Can CorelDraw do everything Illustrator can?

You guys are all super for replying. Seems that I'm not alone, then, in sensing the Illustrator-elitism prevolent on the net, and I don't even KNOW anyone razzing me on it like some of YOU do, and look how bad I bought into it!

I'm a musician, too, and if I told you the same thing happens in the music software world, I doubt you'd have any trouble at all believing me. I'm glad for reading older interview of both artists and musicians where they chastise those who swear by tools rather than their own ability to use anything that supports their creativity, for which CorelDRAW does for me in the vector world. 

Ain't it funny, though disconcerting, how we can go against what our own intuition/gut feelings are telling us about the right program (or right ANYTHING, for that matter) and try to fit in with the Clique Of The Week?

Oh, well, thanks for the support so far. I don't know how many other people are going through this sort of thing that are fearful to just post their thoughts, ideas, and shortcomings with their own needs because internet (or other) peer-pressure is telling them to go against what's right for them.

I am in complete appreciation of every reply so far, and any more input is most certainly welcome!

Have a good day, all!

 - Paul

 

Hey Paul,

You're quite welcome, i've noticed so far that the Corel community are pretty helpful and friendly people. 

CorelDRAW is an amazing tool and even though i've learned illustrator quite well i would never choose it over draw. Even Photoshop CS3 which i now have is a great tool and has surpassed Photo-Paint  in many areas still has many limitations in comparison as well.

I think a big problem with Photo-Paint and DRAW is that its harder to find sources to learn the software. I mean there are some great books but they're much less prevalent than those for adobe's software. Besides books are a tedious way of learning software.

I think Corel would benefit greatly by having video tutorials included in the suite for CorelDRAW (as its done in the past to a limited degree) and for Photo-paint. They should be much more thorough than they have been.  I mean its very easy to get training for Adobe software and it should be for Corel's as well. I think they would benefit greatly by including these video tutorial courses  as extra dvds in the suite or/and even online for free from their website. Make it so its very easy for those wanting to learn more about corel draw to do so without having to buy a lengthy book. Afterall i think the attitude is if i'm going to learn something i might as well go with the choice that has more resources and is the "industry standard" 

How about

CorelDRAW - Beginner
CorelDRAW - Intermediate
CorelDRAW - Advanced + Tips from the pros

CorelPhot-Paint - Beginner
CorelPhoto-Paint - Intermediate
CorelPhoto-Paint - Advanced + Tips from the pros

Another comment is Corel's marketing is really poor, i mean even their web-site doesn't reflect what they do, it too cold, corporate and boring instead of alive and dynamic and most importantly not very in-depth and useful to gather information regarding its products. It feels incomplete. (at least to me)

Dream,

I filmed a full set of VHS videos for Draw/Paint 6-10 for Keystone Learning
Systems. They didn't create any more due to lack of sales.

Since then I have included videos integrated with my CorelDRAW Unleashed
books. Those books have been CorelDRAW-only to this point. Again, while
people here mention interest in learning PHOTO-PAINT, our research shows
that it is a minority of users.

Hey Foster,

Thanks for the reply, I read your blog (i think it was yours) about what would you do as CEO of Corel. 

 i think Photo-paint needs to get some development and finally come out of the shadows of DRAW. I know they offered a stand-alone a while back and it didn't do so well ( i think version 8) but Photo-paint is an awesome piece of software suffering from serious neglect both in marketing and development. Why does corel offer 3 bitmap editors?, i know they acquired jasc and ulead but why not take the best of all of them and some of the brush technologies from painter and give photo-shop and PS elements  a real run for its money. 

