I ventured to Adobe Illustrator due it being "industry-standard" and the massive support I could find for it on youtube and through search.
I miss corel but there are a few things I really love in Illustrator and somethings I hate.
What I like and wish draw was able to get inspired from
1. shaper tool. it's so intuitive I use it all the time. Just select multiple objects and either add them subtract them or create new shapes from them. sort of like a dynamic shape weld tool
2. be able to round any corner. this is plain awesome. draw allows rounding only it's own shapes and once they are curves they are no longer able to be rounded. in illustrator this can be done on every shape that has a corner.
3. appearance tool. allows multiple effects on the shape which can be adjusted copied etc. so suppose I have a contour/stroke I can keep on adding to it without converting it to curves (and hence not allow any adjustments)
4. asset export. why doesn't draw have this already. not only can I export each individual asset but also entire group or artboard/page. This alone is a huge time saver.
5. smooth tool. draw a wobbly shape. go over it with smooth tool. bam. your wobbly shape is no longer wobbly. this is such a great tool.
now what I miss from draw that Illusttstor needs to do
1. shortcuts are a mess in illustrator. draw has the best shortcuts and I can add as many as I want. illustrator limits customizing shortcuts significantly.
2. layers are not tied to artboards so again a huge mess. I hardly ever use layers in draw because I dont need to but illustrator without layers is impossible to manage
3. power clip. I miss you so much. illustrator clipping mask is so complicated that it just frustrates me. they dont even allow cropping images without a mask.
4. tables and formatting tools like bullets and numbering. I understand indesign has this covered but such a simple and important thing needs to be in illustrator. numbering is missed also in draw but that's a discussion for another time.
5. integration with photoshop like draw has with photo-paint. I could do simple edits in paint without opening it as a separate program. with photoshop I need to edit save and import/place.
well. these are 5 things I want in draw and 5 that I miss in draw. let me know what you think.
There are specific things I like about Adobe Illustrator and CorelDRAW. There's also specific things I dislike about the two applications as well. For many years I've been taking advantage of strengths each application has as well as using unique features in either application to overcome weaknesses in the rival application.
Some of the perceived weaknesses in one application can be a matter of the user trying to apply the mindset of one application to the other. I prefer the fewer clicks required to align objects and anchor points in CorelDRAW. But if one masters using the smart guides approach offered by Illustrator many of the same tasks can be accomplished just about as fast.
Illustrator's commands are kind of scatter-shot throughout its menu structure. But I wouldn't say its keyboard shortcuts are a mess. In fact, I vastly prefer the keyboard shortcut arrangement Illustrator has for drawing paths and editing paths while they're drawn. The same Ctrl-Shift-Alt and Spacebar keys can also be used for actively zooming in/out and hand panning the view. Photoshop and Freehand used many of the same shortcuts.
I really HATE manually drawing paths over sketched artwork in CorelDRAW for all the hopping back and forth to tool bars I have to do. It's a pain. It's far faster doing the same work with the pen tool in Photoshop or the pen tool in Illustrator. Plus third party plug-ins for Illustrator (like the Inkscribe and Pathscribe plug-ins from Astute Graphics) provide innovative new ways how to draw paths.
Large scale design (such as outdoor signs, billboards, etc) is easier to do in CorelDRAW due to the larger maximum art board size and how some type objects can be handled. OTOH, a good bit of this design work requires vector-based and raster-based artwork to be integrated together. I've always like Adobe Photoshop a lot more than Corel's PhotoPaint application. The integration between Illustrator and Photoshop is very good. I cannot bring vector paths from CorelDRAW directly into Photoshop.
Bobby Henderson said:I really HATE manually drawing paths over sketched artwork in CorelDRAW for all the hopping back and forth to tool bars I have to do.
I'm not saying you are wrong but would really like to hear what exactly you are referring to.Some people say Illustrator's Pen tool is superior but I personally get frustrated after using it for a while.Maybe it just needs a little more time to get used to, I don't know.
In both Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop the keyboard shortcuts associated with the pen tool make it easier to adjust and move anchor points on the active path while it is still being drawn. It cuts down on having to hop back and forth to tool bars and doing a lot of de-selecting and re-selecting of objects and anchor points.
In Illustrator when the Pen tool is active pressing the Ctrl key allows multiple functions. It can relocate any anchor point on the path in-progress of being drawn. The Ctrl key can adjust the length of any direction handles on smooth or corner curved points. And the Ctrl key can convert the last point just drawn so the next segment will be a straight line segment. The Alt key can convert anchor points from being smooth or cusp points. The shift key can constrain direction point handles to 45° angles. Again, this is all available while using the Pen tool on a path still being drawn.
CorelDRAW has very little of this capability. CorelDRAW only lets the user modify the last/current anchor point being laid down, such as using the "c" key to change a curve from a symmetrical point to a curved cusp point. Nevertheless the approach in CorelDRAW requires the user to make one pass digitizing the basics of the shape and then using the node editing tool to modify the shape. And that means lots of hopping back and forth to the tool bar. There's very few node editing level keyboard shortcuts in CorelDRAW. The Ctrl+J keyboard shortcut in Illustrator is valuable for spanning gaps in paths, which can be a common thing when dealing with lesser quality PDF-based artwork.
