does anyone use Corel Draw?

[thendis]

Hello everyone,

This has been on my mind for some time now. During my uni graphic design course, they tought me Corel Draw for vector graphics. At the time I was surprised, as I'd only ever heard of illustrator and freehand being used in the industry, but I didn't question it too much - after all, they know what they're doing.

Well they clearly didn't, because my suspicians are being confirmed consistently. For example, I did a search before posting...not one post on this forum about Corel Draw. Not one single post! Whereas a search for Illustrator yielded over 200 pages.

Is there anyone out there who uses it? Should I just bite the bullet and switch to illustrator?

 

[rman]

It would be to your advantage to learn illustrator. The most applications you know, the more tools you have in your tool box.

 

[chouk]

If you prefer using corel draw it's your choice, but see in consideration adobe as well.
Right now, adobe and macromedia is the industry's choice. It'll be your advantage if you can learn illustrator as well.

I would personally follow the trend because you never know when corel can drop out of the market. That's just an example because i personally dont use corel and i don't know many who do either.

 

[thendis]

yeah, i think you're right. I do actually have Illustrator (included with Suite, obviously), but at the moment I only use it to export AI files for Photoshop (I have to export Corel Draw to Illustrator format, then open it in Illustrator and re-save it, coz Corel has serious problems exporting formats properly!).

Is there anyone out there who uses both and can tell me any major differences between the two I will need to know? Hoping the learning curve isn't too steep. I know Photoshop inside and out, so hopefully that will help me work things out in Illustrator.

I hear that Illustrator CS/CS2 has some great 3D illustration features, which is exciting. Corel's aren't bad, but you can't go far beyond beveling and extruding.

thanks for the reply guys. I just can't believe my Uni didn't teach me ffs. Illustrator is installed on their computers, they just don't use it!

 

[rs2sensen]

Wow, I can't believe they don't use Illustrator. AI is the #1 program used for vector graphics in the design industry. Learn it, and learn it well. Don't worry though, you'll have fun. It is an awesome program, and has some very powerful features. In my opinion, there is nothing better on the market.

Adobe now owns Macromedia, so before long, freehand is going to be on the way out. AI is a much better app anyways, imo.

I have used Corel Draw, but have no real reasons to use it.

 

[drgrafix]

I've used Corel for what almost 15 years on my PC. Its a pretty amazing and very intuitive program. Now I'm thinking of going back to apple after an almost similar amount of time and was wondering about Corel usage by iMac owners. I'm sure I could adapt, but I'm surprised there isn't more interest in Corel as an alternative to AI. I already use Photoshop CS2, so _that_ switchover should be transparent. So nobody has even tried CD recently? I remember there was a very favorable review of CD8 by a die-hard Mac site, and CD8 was buggy. CD11 & CD12 are much nicer.