[This is being posted to Mac, Windows and app forums as it relates to both - apologies for the duplication]
Hi,
When Corel announced that CorelDRAW was returning to macOS, I was personally super-excited to see this for several key reasons (which I wrote about in this article: CorelDRAW is gracing macOS again - and why this is important).
This is not an advert, but I feel it's an important brief background. Astute Graphics is known in the Adobe Illustrator world, since 2006, as developers of plugins for professional users. Many of the world's largest brands rely on us as well as many, many freelance designers and everyone inbetween. We serve varied sectors including branding, architecture, fashion, sign making, gaming and more.
The tools we currently produce for Adobe Illustrator allow users to gain very high-level control of Bezier profile (drawing and editing), positioning, effects, stroke variable widths and more.
Some of this functionality will already be in CorelDRAW. But what core drawing and editing functionality are Corel customers seeking that they feel would be suitable via a 3rd party option. And yes, I acknowledge everything should be there natively in the single purchased core product, but reality doesn't always allow this.
Finally, in Astui, we now also have the building blocks that allow us to produce much more advanced tools and functions. These include Boolean (add, subtract, divide vector shapes), Offset Paths, Variable Stroke Widths and many more. Even though well-developed technologies such as Boolean and Offset are within Corel - hence it being the key competitor to Illustrator - it's essential to have full access to these underlying technologies in order to build exciting tools such as Long Shadow, Path Reshape and more.
Excitingly, Astui can be deployed as a web API allowing online tools such as CorelDRAW.app to benefit. Equally, having this toolbox allows Astute Graphics to build new tools quicker and based on 7+ years of technical development.
So - are extensions applicable to a wide range of users welcome to Corel users as they are in Adobe's world?
I'd love to understand what you think,
Nick
Hello, Astute Graphics!
I know your page and your effects, since a long time ago. Very impressive, by the way!
Some effects like DynamicSketch and MirrorMe already exist in CorelDRAW Graphics Suite (and some under CorelDRAW Technical Suite) but there are many others that would be welcome. Or really, I should say: they are necessary. Some are even essential
For example, VectorHalftones, Duotone, etc.will be a big improvement and many CorelDRAW users asked for years. I'm sure that there's a lot users that want those effects.
Some of your effects are very nice, simple but very useful
I want to say it clearly: of course we users are interested. And I'm sure there is a good market potentially. There're million of CorelDRAW users around the world, so if you can promote those powerful tools, I'm sure it could be a success.
But I want to stop in one in particular and it is the possibility of doing a preflight.
astutegraphics.com/.../
Of course, already exist otrher products, such as
graphics-unleashed.com/.../
www.advancedtshirts.com/.../
steveyatesgraphics.com/.../
and several more.
The possibility of previewing the color separations on the screen, with overprints included, and eventually modify or replace colors is a very powerful tool.
Thank you Ariel and apologies for the delay in responding. We have just released the Astute Manager this week which is designed to deploy plugins. It's relevant to Corel users as well as, internally, our new software which is developed on both macOS and Windows will cater for more than just Illustartor. I think having a plugin manager could really benefit Corel users as well if we're looking to boost users in this market too.
Returning to your feedback...
Agreed that there is overlap in some areas. I don't think it would ever be a case of blatently copying and pasting existing Illustrator plugin functionality over to CorelDraw. Indeed, it may not be technically possible in some cases. More importantly, there may be greater possibilities in CorelDraw for extensibility than in Illustrator in some areas.
Also, coupled with our Astui technology, we can not probably offer a lot more that may or may not be handled as a service externally. This approach would allow tools to be developed that are traditionally out of the reach of local plugin and extension concepts.