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furrychinch's picture
37 pencils

Does anyone use Corel Draw X4?

Hey everyone. I just learned how to screen print recently, and was taught on Corel Draw X4. Does anyone out there use this program or do I need to take the plunge and start learning Photoshop?

I guess I'm a little intimidated by the sheer size of the freakin manual and don't really know where to start.

Or should I just keep using and learning on Corel?

Thanks.

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Ivan's picture

I suggest you learn Adobe applications, including Photoshop. Corel is losing ground.

gwells's picture
1711 pencils

what ivan said. i started with corel way way back at corel draw 3, but i switched to illustrator and haven't looked back.

understand that if you're doing screen printing, you're going to more likely want to use the vector programs (draw/illustrator) than the bitmap programs (photoshop). but adobe programs will give you more flexibility in the workplace as time goes on.

wgzn's picture
1711 pencils

if you know the corel stuff, the jump to adobe wont be too hard to figure out. and after a few weeks (hours even) you will be SO GLAD YOU DID!

the general tool metaphors are similar.

Art D. Rector's picture
2769 pencils

Corel sucks.

Jmho.

wgzn's picture
1711 pencils

as a professional designer i was always of the opinion that "corel sucks" just because i didnt think it was "pro enough" or whatever... but i didnt have any real reason WHY it sucked. it was just the fashionable sentiment ; )

but one day about 8 years ago i got a call from a client that her flash movie wasnt playing right. so i went to their office to check things out. everything looked ok, but like she said the movie absolutely choked on playback.

so i asked her to walk me through her workflow. she opened her source high res photo in corel photopaint. cropped and sized it, saved it as a jpeg then imported it into flash... sure enough - chug, chug, chug.

i asked her to do the same thing, but do the crop and sizing in photoshop. she did it reluctantly ("b'cause photoshop is hard!"). duplicating what she'd done in corel - and BOOM, everything worked great.

the mere presence of corel software in her workflow was the problem.

so now, when i say COREL SUCKS. i have actual experience to prove it.

Art D. Rector's picture
2769 pencils

It's the "fashionable sentiment" because people have had problems with their programs for years (welcome to the club;). It's not true Postscript (imho), which leads to all kinds of problems when you send the files out for production.

gwells's picture
1711 pencils

there were a few things i missed that corel did way back then when i switched, but i never looked back.

actually, there's one thing corel did (and i presume still does) that i still miss. zoom to selected. you could select a handful of objects and with a kbd shortcut zoom to fit just those objects on your screen. i found it very helpful and wish all adobe programs had that capability.

Art D. Rector's picture
2769 pencils

Marquee zoom. More accurate and almost every program has it.

gwells's picture
1711 pencils

how can you be more accurate than exact and instantaneous? i use marquee zoom all the time, i know the difference.

Art D. Rector's picture
2769 pencils

How can it not be more accurate when we're discussing automatic versus manual? I believe this falls into the "wisdom of the ages" category - it just is and we must accept it as so.

gwells's picture
1711 pencils

yes, i believe your hand using a mouse/trackball/tablet using the marquee select can more accurately and precisely zoom to a group of selected objects than the computer can. wisdom indeed.

you may be more contrary and argumentative than me. or natobasso. or both. we have met our match.

riskart1's picture
146 pencils

ILLUSTRATOR!!!!!!

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