx for your comments

[champ]

Well! as a begginer you can start with any program in the Market, that has vector drawing tools. Corel Draw is My Personal Favourite when it comes to Logos and simple layouts.



thanks.

de-sign.

[lilypad]

I have limited first hand experience with Corel Draw, so my opinion may be somewhat bias, but ...

A buddy of mine was using it extensively back in the mid 90's and what really turned me off was:

A) the complicated user interface
B) non-existent color calibration leading to very inconsistent color output
C) lack of compatibility with postscript and standard print requirements

That said, I think that Corel has made some major steps toward making their software a professional design tool. That based on some more recent artwork from Corel Draw that I have seen from others. My own first hand experience with Draw ended back in version 8.

I started with Aldus and Adobe products, and have been very pleased with the results that I have achieved from them over the years.

- jon

[Clean-Style]

The choice between Illustrator and Corel Draw is mostly about personal preference and what the user has been accustomed to over the years. Consequently, any opinion will contain a degree of bias. And so if you are a new to the game, your best bet would be to try them both.

I like the way Corel Draw handles positioning and precision. As far as I know, with Illustrator there is no easy way to place an object precisely at a desired position. Simplest example would be centering an object. The same goes for selection, a bit tedious using Illustrator.

On the other side, Illustrator is nice and handlier for quick formatting options. I don't like all the palettes/toolbars but I am sure a lot of people find them feasible.

Exporting; is another issue I believe Corel Draw is good at. Corel draw can export to a very long list of different formats. I am not sure how it is with Illustrator.

If I am wrong in any of what I aforementioned. Please correct me!

[lilypad]

Just to respond to the comments about Illustrator (AI)...

I use AI to create files for client who are Engineers and require object to be positioned accurately to 1/1000 (0.001) of an inch. AI maps the object at 9 different points and you specify the position of any one chosen points in the "transform" palette using x/y coordinates.

AI can export to at least 13 formats and save directly to 6.

As I stated before along with Clean-Style, we each have our bias since we have made our choice of design tool and worked with it for a while.

- jon

[apresico]

I find that coreldraw crashes too much. Its nice that it has a backup save every so many minutes though. I also like how the pen tool is in coreldraw.I definitely prefer Illustrator, but in terms of which one is more professional, it really depends on what your printer uses. I know that coreldraw is a standard in some places, and many company who hire designers like to know that you can use it.

The way I see it is that the more programs you become knowledgable about in this profession, the better it will be when you are working on the projects. Its nice to use a variety of things whether they are used together to make a project, or by themselves.

[ulahts]

All can be setup in Corel..even backups....still has an issue when it is charged too much in nodes and curves.
For logos...is all you need.
If you need something else then ask and try the master of vectors...don't need to point his name in the forums...is written on every designer's brain

[raghav]

Have to agree with apresico & ulahts, the corel tends to become non-responsive and finally unstable, which is the most bad thing at the same time when the designs becomes complecated, the small tasks like zooming in becomes a hell of the hard task, which makes it work damn slow.

[tpuentes]

I started using Coreldraw about 15 years ago (think it was version 3) and used it until version 11. It's a great sofware for logos and simple illustrations, handles text very well and like Clean-Style said precision and positioning is pretty cool. The only problem with it is color accuracy for prepress, not very reliable. Most countries in Latin America and the Caribbean use CorelDraw and Freehand as a primary software, so is pretty much professional.
I was introduced to Illustrator 3 years ago and have been using it ever since because it allows me to create more complex designs (I'm a color blend freak). You should also keep in mind that .ai and .eps files are practically standard in the graphic industry and besides of choosing the software you feel more comfortable with, I recommend you use the software that is standard in your country so you keep the files in their native format if you need to interact with other designers/printing companies.

[Babydon]

I was using Corel Draw mainly for bitmap conversion to vector as I found it better than Illustrator's auto-trace feature.

I just bought Illustrator CS2 which now has Live Trace so I guess it's time to uninstall Corel now! lol..:P


By the way - anybody get a chance to play with Live Paint?

AWESOME!!!

[rpcarnell]

Having used Illustrator and Coreldraw, I can tell you this:

Illustrator has a lot of cool stuff like color blending, layers, effects. Things you can also find in Photoshop, and indeed both softwares are similar. Of course Illustrator is for making drawings, logos, etc, and not modifying pictures.

Coreldraw has the same stuff Illustrator has, but it is more comfortable to use. Making copies of a design and pasting it is easier. Making shadows is easier. Mixing colors is also easier. What does bother me about Coreldraw is that exporting anything you make straight toward *jpg, *.png, etc, can give you images that don't look like the original design, but Coreldraw usually comes with Photopaint which can solve that.

____________________________
http://www.carbotek.org

[dumbdesigner]

I haven't tried Illustrator..I am highly satisfied with what Corel Draw offers me.

[bogglins]

I've been using corel draw since 94..
I like the object alignment tool of the corel (left, center, middle, top, bottom, right).. smarter than illustrator I think..

[w0jn4]

I really like corel. I started with corel 7 and now i'm using X2. The only one think that bother me is exporting. I agree with rpcarnell: "...anything you make straight toward *jpg, *.png, etc, can give you images that don't look like the original design..."

But still, corel is a really nice program and probably i will not switch to different one.

[zooley]

I started with corel 6 (occupied 21 pcs. of 3.5" inch floppy disks) and i'm confortable with it. But now i use Illustrator mostly and i like very much also.
I like in Corel the alignment (Center, Bottom, Top...) and the node handling (smooth, symmetrical, cusp).
To summarize, the Illustrator is more professional but if i have an idea i can make it more quickly in Corel.

[Queesy]

My professors always taught me to be familiar with all the programs, because when you get a job you never know. Yes I believe Illustrator is most popular right now ( I am using it as well) But I also make sure I keep up to date with Corel Draw and Quark.

[andrendhiq]

Yes, DRAW easier than ILLUSTRATOR, but doesn't mean DRAW is not proffesional enough.

I think the most important is design concept and how to executed to be final design.

Clients will not ask you, what programs we used for design.. I use DRAW and have no problems at all with my clients, even they ask source in *ai. I just exported my design in DRAW to *.ai and opened again in ILLUSTRATOR to check it.

[ulahts]

Yes, this is a good option, but the color profiles are a great mismatch between those two, and actually the color adjustments will take a while.
I wonder when do those Corel guys will fix once and for all the colors...

[zooley]

To say truly the only tool that i liked a lot was Freehand before Adobe bought it. It was easy like Corel but professional like Illustrator.

[ulahts]

X3 has a lot of new improvements. Yes Freehand had his mean, but i guess, illustrator will rule until some other better software is released on te market.


Off topic: Transylvania you say, adecalea zona Dracula?