Which design program do you prefer if you had to chose between these two, and why?

[slush11]

I would love to get responses as to why one program is better than the other, not just "cuz that one sucks" and so on...

1. Corel
2. Illustrator

 

[dabob]

Why only 2 choices . . . its been at least a decade since I saw a Corel file let alone use Corel . . . illustrator is a great illustration program but for final work I prefer InDesign . . .

just saying

 

[Possumgal]

I started out with the first version of Corel Draw. I haven't used it since, as the business was sold and we switched to Illustrator. I'd be willing to try it again, especially to stick it to Adobe with their subscription stuff. One drawback is that Corel doesn't work on Macs without Bootcamp.

 

[Point918]

Same here; have not seen a CorelDraw file is well over a decade. Customers all use Adobe applications.
And yes Possumgal a little competition would be welcome!

 

[Lammy]

Honestly, like any other program, in the right hands it's wonderful. In the wrong hands it's a disaster.
Personally I prefer Illustrator. Mostly because I'm more familiar with it and it integrates better into the rest of the Adobe Suite.
I know years ago there were issues with Corel and transparency, I'd like to think those have been resolved though.

 

[dabob]

Ohhhhh and then theres Affinity Designer . .. its press makes it sound better than illustrator and a much better price . . . look here:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

 

[chad.trent]

For me it's a no-brainer. Illustrator will run on my Mac. Corel won't.

But, even if I could run Corel, I doubt that I would. Illustrator works so well with all the other Adobe products. I use InDesign a lot in my freelancing, but my day job is in the packaging world, and Illustrator is the standard there. ArtiosCad integrates nicely with Illustrator. I can import structural design files, make 3D files, etc. No idea if Corel will do that, but I'm betting no.

 

[chevalier]

Ohhhhh and then theres Affinity Designer . .. its press makes it sound better than illustrator and a much better price . . . look here:

https://affinity.serif.com/en-us/

Apps like this are the future. Sketch and Coda are another example of the small guy making a much better app than the big dogs on a shoestring budget for 30% of the price. The big dogs (Microsoft, Adobe, etc.) are too big, too bureaucratic and don't have a willingness to start fresh. It's seems that basic inertia, deep pockets and established base keeping them going. I wish people would shop around more.

 

[chad.trent]

I'd love to see some competition for Adobe, but until you can get companies and agencies to start moving over to some of the smaller start up programs, it's not going to happen. I know we won't move until our customers move.

But, I am downloading the trial of Affinity Designer just to see what it's all about...

 

[slush11]

Honestly, like any other program, in the right hands it's wonderful. In the wrong hands it's a disaster.
Personally I prefer Illustrator. Mostly because I'm more familiar with it and it integrates better into the rest of the Adobe Suite.
I know years ago there were issues with Corel and transparency, I'd like to think those have been resolved though.

The only issues with transparency now are importing unflattened .ai files into Corel.

 

[michaelejahn]

from a dev perspective, ecosystem is everything

from a dev perspective, ecosystem is everything

I can't live without Illustrator, but mainly because I make use of PaSharp and Astute - as they greatly expand the features of Illustrator - so, that rules out Corel

Founder PaSharp packaging software grandly launches version 5.0 - Founder International Co.,Ltd.

VectorScribe plugin for Adobe Illustrator - Astute Graphics

As a developer, Adobe offers a great - relatively inexpensive - easy to use Dev tools

Adobe Illustrator SDKs | Adobe Developer Connection

Much LARGER community, not to mention much LARGER prospective customer opportunity developing for Illustrator

So, better Ecosystem with Illustrator

 

[slush11]

For me it's a no-brainer. Illustrator will run on my Mac. Corel won't.

But, even if I could run Corel, I doubt that I would. Illustrator works so well with all the other Adobe products. I use InDesign a lot in my freelancing, but my day job is in the packaging world, and Illustrator is the standard there. ArtiosCad integrates nicely with Illustrator. I can import structural design files, make 3D files, etc. No idea if Corel will do that, but I'm betting no.

I know they can handle all different versions of a few architectural files if that's what you mean...

 

[chad.trent]

Okay, scratch the idea of Affinity. Won't run on OSX 10.6. Yes, I know I need to upgrade, but my Mac Pro won't run anything later than that. And after some research, it seems that Affinity won't support spot colors. So even if it would run, it wouldn't work for me.

