I am trying ti figure out what the difference between CDX7 and Adobe Illustrator is before I make a purchase?
Any quick explanations?
My Illustrator skills are fading fast. I haven't used CC, all my input is based on CS 6. I just find that Draw is quicker for tasks. I am not sure if it is a case of me being all thumbs in Illustrator or if Illustrator just has too many things in locations tedious to access. I am inclined toward the later.
In certain arenas, CorelDraw users are giving a serious down the nose look. There are those that view them with disdain, like they are children with a toy and not one of the big boys. It sounds trivial but it can be a REAL barrier sometimes. Having said that here are some specific things I notice.
Alignment Shortcuts. C E T B P shortcuts in Corel just save so much freaking time. It is a simple thing but having to open a dialog/docker in Illustrator to do a simple align is like being forced to go from a jet airplane to a tricycle.
Node Editing. The pick tool in Corel is multi-functional. In Illustrator I have to switch between tools to do same thing the one tool does in Corel. It is frustrating in Illustrator when you are used to the quick node editing in Draw. Node editing in Corel is just superior.
Zoom. What is it with Illustrator's Zoom? It is bizarre. I am not sure if it is the way it refreshes. But it is a chore zooming in and out to try to get to the area you need to focus. There is no way in Illustrator to set the mouse wheel to zoom, (not sure about CC.) Mouse wheel zooming is the most efficient way to zoom and pan. Draw has a 45000% zoom ability. Illustrator a 6400% one.
Snapping/Alignment. This might be wrapped up in the Zoom mystery, but snapping and aligning things in Illustrator can be like pulling hair. Something happens and the whole thing gets "slippery" for lack of a better term.
Multiple Pages. Illustrator has multiple artboards. This can generate a mulit-page pdf output. But there is no way to have text flow from one page to another. There is however Indesign. Draw has true multiple page support.
Artboard size. Draw has a max artboard of 45.72 × 45.72 m. Illustrator's max is 5.7785 × 5.7785 m. Perhaps not that important when one can scale, but Nice if your working with something big. Crazy side note: Inkscape has a max artboard of 1000 × 1000 km. When that size was decided on it was like a cheech and chong moment.
I once worked for a shop that was all Corel. That meant I spend alot of time in Corel. It probably skews my attitude on the issue as I just have more time under my belt using Draw.
David Bevins said: Zoom. What is it with Illustrator's Zoom? It is bizarre. I am not sure if it is the way it refreshes. But it is a chore zooming in and out to try to get to the area you need to focus. There is no way in Illustrator to set the mouse wheel to zoom, (not sure about CC.) Mouse wheel zooming is the most efficient way to zoom and pan. Draw has a 45000% zoom ability. Illustrator a 6400% one.
lol, Adobe loves to make the most simple things complicated
It's possible to make zoom work in AI with your mouse wheel by binding CTRL+ and CTRL- to your mouse. But this requires you have a gaming mouse. Otherwise the only way to do it, afaik, is by holding alt while using your mouse wheel.
The only reason Adobe does this is because the mouse wheel is used for just navigating your page up and down, but Adobe is the only graphics program I know that does it this way, you intuitively expect the mouse wheel to zoom.
This unintuitive way to do things is not just restricted to AI, I find this kind of stuff in Photoshop and Lightroom too. Ever since Canon has DPP4 out, I have stopped using lightroom. Most of the time I feel like I'm fighting against the UI in Adobe products when I (am forced to) use it.
Gan said: Otherwise the only way to do it, afaik, is by holding alt while using your mouse wheel.
Otherwise the only way to do it, afaik, is by holding alt while using your mouse wheel.
And LOSE my coffee hand? Your joking right?
There's something else that Adobe does that can be quite infuriating when you're working on something.
For an unknown reason to me, Adobe products seem to be confusing saturation with a normalised version of chroma and are either unaware they're doing it, or this has been in Adobe products for so long, that they can no longer correct it. When you want a specific color, getting that color in AI is much more challenging than it is in CD.
Corel correctly defines highly saturated colors independent of their value. S (saturation) = 100%
Adobe products, opposite of all other programs I have ever come into contact with, seems to substitute saturation with their own numbers.
This same color from CD in AI, no longer has a saturation of 100%, but suddenly dropped to 20.39%.