Corel or Adobe?

[WildWestDesigns]

Macros and Actions are basically the same thing. You cannot apply keyboard shortcuts of your choice to actions.Nor can you write your own actions as you can with macros.

It depends on what type of Macro you are talking about. You have keybinding Macros and you have "mini program" macros. The mini program macros to me are more like plugins or for extensions if you will.

Closest thing to those that I would say with built in functionality in Ai would be more like scripts.

 

[myront]

After taking a look at scripts I see that they are very similar to corel macros. Corel has a lot more macros and is a lot easier to edit/assign shortcuts/add icons to the workspace etc. No 3rd party programs needed. Looking specifically at the "Specify-master" script. Select a shape run the script and choose all your parameters then you have your end result. I use the same "dimensioning" macro in Corel. Select a shape hit my keyboard shortcut and all is done. Extremely simple. No need for choosing the parameters each and every time.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

After taking a look at scripts I see that they are very similar to corel macros. Corel has a lot more macros and is a lot easier to edit/assign shortcuts/add icons to the workspace etc.

"You" can create your scripts if you can't find what you are looking for.

I think CC has better customization of workspaces, but I can't confirm as I refuse to go subscription.

Changing key bindings to my own, never really had a problem there.

 

[Andy D]

Something I don't like about Adobe products (unless it has changed) is they are a closed system...
meaning, in Corel Draw you can modify almost anything, short cut keys, tool bar, etc. but in Illustrator,
they decide what you have to use...
Also, I have run across too many douche bag "designers" (nobody here) who think that if you use
Corel Draw and/or use a PC instead of a Mac then you can't be a real designer..

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Something I don't like about Adobe products (unless it has changed) is they are a closed system...
meaning, in Corel Draw you can modify almost anything, short cut keys, tool bar, etc. but in Illustrator,
they decide what you have to use...

I can modify (although I don't) key bindings. Tool bars and coming up with a custom workspace (which tools show up and which ones done) I think are able to be done in CC. I don't know if that was all of them, but it would be a function now. I remember a video from Astute Graphics that talked about that briefly before they got on with their plugin tutorial.

However, DRAW is a closed system itself, they just give you more reign, but it's still closed source. They still have a proprietary format, can't tweak everything to the full extent. It may be more "open" then Ai, but it's still closed.

Also, I have run across too many douche bag "designers" (nobody here) who think that if you use
Corel Draw and/or use a PC instead of a Mac then you can't be a real designer..

The irony is, Mac users are also PC users themselves. And I'm not talking about those that VM, emulate and/or dual boot with any other OS outside Macs, but those that just exclusively use Mac OS/software.

I've had my fare share of that as well. Wait until you tell them that you run Linux. That gets a whole different set of snide comments with design work and my choice of OS.

 

[ams]

Macros and Actions are basically the same thing. You cannot apply keyboard shortcuts of your choice to actions.Nor can you write your own actions as you can with macros.

Are you saying you cannot create or modify keyboard shortcuts in Corel without a macro? If so that is FALSE. Here is a screenshot:

 

[myront]

Are you saying you cannot create or modify keyboard shortcuts in Corel without a macro? If so that is FALSE. Here is a screenshot:

View attachment 132026

No, quite the contrary. I was referring to creating shortcuts in illustrator. Nearly impossible without 3d party software.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

No, quite the contrary. I was referring to creating shortcuts in illustrator. Nearly impossible without 3d party software.

You mean this? Key bindings (or keyboard shortcuts) can be done quite easily and different schemas of bindings can be saved and re-used and that's just within CS6. That functionality may have been extended in CC.

 

[myront]

You mean this? Key bindings (or keyboard shortcuts) can be done quite easily and different schemas of bindings can be saved and re-used and that's just within CS6. That functionality may have been extended in CC.

Yes, for instance navigate to change the shortcut for Object/Bring Forward. The default is Ctrl+]. Try to change to Ctrl+PgDn which makes a lot more sense imo. Can't do it.
How about alignment shortcuts? Hmmm...don't have em. Have to set up actions for those or use a docker which brings up a whole new batch of wrongs

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Yes, for instance navigate to change the shortcut for Object/Bring Forward. The default is Ctrl+]. Try to change to Ctrl+PgDn which makes a lot more sense imo. Can't do it.

Well, you can do Ctrl+3, just can't turn the num lock off, so it reads as a 3 instead of PgDn. But if you are used to using the num pad for up and down, it's no biggie if num lock is on or off for the shortcut.

 

[myront]

I see it as a knock to Adobe. In Corel u=you can set whatever key combo you want and for a lot more tools too.
How about this one?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I see it as a knock to Adobe. In Corel u=you can set whatever key combo you want and for a lot more tools too.
How about this one?

