Corel draw X8 vs Adobe Cloud Since New Software Updates

[WildWestDesigns]

While I agree with your statement regarding "they", that's the user- not the program. And, respectfully, that part of my answer addresses the OP's question in regards to designing for signs- not graphic design (where Adobe is standard whether we like their "pay us every month" model or not) and not embroidery, which I have no experience with.

While I have slowly shifted to exclusively embroidery and embroidery digitizing, I have dealt both with sublimated and vinyl signs. While I have dropped the focus of signs, I will still do the odd ball one every now and again.

Actually, my response was more with regard this statement from you:

Adobe might be the "preferred" program suite if all you're doing is making print files, but there are plenty of instances where Corel (or Flexi, or SignLab, or whatever) is just better for making production files without having to export, scale, or otherwise add another step to production.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Some of the reasons for my preferences:
Adobe's insistence on limiting Illustrator artboards to 227" is detrimental to them "conquering" the signmaker market, in my opinion. The ability to create works at 100% (which Flexi and Corel will do) eliminates that problem. Using Illustrator and scaling is fine if I'm doing it myself, but if someone else makes it and I'm given the wrong scale- aye-yi-yi.

For kerning, I find CorelDraw and FlexiSign to be much easier to adjust. Maybe it's because I'm not looking at the correct tool or in the right place in Illustrator, but being able to just click on an individual letter and "drag" it a bit in one direction or the other is easier (as Corel and Flexi will do). And if anyone can tell me how to accomplish that in Illustrator, I will love you forever!

Creating dimensions in both Corel and Flexi is- well- not necessarily easier, but it also doesn't require I buy a plugin, either. The function is built into the programs.

Strokes and fonts... ugh! Not really related to discussion at hand, but I recently had a customer that wanted a template so they could create their own printed paper inserts for some changeable signs. Fine- we'd turned a nice profit making the initial signs- and they're still buying other stuff from us- so I created their template. Except the font they insisted on for their signs can't be embedded in a PDF due to licensing restrictions.
The conversation went something like "What? Can't you just give it to us?"
"Well, sure. I can send the font file and you can install it on the workstation you'll be using to create the inserts."
"Unh (tooth-suck noise)- just make it part of the PDF."
"Well, as I said before- it can't be embedded because of licensing restrictions."
(Tooth suck noise again) "You're making this too difficult."
"May I suggest you use Arial Narrow? That's close enough."
"But it's not our font!"
Eventually, I renamed Arial Narrow with their chosen font name and embedded it. They haven't noticed.

 

[ikarasu]

Some of the reasons for my preferences:
Adobe's insistence on limiting Illustrator artboards to 227" is detrimental to them "conquering" the signmaker market, in my opinion. The ability to create works at 100% (which Flexi and Corel will do) eliminates that problem. Using Illustrator and scaling is fine if I'm doing it myself, but if someone else makes it and I'm given the wrong scale- aye-yi-yi.

For kerning, I find CorelDraw and FlexiSign to be much easier to adjust. Maybe it's because I'm not looking at the correct tool or in the right place in Illustrator, but being able to just click on an individual letter and "drag" it a bit in one direction or the other is easier (as Corel and Flexi will do). And if anyone can tell me how to accomplish that in Illustrator, I will love you forever!

Creating dimensions in both Corel and Flexi is- well- not necessarily easier, but it also doesn't require I buy a plugin, either. The function is built into the programs.

Strokes and fonts... ugh! Not really related to discussion at hand, but I recently had a customer that wanted a template so they could create their own printed paper inserts for some changeable signs. Fine- we'd turned a nice profit making the initial signs- and they're still buying other stuff from us- so I created their template. Except the font they insisted on for their signs can't be embedded in a PDF due to licensing restrictions.
The conversation went something like "What? Can't you just give it to us?"
"Well, sure. I can send the font file and you can install it on the workstation you'll be using to create the inserts."
"Unh (tooth-suck noise)- just make it part of the PDF."
"Well, as I said before- it can't be embedded because of licensing restrictions."
(Tooth suck noise again) "You're making this too difficult."
"May I suggest you use Arial Narrow? That's close enough."
"But it's not our font!"
Eventually, I renamed Arial Narrow with their chosen font name and embedded it. They haven't noticed.

