Difference between CDX7 and Adobe Illustrator

The basic functionality is actually the same really. Aligning objects is the same, clipping maks in AI is powerclip in CD, Pathfinder in AI is Shpaing in CD, interactive gradients are the same almost. For me it's small things that I prefer in CD, I prefer the selection method in CD, in CD only objects that are fully within the marquee are selected, in AI anything is selected, even if it was an accident. In AI if you want to flip an object, as in mirroring it, you have to use a tool, ridiculous, it's a single button in CD. In AI you can't right and left click swatches for outline and fill afaik, you can in CD. Rotating an object in CD is a single extra click, in AI you have to find the corner of the object or use a tool.

I don't like the Curvature tool in AI that much either, it's like the CD B-spline, but it doesn't work as nice.

THings that are incredibly simple to do in CD, always seem to take one extra step in AI for some reason. It's like AI tries really hard to lower your productivity and make simple things just a tad more cumbersome than they should be.

There are also other things that I find annoying in AI, if you make a shape with the pen tool, part of your path that is already there will have disappeared. In CD you can change the node with keyboard commands while making your path, in AI you have to do it with ALT while you make your path, it's less intuitive and less fast.

What I do prefer in AI is the way they handle symbols and their brush engine, it's just cleaner, also the spray feature in CD is something I'm not too fond of, it automatically resets size etc.

CD just overall seems more intuitive to me. But AI and CD are incredibly close in what they can do.

CorelDraw is slightly easier to pick up than AI like people said, but usually when people say that about programs, it's because one is less powerful, but in this case it's simply because CorelDraw is just as powerful but more intuitive to use.

What also complicates things is that AI has changed quite a few things, when they introduced compound shapes in AI, it was made the standard, but AI users got confused by it, so now it's changed back again to ALT-click for compound, but now all the guides from a few years ago are wrong, and people get confused by that kind of stuff, that didn't happen with CD.

TL,DR: Corel Draw is more intuitive to use.

Dodger I'm looking forward to retiring One day, I'm only 67 years old and as soon as my bride lets me I'm going to take my girl friend and move to some place warmer. You can pick up some extra money outsourcing work like business card, banners, yard signs, fliers, ect. Just keep in mind to have Fun doing it.

George