Switching from Adobe Photoshop to Corel Photo Paint?

[Lucky Sky]

Forgive me if someone has already suggested this, but you might want to look at PhotoPaint Pro. It has more features than the standard PhotoPaint that comes with the CorelDraw package. We mostly use CorelDraw for layout and design and only PP to do more extensive editing of rastered files. There is also a version on Light Room called AfterShot also a Corel product. You can purchase and download all of the them for WAY less than the Adobe suite and they have the same capabilities just different click points.

 

[Bobby H]

Well, if you think about it, it's not all hubris on Corel's part. The customers have played into that thought process as well.

A computer hardware or software company can get its ego pumped up by fanboys. Obviously there are hazards to feeding fanboy bluster in an echo chamber. It's far better for the company to have a sane, realistic idea of how they actually stand on their own and in relation to rivals, such as Corel's standing compared to Adobe.

When one asks what software that they consider for Pro use (if they are going after the pro market), it's typically Corel and Ai that's mentioned. And they follow this label structure: On the Expensive Side (one may be cheaper then the other (or was))->Commercially Developed->Pro Use, but overall not what anyone considers budget category.

"What the pros use" is vague. There are many niche industries in graphic design. The sign industry is just one of many niches. Corel doesn't appear to have an accurate idea where CorelDRAW is being used. Specificially where in the professional graphics industry does CorelDRAW have a greater presence? Which niche categories? How much of the existing user base is in non-professional categories, like run of the mill "office productivity" or just amateur/hobbyist use? How many schools are using CorelDRAW?

I think Corel made the big changes in CorelDRAW licensing and pricing without knowing all the specifics of who all makes up the CorelDRAW customer base. For all Corel knows they may have a lot of non-artist MS Office user types making up a big percentage of their customers. Corel is all but writing off those kinds of customers to the likes of Serif, Inkscape, etc. Corel may not be able to afford losing all those customers. Meanwhile Corel is not doing a good job trying to woo users on the Mac platform.

 

[Andy D]

I have been using Affinity photo and really like it, but it doesn't have any artistic filter, which I don't a whole lot but wondering what others are doing as a workaround.

Also, I have been using Affinity designer and don't really care for it, what is the difference between designer and publisher?

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Also, I have been using Affinity designer and don't really care for it, what is the difference between designer and publisher?

Publisher is more akin to InDesign.

It's far better for the company to have a sane, realistic idea of how they actually stand on their own and in relation to rivals, such as Corel's standing compared to Adobe.

I think the issue here is that typically when people think of illustration programs, only 2 come up. Draw and Ai. The others are like after thoughts. If one wants cheaper, ones that aren't really used in pro settings.

"What the pros use" is vague.

Not really, at least not to me. It's people that use a product to make money. Doesn't matter niche part of the market that they make up.

Most graphics programs are broad enough in their abilities that the can appeal to alot of niches. Some in indirect ways (but that would appeal to an even smaller market demographic).

Finding out true demographics is actually harder pre-subscription (although subscription isn't totally perfect either). The used market for software is quite robust (not even getting into the cracked/illegal market) and there is no way that they (Corel) are going to know the demographics of that market. Or really anyone that purchases through a reseller, unless they fill out information. I never did, not even when I was forced to have an account for CS6. So those numbers are going to be skewed anyway.

I agree that they should know, but then again go after the pro market, if they can make headway, would be better as there are some that don't mind spending the money, regardless of the increase or the licensing model (not all, they certainly lost a customer that dates back to 94 when they released CC).

Meanwhile Corel is not doing a good job trying to woo users on the Mac platform.

I agree, that is something that they just shouldn't have done. Based on what I have been hearing and reading, it seems to me that (and this makes sense being a smaller company) that they don't have true Mac devs. And if you are trying for a totally native app on a platform that you aren't used to writing for, it's not easy. C++ with no framework and just targeting native APIs is not easy and it's very time consuming, neither of which are conducive to a yearly release cycle.

I think with emergence of web apps, the ideology of apps must look native, doesn't have quite the same standing. With that in mind, use Qt("cute") or similar, keep one code base (doesn't matter the arch or even if it's going on the web (gotta love WASM)). Now with Qt (I would imagine that they would use this framework as it also have a commercial variant (although the open source version can be used for proprietary and commercial products just has some caveats need to be mindful of) which I'm sure that they would have used. Just something that would have abstracted some of that difficulty out. Now for full disclosure, I am a huge Qt framework fan. What I use and since I use KDE Neon, it fits right right in there. To give an idea, Krita uses Qt as well as VLC and Virtualbox. There are others OBS, KDenlive etc. I mention this, because I think there are some things that they could have done that would have helped them in this endeavor. And it would have made it easier on them with this recent news of Apple Silicon as well. It's just a build kit away.