Is Corel Support really this useless? I have a problem and they told me to reset my workspace. Terrific. Done. Problem still exists. They then tell me to send computer information back to them which I do. They respond again with, "reset your workspace". I already did that. I respond back to the email they send and tell them just that I already tried this and a couple days later I get an email saying they haven't heard back from me. I reply back to the email and get this in response:
Thank you for reaching out to Corel. We would like to inform you that this email address isn't maintained anymore.
If you have a support request or any other question related to Corel products, please contact our Support Team or check our Knowledge Base.
Sincerely, The Corel Support Team
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What is going on? I still can't fix my problem.
I have unresolved issues with all versions of CorelDraw. The worst started with the latest subscription versions. There are huge problems such as the eyedropper shows the wrong colors or the app crashes when I open the color docker. I tried everything. Chat and phone calls with experts, sessions with Corel technicians but nothing was resolved. They just left me to struggle with the problems on my own. Is Corel dying? Now I'm trying to work with Illustrator but it's going to take time, you see I've been a Corel user since 1992!
I have serious concerns about the future of CorelDRAW. It's clear the company owners are not devoting the resources needed (money, talent, manpower) to properly maintain the application, much less keep it competitive with rival applications.
Maybe they don't think CorelDRAW is worth the trouble. So I'm thinking there are two possibilities for CorelDRAW over the next few years. One possibility is they kill the application outright and focus on selling copies of Paint Shop Pro, WinZip, etc. Another possibility is spinning off the CorelDRAW part of Corel to another software company. There is no telling what could happen in that scenario. A new developer might give CorelDRAW the attention it deserves. Or its development road map could get even worse via changes that break all sorts of things or just radically change the application in kooky, ill-advised ways. I wouldn't put it past a new owner to dumb-down CorelDRAW into a cheap, barely functional "consumer" application that is known as CorelDRAW in name only. Finally, there is the scenario where another big company acquires CorelDRAW only to kill it as a means of eliminating rival software. This is along the lines of what Adobe did to Freehand not long after absorbing Macromedia.
The CDR format is very poorly supported outside of CorelDRAW. Very few rival graphics applications have import/export filters to support CDR files. If the existence of CorelDRAW starts looking doubtful it's going to be necessary for many CorelDRAW users to back up their CDR-based artwork in other more "generic" formats like EPS or PDF.
Bobby Henderson said:I have serious concerns about the future of CorelDRAW.
I would not like CorelDraw to disappear. Affinity it's ok but need to grow, i don't like Adobe products, maybe some features from PS.
I don't want CorelDRAW to disappear either. Some of that is out of the selfish concern for my huge stockpile of CDR-based work files.
Affinity Designer does indeed have a long way to go before it could be considered a truly viable replacement for either CorelDRAW or Adobe Illustrator. I bought the version 2.0 upgrade of Affinity Designer on the last day of its introductory sales price period. Serif has made some decent improvements here and there. But there's still a lot of features missing that I'm spoiled to having in either CorelDRAW and/or Adobe Illustrator. Affinity Designer still doesn't even support Variable Fonts; they don't appear to have any plans for adding support any time soon either. Most of the commercial type packages I've bought in the last couple years included OTF Variable fonts. They're a big deal to me for sign making purposes. Adobe recently added nearly 150 variable font families to its Adobe Fonts service.
A lot of people in the graphics industry don't like Adobe for various reasons. But the only trend I see happening right now is Adobe getting even more dominant in the traditional graphics space (page layout, photo editing, vector graphics). Adobe Illustrator has had some major improvements over the past couple years. Adobe's most serious challenges are coming from the video production end, particularly from DaVinci Resolve Studio. Apple and Avid still have their slices of that market too.