Corel 10 vs. Illustrator advice

 ok....another angle on the Corel vs Illustrator question... since I end up having to save all of my individual art files to AI when sending to printers/designers, should I upgrade my Illustrator 7 (after upgrading to CD X4). Will AI 7 be compatible with X4. This cross platform/programming can be very overwhelming. I used to work in the mac world and mac to mac was so much more simple.

One more thing...I have Acrobat 4.0 and have updated Adobe Reader 9. I'm pretty sure Acrobat 4 was installed with the CD 10 way back when.... what is the update that I need to make to Acrobat. That might be one of the problems I've been having with the pdfs the other designer has been sending me.

amy3 said:

I have Acrobat 4.0 and have updated Adobe Reader 9. I'm pretty sure Acrobat 4 was installed with the CD 10 way back when.... what is the update that I need to make to Acrobat. That might be one of the problems I've been having with the pdfs the other designer has been sending me.

Just so we talk the same language. Once Acrobat was called that: Acrobat. Now its Called "Adobe Acrobat", with which you can create PDFs, to say it very simple. For this you can easaliy use CorelDRAW and Corel Photo-Paint. Adobe Reader 9 on the other hand, which was once called Acrobat reader, is the free program in which you can read all kind of PDFs, made with all kind of programs that allow you to save a document as a PDF. So if we are talking about the same thing, the Reader, then yes. If your clients have been making PDFs in newer programs, then those newer programs save documents to newer kind of PDF files. So for this its always good to download the latest Adobe Reader. Today the Adobe Reader 9.

amy3 said:

 ok....another angle on the Corel vs Illustrator question... since I end up having to save all of my individual art files to AI when sending to printers/designers, should I upgrade my Illustrator 7 (after upgrading to CD X4). Will AI 7 be compatible with X4. This cross platform/programming can be very overwhelming. I used to work in the mac world and mac to mac was so much more simple.

This really comes down to how your general workflow is looking like.
Me for example I dont have Illustrator, and will never get Illustrator, because when my clients says they whant a Ai-Illustrator file, I just simply save my CorelDRAW document as a ai-illustrator file. And I always ask them which version of Illustrator they have. If they say they have CS3, then I actually make two files. Of which one I simple add CS3 into the file name, to separate the CS3 ai file version. And the other just as the file is called, into a ai-illustrator 8 file. (The default choice). If the client have a Illustrator 7 or older version, then I simply save my CorelDRAW file into one ai-illustrator file. To the version my client has.

If a client of mine have an Illustrator file of there own, that they like to send to me, then I just ask of them to send it in at least Illustrator CS3 version, because I have CorelDRAW X4.

One thing that many times comes into play, and make all people go crazy, is when they start saying " send me an EPS, I like to edit myself, so send me an EPS". Thats when I say,  "hold your horses" . Because, its when it comes to EPS files, the client show if they know what they are talking about or not. For example EPS was never intended, when it was created as a file format, to be an editable file format. So therefore, ask them, or suggest to them, that you will send them the file as a PDF file or Ai file.

Illustrator and CorelDRAW creates transparancy differently. And this at times creates issues. But those are useally issues that can be solved. And just ask the question in this forum, and we can all chip in and say how it can be solved. Its 99,99% never an issue kind of.

So to answer your question, if you dont work in a print shop, but are the one creating the files, then No, you dont need to upgrade to Illustrator CS4.

amy3 said:

Will AI 7 be compatible with X4. This cross platform/programming can be very overwhelming. I used to work in the mac world and mac to mac was so much more simple.

It really doesnt have to be overwhelming. The Mac to Mac situation, is that many on a Mac, useally work with Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop. I always ask of my clients, especially clients in the Advertizing and magazine media, to send their articles, they whant me to illustrate, as a text  pasted into an email, and send to me. The Mac users using Word, or any other text program, the conversion useally corrupts the text, when I open the text in my PC environment. But I have honestly never had any issues (Since 1997 and forward) with sending my illustrations or graphic design to clients in a Mac environment. And I have been using CorelDRAW Graphic Suite since 1997. And my illustrations and graphic design are always fixed and or created in CorelDRAW and Photo-Paint.

amy3 said:

Will AI 7 be compatible with X4

To this I say yes, but KEY is to communicate communicate and communicate with your clients. Asking the simple questions: "What file format do you whant. How do you whant your document saved. And if they are sending you an EPS, then ask of them that the EPS created in ILLUSTRATOR to NOT be compressed.

 thanks... I was refering to the writing of the PDF- Adobe Acrobat and just read that with X4 it has Adobe Acrobat 8. Since the other designer is using CS3 I'm sure her version of Acrobat is much more up to date than the version I have that came with Corel 10 (Acrobat 4).

Regarding the files being sent to clients as AI files I always like to open them in Illustrator to make sure things are correct. I know that AI likes to mess with the outlines sometimes from Corel. I have a pretty good setting now that so far has eliminated that problem.

I don't do much with EPS files anymore...I haven't had much luck with eps files in corel (ex. saved from Photoshop always get errors). Tiffs usually work best for me. The transparency option works great with tiffs too. Most of the files like I said are saved as AI files.

I appreciate all of your advice and you sharing your knowledge with me.

so here is one more question...should or can I upgrade (free) my Adobe Acrobat 4 in the meantime while I wait to get X4...if so, to what version?

 

amy3 said:

 thanks... I was refering to the writing of the PDF- Adobe Acrobat and just read that with X4 it has Adobe Acrobat 8. Since the other designer is using CS3 .

Could be, but not necessarily. CorelDRAW Graphics Suite X4 was launched in January/february this year. And CS4 was launched this fall/winter. But on adobe.com you can download for free the adobe reader 9. As you probably already know.

amy3 said:

Since the other designer is using CS3 I'm sure her version of Acrobat is much more up to date than the version I have that came with Corel 10 (Acrobat 4).

Yep, most likely otherwise they got a bad deal

amy3 said:

Tiffs usually work best for me. The transparency option works great with tiffs too. Most of the files like I said are saved as AI files.

Its becasue it creates it as a bitmap. And flatten all layers/objects.

amy3 said:

so here is one more question...should or can I upgrade (free) my Adobe Acrobat 4 in the meantime while I wait to get X4...if so, to what version?

Do you just like to be able to Read/look at PDFs or do you like to create PDFs?
If you just like to Read/Look at PDFs, then its free of charge. Yes, upgrade. Download it at adobe.com/products/acrobat/readstep2.html?promoid=BUIGO