I just received an email that informed me that my CorelDraw Suite monthly subscription has almost TRIPLED!
I thought this must surely be in error and went to Coreldraw.com to see the latest pricing... has Corel gone bonkers? Are they actually TRYING to drive people towards Adobe products?
Both the once-off and subscription prices have escalated enormously. I don't think I'll be able to justify using Corel over Adobe to the boss anymore, especially after the v2019 fiasco where we literally found the software useless and a danger to productivity due to all the bugs...
Shouldn't Corel Corp be mending fences instead of burning bridges?
I'm looking for what new that would make me update...
This is crap that I've been asking to have put on the to do list for for 12 versions. It's not some impossible to code stuff. Even an artificial intelligence managing the development list would put this stuff at the top of the list.
There is just no point in adding things most of us will never use and doing nothing about the improving dare I say at this point in a software's development, PERFECTING the very basic stuff that is so important to everyday work.
I just can't see why I would pay the most expensive subscription when what I most need isn't being perfected, what I'll never use it added and when the product is being laughed at professionally for lacking in the basics after so many versions.
Obviously their are blockages within the management of COREL that are prevented the necessary effort and directing attention to "features" that look on the surface to be an essential reason to update. You can't tell me that there are not people within Corel that use Photoshop and know for a fact that PP is *** in need of a full code clean up from the bottom up!
I have to disagree with you on one point. I'm pretty sure no one at Corel really knows much about the program or how we use it anymore. The few old timers that are left are playing it safe to get to retirement and the new management and younger people are completely lost. They're new, young and have no core foundation of understanding, what we need, where we use it and why we need it.
Everyone with a camera that shoots a RAW file, one would think, knows what the benefit of 48 bits are. Standard for decent video is 12bpc. Blackmagic's video standard even for the pocket camera is 16bpc. Then we have the various profiles to trick 8bpc files into recording additional high and low light detail.
I can find a video of the CEO of Blackmagic getting his hands dirty with hardware, software and finding time to attend marketing previews. They are punching well above their weight producing hardware that exceeds what Sony manage and software that makes Adobe video efforts look pretty crap.
Blackmagic and DXO make Adobe look like some sort of average ordinary.
I've never talked about impossible outcomes. Fix the issues with the basic engine before fussing with the edges.
Listen to what he says
"we don't play this Coke versus Pepsi game"
"we pulled the product off the booth because we discover a problem the day before"
"we are not here to go hey we are awesome but to ask how we can help"
"we are here to empower creativity"
"color correction is the emotion track of video"
Grant Petty, Blackmagic Design's Founder
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33of6aPm_xg
Founder of creative video technology company Blackmagic Design, Grant Petty, left his life as an engineer in the TV industry with one goal on his mind: To fix the “flawed” TV and film sector and hand power back to the creative people driving the it forward. https://www.smartcompany.com.au/entrepreneurs/influencers-profiles/blackmagic-design-founder-grant-petty-on-how-a-burning-revelation-led-him-to-create-his-300-million-video-technology-company/
0 to a $300 million a year turnover
"it's the Mac that the designers are using so we need to tailor the product to that"(all their software runs on Windows, Mac and Linux)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PGrIYFiN1cQ
This is my interpretation of a similar statement from Corel...
"To make a *** load of money by being second place to Adobe."
That's some very sad interpretation of what the market is about. Sorry for the reality check.
It's a real pity we weren't sold to Grant Petty! Corel need to find their Grant!
Just spotted that he doesn't have a strong American accent... Drrr he's Australian
https://www.afr.com/technology/the-little-known-melbourne-tech-firm-behind-hollywood-s-biggest-hits-20190516-p51o6e
How many have tried DXO? They display this same sort of dedication. Owning workflow is part of that.
Because they test every camera in the process of generating data needed for lens compensations. they are able to provide a true "choice magazine" of cameras and lenses. That's free. They are engaging with the user in the choice before RAW software, camera selection.
https://www.dxomark.com/
They spin that out into the best RAW editor and some hardware and consulting services.
And Corel was once like this. They had a SCSI card when a compatible card was difficult to find. I can't imagine what hardware Corel could sell today. But they should have a RIP for inkjet printers to do halftones.
https://www.colorprintingforum.com/threads/quality-ctp-with-inkjet-platemaking.15607/
If our new masters are going to buy something to help Corel then a RIP company would be good. If we (and I use this to describe us and Corel as I see fit :) ) are going to get back some sense of being apart of the "industry standard" then it requires tentacles that extend into devices used for imagining.
Corel is a very good purchase for someone that knows what they are doing. The potential is there. It's been dehydrated but not killed.
I have replied and wrote a bit but I think I used too many links and got caught by a spam filter.
You are not altogether wrong but Corel have an army of creatives. To suggest the people that actually understand are not in the business when it has ~500 employees seems totally out there. More likely they are not being heard.
No not really, at one time Corel had a production department that used CorelDRAW, a few years later their materials were being done with Adobe products. When you've interacted with people who after a detailed discussion it was clear that they had no basic concept of their own technology let alone core graphics technology it becomes clear.
Have you tried the new tone curve in PP, the new object docker, the keep desktop objects on layer or the new font manager? These are not broken features these are features that deft logic and basic understanding of technology and the installed base. These are just a few but I could continue the list until you'd have to scroll several times.
First thing I do with every new version is check if they have finally done something with the curves tool.
No one would love to dump Photoshop more than me! I currently only renew my the subscription when I have a project that needs the speed of PS to manage.
I'm very focused on the painting of walls ATM and not pixels.
Of course there is an elephant in the room. COVID19 GLOBALLY! Everyone is in a tough spot. I would imagine that this is the sort of time people skip on updates for a cycle or two.
I've been doing and will continue, renovating a home. So I have no real feel for the market. And here we have zero cases of community transmission.
Decline in agency revenuesFor most companies in the sector, three fifths (or even one half) has become the rule because advertising investments (on which a percentage is taken) have melted like snow in the sun. Depending on the agencies, the figures we have had access to show an impact, over April 2020, of -54% and -91%. The brands in the portfolio explain this reasonably wide variation; some are more affected than others depending on their sector of activity. www.intotheminds.com/.../
Do you think businesses are going to be buying lots of software in the next 12 months? Has there been any threads talking about this?
If you don't watch anything else you should watch this bit (time referenced)
youtu.be/PGrIYFiN1cQ
Additional
The time reference was stripped from the URL. That's a bit silly as a forum setting.add ?t=1932
I've watch this over 2 days in bits. He's the "Elon" of video. I doubt you will disagree with anything he says.