They should  develop PP to be the Corel's PRO entry by combining an improved PP with Fireworks (for the web capabilities), and Paint Shop Pro and Photo Impact and some elements of Painter . They could separate it into 2 versions "Elements" for consumer and PRO. And offer it as a stand alone and within the suite. But with the learning access as i've mentioned above. (tutorials)

Corel has no "professional" bitmap editor in the design community's minds, this makes no sense to me and i think it hurts their image as serious pro graphics suite. I mean i know that PP is a pro tool and should be given the respect of one, with proper development and marketing. Imagine them positioning themselves as the better image editing software at a fraction of the price. Easy learning with tutorials, and all the normal extras. PP could bring sales to DRAW and vice versa. But why use draw if you're using Photo-shop? I mean those who have been using corel for years know why but if you're a newbie, why would you other than cost? Sometimes it feels like corel has lost its confidence in its products. They should be more aggressive, imagine a truly superior product, free video tutorials, able to export and import PSD files without loosing any integrity in FX and "Adjustment Layers", superior in every aspect at a 3rd of the price of Photo-shop. Call me naive but i really think corel could regain a lot of its market share in North America and around the world.

They should be working on streamlining all their design software. They should decide which products are "consumer products" and which are "pro" and act accordingly. CDGS is too expensive and hard to use to be a consumer product and PP is under-developed to be a serious contender to Photoshop. So they sit in this awkward middle ground between PRO and CONSUMER software. 

The new and improved suites...integrate and improve all applications

DTP PRO SUITE (Streamlined)

Ventura
CorelDRAW
Photo-Paint
KPT Collection in PP (how many copies of this do they sell, you can even get a screen shot on their site or a list of plug-ins)
Knock-Out built into PP and improved

ART PRO SUITE (Streamlined)

Painter (make it Corel and Adobe friendly but don't  make it only adobe friendly as it is now!!! That has baffled me for a while)
Corel DRAW
Corel PP with KPT and Knock-Out built in

GRAPHICS SUITE PRO (Streamlined)

CorelDRAW
Corel PP with KPT and Knock-Out built in

TECHNICAL SUITE PRO

Not sure about this one, i've never used it.

 

Then have the consumer line of products.

This is just my opinion, i know a lot of you are corel geeks too and that you too take an interest in corel's future and success and so do i. these are my feelings. 

 

 Hey Foster,

One last thing, i think if you did something like that in today's information enviroment it might work differently, have it available online in flv, and/or quicktime and dvds, you might have more success.  With a program like Camtasia and with the price of hosting today, your development cost would be very low and could offer a good r.o.i. Or, even better work out a deal with corel and offer it with the suite and online through coreldraw.com for a royalty or some other arrangement. Just a thought...best of luck to you.

Peace 

Dream,

I don't disagree with your assessment of what should be done with
PHOTO-PAINT and the suites you have put together. Unfortunately this message
doesn't ever seem to get to the C suite at Corel.

Dream,

I think you will see we have something more for PHOTO-PAINT down the road.
We are already giving it significant coverage in CorelDRAW Unleashed
magazine, at our CorelDRAW Unleashed User Conference and at CorelDRAW
Unleashed Boot Camps.

Offering it with CorelDRAW is not going to happen for a wide variety of
reasons. For one, they have to be filmed long before the software is
finished. This is incredibly difficult and stressful. Second, it doesn't
necessarily pay as well as selling them separately. I'm also curious to know
what percentage of people truly watch the videos included. They are well
ingrated into CorelDRAW X4. Scott Georgeson, a respected third party, has
done a great job with them. But do people really watch them???

We are constantly talking with folks at Corel to find ways to get the word
out about our training products as it is a win-win situation for Corel and
for Unleashed. I can't tell you how many great ideas have been shot down by
the lawyers at Corel. Hmm, maybe we should shoot down the lawyers....

FosterCoburn:

maybe we should shoot down (the) lawyers....

 

Geez...banish the thought.

"I can't tell you how many great ideas have been shot down by
the lawyers at Corel. Hmm, maybe we should shoot down the lawyers".... Foster D. Coburn III

I think you're on to something here...leave it up to lawyers to stifle creativity.