Different strokes for different folks. I rarely change key bindings on any software. I'll use them for my more often used tools, but I just learn what they set them at. Or I'll assign a shortcut macro on my cintiq, so that I'm pressing that button instead of trying to remember the actual combination in the software (I do that the most come to think of it, especially since one of my portable digitizing programs is almost exclusively shortcuts (and those you can't change at all and some do not make any sense what so ever)).

 

[myront]

In corel one can simply add an icon to your workspace to run any macro or create a keyboard shortcut for it. My workspace is fully customized to get rid of the default junk icons as I already know the shortcuts for all those.i.e. import/export/copy/paste/cut, align left/right/top/bottom/center etc.

Design software needs to be customizable on all levels. If you don't care to "speed it up" you're not progressing whereby losing money.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Design software needs to be customizable on all levels. If you don't care to "speed it up" you're not progressing whereby losing money.

Using closed sourced software, that'll never happen. Not on "all levels", just not possible by it's very nature.

As far as speeding up, not everyone "speeds up" the same way. How you do it, may not be how I do it.

I use scripts out the ying yang, macros on my cintiq and on my keyboards, lot of ways that I "speed up".

A lot of programs that I use are open source (a few that aren't and they are tucked away in Windows VMs) on an open source OS that has far more customization for my workflow. I'm not to worried about if I "speed up" appropriately or not.

 

[myront]

Why do I have to go thru the "Create new..." each time in illy? Why not have the option to set it and forget it so that it starts the same each time. Hmmm Corel has this. Why do you need an artboard anyway? Oh yeah, corel doesn't need it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Why do I have to go thru the "Create new..." each time in illy? Why not have the option to set it and forget it so that it starts the same each time.

I do know (at least with CS4) that one can do an action for that if it's just that much of a pain. There you go, your version of Ai will have it.

Why do you need an artboard anyway? Oh yeah, corel doesn't need it.

I actually like the artboard. I do use the artboard for when I'm designing. Not everyone is the same though.

 

[myront]

Anything is a pain if it slows me down. 1 click is way faster than 5 or 6. And if you don't have to click at all...GOLDEN!
btw
Does illy have a dimension tool? No. But "you can use a script" , however, once you run the script you can't edit the dimensions nor will they change as you resize a shape to reflect the new size. Again corel can do it.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Anything is a pain if it slows me down. 1 click is way faster than 5 or 6. And if you don't have to click at all...GOLDEN!
btw
Does illy have a dimension tool? No. But "you can use a script" , however, once you run the script you can't edit the dimensions nor will they change as you resize a shape to reflect the new size. Again corel can do it.

Then my question is, why are you slowing yourself down by using a piece of software that you make pretty clear that you find inferior?

Why expend the energy to begin with?

Even at worst of needing Ai to open up those customer supplied files (which shouldn't be supplied as an Ai file to begin with (or any proprietary file)), just open it, export what you need and be done with it? Why are you expending energy to find things out on a program that you already deemed inferior for your needs?

By the way, I don't know of any program that most of us would use that doesn't rely on user input. So not clicking a key, a button either "soft" or "hard" isn't really going to happen unless Corel has full fledge AI in it as well.

 

[myront]

I don't use AI. I have it if all else fails. As all signs shops should.
I'm merely adding to the great debate as requested by the orig post. Corel vs. Illustrator
No one will ever convince me that Adobe is better than Corel. I have yet to find a design that cannot be done in Corel.

 

[WildWestDesigns]

I don't use AI. I have it if all else fails. As all signs shops should.
I'm merely adding to the great debate as requested by the orig post. Corel vs. Illustrator
No one will ever convince me that Adobe is better than Corel. I have yet to find a design that cannot be done in Corel.

The only way that one is really better the the other is due to what the user can do in the most efficient manner for themselves given the product by themselves.

As far creating vectors and the various effects therein, I would say that parity is very very close as far as vector creation goes. How they achieve it and what they allow the user to customize may or may not be different in certain areas. Some people might do better with a program doing it this way, some do better with a problem that does it that way. A lot of the time, it's just what they are used to.

I hated, absolutely hated DRAW and it was bundled with my main digitizing program and I have several thousand reasons to have it easier for me to use DRAW compared to Ai due to it's tighter integration. Now, I'm in no way saying that DRAW is inferior when it comes to vector creation (I can make Inkscape do exactly everything that I need to do and I have a Python script that allows me to spit out embroidery files as well, that to me is far more customization then what you are talking about), but how it does things doesn't go well with how I like to do things.

Further evidence that it's going to depend on the person (at least as far as I'm concerned), the issues that you bring about, while I have no doubt are important to your workflow, they don't affect me in the same way. Therefore the advantage that you have with DRAW over Ai doesn't exactly do the same thing for me.

So really, like with any tool, the only real way that one is better then the other depends on the person wielding the tool.