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Poppie
02-28-2007, 06:15 PM
I am purchasing a graphics program soon, do I need Corel Draw or what? What do any of you guys recommend?

Jon Jantz
02-28-2007, 06:22 PM
I would vote for CorelDraw X3, I love it...

HandTurnedMaple
02-28-2007, 06:25 PM
Anyone surprised??? Show of hands. Anyone? Anyone?

Ok, CorelDraw X3 for me too.

Poppie
02-28-2007, 06:37 PM
You coudn't think of a more expensive one? Well I was thinking Corell draw, but they are real proud of this software.

Thanks,
Poppie

HandTurnedMaple
02-28-2007, 07:07 PM
MS Paint then.

Ron Smith
02-28-2007, 08:04 PM
I would vote for CorelDraw X3, I love it...

I realize most of the folks here seem to lean toward Corel, but all of the graphic artists I have talked to are aligned toward Adobe Illustrator CS. One even went so far as to say "Corel is a thing of the past, if you want to keep up, you need Illustrator CS or CS2". I don't have either, so I'm unbiased either way. It's like any other systems, whatever works for you, I guess. I suppose they can both do the same thing in their own ways.

Jon Jantz
02-28-2007, 09:05 PM
Ron, I have both programs. But I am just a graphics 'person', meaning I don't have a degree in Graphics Arts making me officially a Graphics Artist. The Graphics Artists I know prefer Adobe Illustrator, but that's what they learned on in college and they would never admit to liking Coreldraw. These guys do graphics for a living, and live and breath Illustrator and Photoshop.

HOWEVER, I would still recommend Coreldraw over Illustrator because it is easier to learn, cheaper, and for what we are doing, has the same capabilities. I've used both designing signs for a lot of years and it is still easier for me to use Coreldraw's tools...

Just my 1.5 cents.

Sarge
02-28-2007, 09:11 PM
I think you hit the nail on the head Jon. Not too many of us woodworkers/hobbyists have a degree in Graphic Arts. Ladies and Gentlemen......... If it works for you, use it. Would you pay more money for a DeWalt or a Black and Decker??? Well, truth be known, they were both built by B&D!!!!!!!!!

kwyjibo67
02-28-2007, 10:49 PM
If you want more advanced graphics capabilities than MS Paint, but don't want to spend a lot of money on a graphics package, why not try these:

The GIMP (GNU Image Manipulation Program) <url>http://gimp-win.sourceforge.net/</url>

And for Vector graphics:
Inkscape
<url>http://www.inkscape.org/download/?lang=en</url>

These are both Open Source and are completely free for personal use. They both run on Windows, MAC, and Linux. So far, GIMP has had all the features I need, and can export/save to a large variety of formats.

forqnc
03-01-2007, 06:49 AM
You coudn't think of a more expensive one? Well I was thinking Corell draw, but they are real proud of this software.

Thanks,
Poppie

How about ArtCAM ;)

Charles M
03-01-2007, 07:44 AM
Ron, I have both programs. But I am just a graphics 'person', meaning I don't have a degree in Graphics Arts making me officially a Graphics Artist. The Graphics Artists I know prefer Adobe Illustrator, but that's what they learned on in college and they would never admit to liking Coreldraw. These guys do graphics for a living, and live and breath Illustrator and Photoshop.

HOWEVER, I would still recommend Coreldraw over Illustrator because it is easier to learn, cheaper, and for what we are doing, has the same capabilities. I've used both designing signs for a lot of years and it is still easier for me to use Coreldraw's tools...

Just my 1.5 cents.

Jon,

I use Illustrator at work and although I am not a trained graphic artist it's what I am used to. I think that's the main reason so many pros use it, too. We all tend to stay with what we know. CorelDraw isn't intuitive to me (yet) but I downloaded your tutorial and have begun to learn. So far I haven't figured out how to do some of the processes in Illustrator so that makes CorelDraw more suited to CW in my opinion.

BobHill
03-01-2007, 09:36 AM
I've had CorelDraw since version 1.02 (newest version is now 13). I've had Xara since the CorelXara version (now Xara Xtreme/3D Pro), and Adobe Illustrator since version 4.0 (now CS2) and even AutoCad (only version 2004) . Each certainly has it's place in the professional and high end graphical arena, but for my recommendations for use with the CarveWright first would be CorelDraw X3 (but a bit heavy in price for the uninitiated), then Xara Xtreme (every bit as powerful as CorelDraw at far less price, but just fewer of the available tools that really makes CorelDraw the best). Adobe Illustrator is way too expensive for this purpose and can't do anything that CorelDraw or Xara can do for us at far less price. It's also less intuitive to learn than either CorelDraw or Xara for those just starting in Graphics. CorelDraw X3 does come, as has been stated by others, with TRACE, which can be useful, but not overly so, and Corel Photo-Paint, which is close to Adobe's PhotoShop, while Xara includes many of the raster features within Xara Xtreme without the need for a raster program.

Check for yourself, as all have Demo downloads available:

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1150981051301
http://www.xara.com/products/xtreme/
http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator/

Bob Hill
Tampa Florida

Poppie
03-01-2007, 11:58 AM
Thanks everyone, It looks like Coreldraw wins. I'm an old woodworker and this learning new software scares the rap out of me.
But I learned how to do many other things I thought were impossible.


Poppie

BobHill
03-01-2007, 03:45 PM
There are plenty of knowledgable people here that can sure help when needed, Poppie. Go for it.

Bob