Not exactly what you want.. but if you hold Alt, and press left/right arrow key, it'll kern for you. you can select the whole text space and it'll kern them all, or you can select in between the text, and it'll kern between them letters.

I do agree about the art board limitation though.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Not exactly what you want.. but if you hold Alt, and press left/right arrow key, it'll kern for you. you can select the whole text space and it'll kern them all, or you can select in between the text, and it'll kern between them letters.

I do agree about the art board limitation though.

Thanks- I actually know that trick!

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Some of the reasons for my preferences:
Adobe's insistence on limiting Illustrator artboards to 227" is detrimental to them "conquering" the signmaker market, in my opinion. The ability to create works at 100% (which Flexi and Corel will do) eliminates that problem. Using Illustrator and scaling is fine if I'm doing it myself, but if someone else makes it and I'm given the wrong scale- aye-yi-yi.

Again, that would be a limitation of the person. Working in scale is not that big of a deal.

I've gotten work where scale didn't have to be adjusted for artboard limitations and it still wasn't correct, so go figure.

For kerning, I find CorelDraw and FlexiSign to be much easier to adjust. Maybe it's because I'm not looking at the correct tool or in the right place in Illustrator, but being able to just click on an individual letter and "drag" it a bit in one direction or the other is easier (as Corel and Flexi will do). And if anyone can tell me how to accomplish that in Illustrator, I will love you forever!

Have you tried using the Character tab?

As far as any type of "automatic" kerning, that's all I ever had needed. Other then that, it's been manual for me, which I know is not the best, but it works. I resort to the same thing in DRAW when I was trying that program out.

 

[GaSouthpaw]

Again, that would be a limitation of the person. Working in scale is not that big of a deal.




Have you tried using the Character tab?

We're going to have to agree to disagree on the scale part.
As for the kerning- are you aware of the function I'm referring to? Corel and Flexi allow you to treat the individual characters much like nodes in vector and move them around.
Nothing on the Character tab allows you to do that, and it's quite handy.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

As for the kerning- are you aware of the function I'm referring to? Corel and Flexi allow you to treat the individual characters much like nodes in vector and move them around.
Nothing on the Character tab allows you to do that, and it's quite handy.

I wouldn't know it in Flexi as I have no experience with Flexi, but from your description, it sounds like a functionality that is available in the lettering module in Wilcom.

Only way to remotely do what you are talking about, which was already mentioned, is to do the alt left/right arrow click after putting an insertion point to where you want to change the spacing. Which you said you already knew about. That is without converting the text to outlines. I typically do convert the text even though vectors hardly ever leave my shop. After converting, it's easier to manually manipulate. Again, I know that isn't what you want. Work around yes..., but not what you want. I do agree, based on my experience within Wilcom, that is a handy feature.

 

[Bobby H]

I have been using both CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator in my sign shop for more than 20 years. I am not satisfied with one being a complete substitute for the other. CorelDRAW has advantages in certain areas. Adobe Illustrator has advantages in others. Both have their flaws.

Both CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator have certain features, effects, etc. that are 100% dependent on that host application. When you open the artwork in a different application those app-dependent effects fall apart. Even simple things like editable text and gradient fills can be plagued with glitches. Adobe's stuff can at least survive in PDF and going to other CC apps like InDesign, but that's still all under the Adobe umbrella. Having both Illustrator and CorelDRAW makes it a lot easier dealing with customer provided artwork.

With version X8 CorelDRAW improved a little with its ability to import and export Adobe Illustrator .AI files. Gradient fills aren't nearly as bad as they were in previous versions. OTOH, you have to be careful what you do with fills in X8 if you intend to save down to earlier versions of CorelDRAW, which can be a common thing for big sign shops with multiple installations. X8-generated fills with transparency effects will do some unpredictable nonsense when saving down to something like X6 or X3.

I've heard some buzz about Affinity Designer and the $50 price makes it tempting to check a trial version. For all the hype surround it the application would have to do an excellent job importing existing CorelDRAW and Illustrator art files and bring some substantial new improvements for me to be interested in using it. The application may have a cheap price, but if it trips me up and turns into a drag on productivity then it becomes costly in a bad way.