PDF export crop page problem and general feeling about 2020

Hi,

I know Corel Draw starting from 2001 and using it day by day since 11 years. Starting from iconic version 9.Then 12 (probably stable), X3,4 fail, X5 for several yeas (acceptable) and now I've came across newest version 2020 GS Win edition.

At first I was really excited "Wow new version, Win store, costs alot but must be wort it". After instalation I'm really glad seeing top bar filled with opened documents - really good stuff! But after several days of working with this new version I have very bad feeling...

Since I was forced to switch to X5 (becouse switching to Vista > 7 > 10) I was really dissapointed with bugs and minor inconveniences:

  • Corel suddenly stopped working without any error becouse of random, too fast mouse action,
  • Corel stopped working becouse I wastrying to save file and backup file got corrupted,
  • As always useless bacup file...
  • Menu bar just dissapeared (ok, Im working quite lot, I know where tools are without seen them),
  • Selecting so many nodes or even objects making Corel freez,
  • Selecting checkbox during duplicate page with layer's content (11 years of selecting this checkbox).

I'm rally glad that 2 bugs were solved (multiple power clip has no more rendering problem), and finally opening several documents will not make corel bread down soon... yea, after short time or moving windows too fast some of them loose close button and Corel soon fails. It's not the case of commputer, processor,storage... I was using Corel draw on many machines and many windows versions and its always the same - many bugs, and keeping thing saved every 2 minutes or even more othen, becuse everything can get wiped witout any reason.

My bad feeling is like... Is anyone in Corel corp actually opened Corel Draw and started working in it? After so many years nothing changed. Is there really no feedback? I still see the same ugly pointers in curve properties, still the same tools (some of them were reorganised), but nothing modern, fancy... Have you ever seen google layout? Material design? Oh sorry u added payed font library.

During last few days of using 2020 I came across 2 new bugs (despite updating whatever was possible):

  • some fonts are broke down, and won't show up (maybe I should buy Quicksand with yours inbuilt market),
  • exporting pdf sometimes will not crop parts outside page.

And after googling for a while I've found that first bug is well know starting from 2019.

I have really bad feeling that new version is actually X5 with more stable GUI. I was concerning switching to Adobe but working with Draw for so many years makes me stay. But is it worth?

Back to issue here is situation - exporting pdf, no bleed in setting and in pdf export (why this value is not connected, nevermid...), result attempt 1:

After using well known method: closing and opening Corel things started wortking, result attempt 2:

In X5 I often have to doublesave some images becouse first attempt in general fails. Is similar problem in 2020?

  • My first installed version of CorelDRAW was version 3. I've been doing professional output since version 4. Is 2020 worth it? Depends on what you do.  The graphics field is saturated with users running old PCs , MACs, Adobe CS products and CorelDRAW X3 thru X8. Let's  face it the graphics industry in not what it used to be.

    On the other hand there's people like me who will output 5 and 6 color spot color jobs utilizing full features, complex fills, blends and transthe recorded. We are a dying species. In that case 2020 is a must have, even if you created the job in 2018 only 2019 or 2020 will create a proper PDF for output however 2019 in nearly unusable.

    The default press PDF export setting has native color and 1/8" bleed built into it.

    2019 and 2020 have serious issues with missed recoding of features from 2018 and unintelligent implementation of some new features, that are real PITA problems, but for state of the art creation and output you have 2020 or you don't require state of the art output.

    I find a great improvement in high end CorelDRAW performance if one follows the general rules of file creation and system building. I've been studying CorelDRAW and the users for decades.

    Forget the MAC, forget AMD or a Xeon, forget laptops except for client meetings,  if you get a laptop stay away from gaming and video rendering systems. Look to high end office systems with 32GB of RAM an SSD and a quality on board graphics card. If not make sure you use a true NVidia card with 6GB memory and a mainboard that can disable the on board graphics card.

    I do a ton of image correction so I have a high end calibrated display along with my work station. It's  an i9 9900  desk top with 64GB of RAM, a 6GB NVidia graphics card and a1 TB SSD primary drive and a 3 TB secondary drive as core features.

    The only issues I have are the features that Corel screwed when they recoded.  In 2020 it's a bite I have to create templates with core technology features (high end press, standard res inkjet and web) and start each new file from one of those templates.

    With all this said be it CorelDRAW or Adobe to get the most out of this requires a user that fully understands color management, poscript compliance, the application of transparency, the limitations of core file formats and utilization differences in postscript and true PDF rips.

    The short of it is state of the art output to print then 2020 is a must. However you'll work around the programming shortcomings. If you don't require state of the art print output, depending on what you're doing X5 is just fine. Web graphics are another issue, better in 2020 using a template but if I worked in them regularly I'd look another direction. 

  • thank you for reply. Il consider your advices.

    I posted this topic mostly becuse I feel frustrated with those products. Today I came across another horrible minor bug that was not present in previous versions - eyedroper tool from side bar is not updating color docker, but eyedroper from color docker do its job.

    OFC finally my fav bug occured – one haotick click, freez, Corel shut down without any error feedback. Win 10, Lenovo 510-15ISK i7 gen 6 integrated graphocs, SSD, nothing uncommon.

    Yea I know that Corel still do it's job, but comparing way of software development that represent for example Autdesk is way different. I'm using Fusion 360 for some time, they release many many updates, some of them are really out of blue, but I'm sure that every new update makes improvement without breaking previously implemented features.

    I'm working also as programmist of embeded system, Python, Java and OpenGL and to be honest I have no idea how ppl  who are programming Corel can mess things that much. On the other hand fixing those bugs is really simple, it's connecting signal from one GUI object to another.

    Is it struggle with old ugly code that is hard in extending? How about spending time on refactoring?