 

[chad.trent]

I know they can handle all different versions of a few architectural files if that's what you mean...

Yeah, but again, no Mac version...

 

[slush11]

My experience in the print world is mostly in a small town where ALL of the print shops use CorelDraw. So that's what I've used most, although I was trained on Illustrator in school and still prefer it for most things. One huge advantage CorelDraw has is that it has imposition capabilities. And dimension capabilities. Which makes things like proofs so much simpler, especially if you're scaling. Man do I wish Illy had those options.
One other major difference in Corel is the way you select objects. The cursor doesn't just select everything it touches. It selects everything it encompasses instead.
I agree that Illy is a far more advanced program, especially for illustrating and editing, but for practicality in the print world, I'd give it to Draw if I was forced to make the choice.

 

[BobRym]

Have used CorelDraw for 20 yrs. now and we do the majority of our work on it. Have a version of CS loaded as well (not the subscription) but will not update it as Adobe is on a money grab. Find we can do anything we need to in Corel - it doesn't have all the tools that InDesign has as far as text control but every version gets better. What I like is that you can do design and page layout in the same space without having to switch programs. We generate pdf's from Corel and then combine them in Acrobat Pro into completed publications. Multi page directories, guides and event programs are all done this way. As an independent digital print shop it works well for us as we are PC based. If we were running Macs - would likely stick to CS. Corel software is way less expensive and more intuitive which helps with untrained employees being able to do basic work.

 

[betsyjoy]

I've been in prepress for over 25 years. Rarely met a Corel Draw file that I didn't want to cuss at. Being tenacious I usually get them to work but they do require some fancy footwork. There are some designers that can produce a viable file out of Corel Draw but they are few. I have used Illustrator over the years however the newer versions of the program are a bit complicated/convoluted and takes some getting used to. I have had less problems getting Illustrator files to produce good print files from designers than their Corel Draw counterparts. ~hope this helps.

 

[chad.trent]

I haven't seen Corel in a print shop in probably 10-15 years. I know a lot of sign shops still use it. And, honestly, I don't have anything against the program. I just have used Illustrator for so many years that using Corel would be like starting over.

You can certainly impose in Illustrator as well. It doesn't have step & repeat like Corel does. At least not in CS6. I haven't started drinking the CC koolaid yet. I normally do imposition in InDesign anyways though. I'll create something 1 up in Illustrator and then impose it in InDesign because I like the way InDesign will collect all the files for a job and package them. I have heard that Illustrator CC does that. But, that feature isn't enough to get me to pay for software every month.

It all probably comes down to what you're used to. I'm used to Illustrator, so I use Illustrator. If you're more comfortable with Corel, you would probably use Corel. From what I've seen Corel can do most of the stuff Illustrator can do, and vice versa. There are some things each won't do, but they seem to be things that are either rarely used or easy to find a workaround for.

 

[chad.trent]

I've been in prepress for over 25 years. Rarely met a Corel Draw file that I didn't want to cuss at. Being tenacious I usually get them to work but they do require some fancy footwork. There are some designers that can produce a viable file out of Corel Draw but they are few. I have used Illustrator over the years however the newer versions of the program are a bit complicated/convoluted and takes some getting used to. I have had less problems getting Illustrator files to produce good print files from designers than their Corel Draw counterparts. ~hope this helps.

I ran a prepress department for 15 years. A year into it I put my foot down and had them ditch Corel and all the PCs.

 

[wonderings]

I would not touch Corel anymore. They used to be a standard, but made some bad choices and Adobe took over. Not sure if Corel has changed this or not, but I had some real hassles transferring to a new PC when we upgrade. Serial number would not deactivate, had to call in and get that all done, a painful and long process for something that should have been very simple and was already being done by other software companies. Corel response to this was it would cost the user more if they did that. Corel had some nice features but it worked very different then the Adobe apps, so it took some unlearning to use it efficiently. I stick with Adobe now because I know the software and am comfortable with it, but also because it is what everyone else uses, so it is an industry standard. Have not had anyone come in with a Corel file in ages, even longer then someone coming in with a Quark file.