As for the tutorials, i've been using corel for 13 years or so and i watched them just to see if there was anything new i could learn. I learned a couple of tricks but not much else but for new users this could be a blessing. What tutorials i'd like to see are Photo-Paint, i understand the software pretty well but i'd like to know it inside out and i hate learning software from books, its soo tedious.

I understand your reservations with distributing the tutorials wiht the software but maybe an online source  would work just as well and  be much cheaper. If the lawyers don't let you advertise it there is always coreldraw.com and i'm sure many other resources you have at your disposal including videos sites like youtube and metacafe...Keep up the great work and thanks!

Dream,

It isn't reservations about being included in the CorelDRAW box. I've never
been asked. I also know that Scott was under an enormous amount of stress
meeting the deadlines. I don't know what it pays, but probably not worth it.

YouTube to me is not an answer today because the quality of the video is
hideous. CorelDRAW.com does not have an avenue for such a thing today.

The lawyers don't block us advertising. If we have something, we have the
outlet to sell them on unleash.com. I just know how well other products
focused on PHOTO-PAINT have sold. The short answer, very very poorly.
Occasionally we'll try something to see if the market has changed. I've yet
to see a change.

We will have some announcements in the fairly near future about some new
PHOTO-PAINT stuff from us. And I know that Nathan Segal is planning on
updating his PHOTO-PAINT book for X4 (with videos). Will either of these be
what you want? I just don't know. The more advanced the information, the
smaller the market interested in such a product.

Hi Dream,

Like yourself, I prefer to learn from videos when possible. Today I uploaded the first of many in the future to help serve the needs of those who want top-shelf CorelDRAW/Photo-PAINT training. There will be small packages so that people can buy whatever interests them, for extremely low prices.

It will eventually operate like a vending machine for cool CorelDRAW/Photo-PAINT tips. Collect all 35 "3 PAKS"! :-D

Foster has some great videos in his X3 book. Anyone can understand them, his experience in teaching shines through.

There is also print info avail here now, most of it still applies to X3/X4 though it was made in ver 9. Needs some updating... but making videos are more my groove.

However.. I'm also working on some print/video materials at the moment for MAJOR CorelDRAW training release. The most important release for X4.

Jeff

 

dreamwizard:

As for the tutorials, i've been using corel for 13 years or so and i watched them just to see if there was anything new i could learn. I learned a couple of tricks but not much else but for new users this could be a blessing. What tutorials i'd like to see are Photo-Paint, i understand the software pretty well but i'd like to know it inside out and i hate learning software from books, its soo tedious.

I understand your reservations with distributing the tutorials wiht the software but maybe an online source  would work just as well and  be much cheaper. If the lawyers don't let you advertise it there is always coreldraw.com and i'm sure many other resources you have at your disposal including videos sites like youtube and metacafe...Keep up the great work and thanks!

Thanks Jeff i'll check them out for sure and i'll check back to seen when you have more. 

 Hi Foster

As a tangent to the topic of the thread: I noticed that your conference is in Phoenix in July. In my industry, when we want to illustrate an extreme environment that will bust products, we reference being stuck in a railway box car in Arizona in July. Sorry, I just couldn't help myself.

I agree... would rather be in Arizona in January! But I suspect it's all about demand. I would imagine July is the off season and better rates.

Pyrenees,

There is no doubt July in Phoenix is hot. We chose to have the conference
here on purpose because we know the Phoenix hotels are willing to wheel and
deal to get business. Thus we were able to negotiate amazing room rates for
attendees. Our rate in July is $139 a night where the rooms go for $249 a
night right now. This allows attendees to stay in a really nice room at a
price that typically provides a lesser room.

I've certainly heard lots of things about our desert heat, but hadn't heard
the one about the railway box car. I think my favorite was something about
Canadians who spontaneously combust here in the summer. I've yet to see it,
but I guess the July heat will test our Canadian attendees. :)