[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
Thanks Eskimo. I'm not trying to be devil's advocate here as I'm not in the Affinity camp, but I understand that they don't have a (realistic) dimension limit. So if that's such an important feature, have users looked at Affinity - and if so, why not use in parallel to CD? (I can think of hundred reasons, but I don't want make assumptions ;) ).
Very interesting, David Milisock.
When producing a wide format print job or other major signage which is designed to be viewed from at least a few feet away, what resolution do you go for? Surely 300dpi would be an overkill?
(But I concede that excessively low res is unsightly.)
Have you come across a pixel limit (ie. maximum horizontal or vertical size) to any image embedded in CD artwork?
Great question, there is no one answer. The answer depends on what type a output provider you are. Are you down and dirty quick and cheap, then you're sought out because you're quick and cheap. Or are you reasonably priced and high quality, and you're sought out because of the service and quality of the product you manufacturer?
REALITY CHECK! If you're using CorelDRAW you can be in the top 3% in terms of quality at zero increased cost over down and dirty, cheap and easy players!
Resolution is set by the desired viewing distance, output device, it's media profile and the specific media used. Understand that RIP media color profiles produce the best quality within a resolution parameter of the output resolution and when images are placed in the document within a parameter that was used during the profile creation. TEST all your media profiles with various image resolutions, some can work as low as 80 DPI others require 200 DPI.
You have maximum resolution limits based on RIP architecture, a 32 bit RIP handles smaller files than a 64 bit RIP. File formats have size limitations, yes that means Illustrator, Photoshop, as well as Corel file formats.
So to make it above the 3% range there will be some increased thought and that is something you can charge for once you develop the reputation for that level of work.
CorelDRAW has significantly larger document pages so scaling is rarely an issue but you do have to consider the maximum limits of the RIP and file formats.
So you may have to tile print high resolution display work. So you ask what advantage CorelDRAW has then since you have to tile print? Well you can skip the conceptual design, skip an error inducing process completely, design for output send low res PDF proofs and when approved power clip content, export, tag and bag it and send the bill!
Quality service: We did a TED X show a while back and they wanted a 40 foot x 4 foot photographic quality display at a 5 foot viewing distance. The material they chose was based on the quality of the image it could reproduce and required 200 DPI printing. Due to the design required I managed to get it out without tiling.
Down and dirty cheap and quick: All large scale Adobe work is done this way. To start. the end result of the calculation for resolution has to be multiplied by the upscale factor. If the output is 75 foot required at 150 DPI, there is the hard thing and the smart thing. The hard thing is to use a fractional scale of the final size like 3.9 or something the smart thing is a direct multiple.
So 75 foot divided by 5 is 15 foot, so the creation file and the exported output format (PDF) has to be 15 foot at (150 DPI required at output) multiplied by 5 which is 750 DPI resolution in the application and the exported file. So a custom PDF preset is required, sometimes the limit can be reached.
Oh horse hockey! Just create the file at 75 foot place the goodies at 150 DPI and export it.
I'm not one of the users for whom the huge work area is a "killer feature". I don't work in the sign industry, so I don't know how Affinity works (or not) for their needs.
I think that CorelDRAW has some history in signs/engraving/awards, which is going to count for something with a lot of users. To many, CorelDRAW is just "what you use for that sort of work". It's what they used at their first sign shop job, or what was recommended when they bought their vinyl cutter, or...
John you have struck a chord with this post. " history in signs/engraving/awards" History in work flows, this is where all applications have an update base built, these users are confortable with their product in their workflow. The task is to develop that level of comfort for new useres in their required workflow and Corel has been lousy at this. I do a very wide amount of work with CorelDRAW and all they need do to capture new users is show them how to develop a workflow. Now with that said Corel needs to work on long document support big time. I see this plugin oppotunity as a good possibility.