The combination of those pen tool shortcuts combined with the Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar keyboard shortcuts for zooming in/out and hand panning the view make it very easy to work in close to digitize paths over sketched drawings more accurately. Illustrator and Photoshop both support animated zoom. That works a LOT better than a clunky scroll wheel on a mouse. Half a time I'm using a Wacom tablet and stylus anyway.
Thank you for the thorough description of the Pen tool Bobby.Much of what you write about can be done in Draw too, without switching tools."the Ctrl key allows multiple functions. It can relocate any anchor point on the path in-progress of being drawn."In Draw, press Alt and drag to move the last node before releasing the mouse button."the Ctrl key can convert the last point just drawn so the next segment will be a straight line segment."Press Alt and click on the last node in Draw."The Alt key can convert anchor points from being smooth or cusp points."As you say, C converts to cusp, and S toggles between smooth and symmetrical.These can be used while drawing."The shift key can constrain direction point handles to 45° angles."The Shift and Ctrl keys both do the same thing in Draw. The angles can be specified in Options > Edit."There's very few node editing level keyboard shortcuts in CorelDRAW."Pressing the Ctrl key and then clicking on a previously drawn node while using the Pen tool, will switch into pretty much full node editing mode.This means that you can move nodes, change from cusp to smooth or symmetrical, move node handles, select and move multiple nodes, drag curve segments and add or delete nodes.If you click outside the curve, it will return to Pen mode.Unfortunately there is a bug (thank you KuttyJoe for bringing attention to it in another thread) that sometimes makes it switch back to Pen mode unexpectedly, so you may have to press Ctrl and click a node again to return to editing.Regarding zoom, it is possible that it works better or more smooth in Illustrator, I don't know, but the zoom shortcut keys can be used while using the Pen tool, and zooming and scrolling with the mouse wheel also works, so it's not too bad in Draw either.Not sure how all this works when using a stylus but I'll give it a try when I get the time.There is no need for using any toolbars or switching tools back and forth in any of the steps described above.
"Much of what you write about can be done in Draw too, without switching tools."
No, not really.
With the Bezier tool active the Alt key shortcut in CorelDRAW can only move the last node in the path drawn. It cannot be used to move other points on the path. There are no shortcuts to adjust and fine tune direction point handles of any of the points on the path drawn, not even the last point. In Illustrator the Ctrl key works on any points of the path and any direction point handles while using the Pen tool.
The "C" and "S" shortcuts only work on nodes as they're initially being laid down with the Bezier tool. They don't work on other points along the path that were already drawn. The Alt key in Illustrator will let you convert any of the points on the path being drawn while using the Pen tool.
The Ctrl key doesn't do much as a modifier for the Bezier tool. If you click hold the Ctrl key and click on the last point drawn it just lets you redraw that point. It doesn't let you adjust either of the direction point handles once the point is laid down. It doesn't allow adjustment of any of the other points on the path either. If I hold down the Ctrl key and click on a different node in the path segment the Bezier tool draws/extends the overall path to that point.
Scroll wheel functions on mice give herky jerky zoom performance. The Ctrl-Alt-Spacebar functions in Illustrator work regardless if you're using a mouse or a graphics tablet stylus. And the zoom performance is pretty fast and smooth.
You guys go on and on, I've been reading this junk for nearly 25 years. Every application has some features it does better than another. Hell MS Publisher has stuff it does better than CorelDRAW and Illustrator.
Corporate sign companies tend to use Gerber, Flexi or a CAD application and rebuild almost every file they get. Some more successful sign manufacturers with automated processes do not even accept files.
What's worse is that 30% of what's being written about either application is incorrect.
"Corporate sign companies tend to use Gerber, Flexi or a CAD application and rebuild almost every file they get. Some more successful sign manufacturers with automated processes do not even accept files."
That's baloney. Show me a sign company that generates 100% of the graphics assets it uses in-house. Any sign company that makes signs for other businesses absolutely has to be able to accept things like corporate logos and other assets from outside of the company. That even goes for sign companies who mass produce signs for fast food chains, auto dealerships, etc.
The sign company where I work is fairly big. We have over 20 employees. 4 people, including myself, do the design work. We do have 3 licenses of Flexi as well as a license of EnRoute. We use Onyx Thrive with our HP Latex printers and RasterLink Pro with our flatbed printer. All of that software is used on the production end to run vinyl cutters, routing tables and printers. On the design front end we mainly use CorelDRAW, Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. After Effects comes in handy to create motion graphics for LED signs. Flexi as a design tool has some serious limitations; it doesn't even offer full advanced support of OpenType fonts. That's a problem common to pretty much all industry-specific "CAS" apps.
"What's worse is that 30% of what's being written about either application is incorrect."
That comment doesn't really mean anything without specifics.
Takeform, Custom, don't take files. I believe Awning Innovations also rebuild everything, 3 or 4 plants in the US.
I create everything, the Bull about Adobe handling large files better than Illustrator.