Coreldraw X7

[knightweb]

Hi,

I've put a link below for a free version of CS2, or it's available direct from Adobe


http://www.techspot.com/downloads/3689- ... p-cs2.html


Kevin

[AlanD]

I have been a Corel Draw user since V2 and I am currently a beta tester. I'd be happy to talk you through stuff. The Draw Suite comes with PhotoPaint, Connect, loads of fonts and I think in this version you can download Photozoom. Everybody will get Standard membership which will allow additional content to be downloaded and Premium Membership allows even more content plus new features as and when they come online. Standard members would get then with the next version release.
There is a student version but that is for not for profit use and does not come with VBA which is required to run macros. There are many macros which are available on the net which add much more usability to Draw, many are free and the rest are cheap, look to www.oberoneplace.come and www.macromonster.com for a large selection but there are many more.
X7 makes better use of 64 bit and extra cores than older versions and colour management is also much better but bear in mind sublimation printing is a much different discipline to litho or large format. X7 also has improved import filters over earlier versions. Illustrator is obviously a strong application but has a steeper learning curve and is a lot of money - try both but for value for money Corel Draw is very difficult to beat.
Just to keep things even Serif Software and Xara also have very good packages at reasonable price, I've tried many of them but always come back to Draw but I may be a little biased

[ArferMo]

AlanD what's the correct URL for that first link ?

[AlanD]

Should be www.Oberonplace.com

[mr-gobby]

Thanks Kevin for the cs2 ink there.

Thanks Alan for the info and introducing macros, didn't think about that aspect, another thing to learn then. I guess as with anything its practice. While getting familiar the undo is useful, often the keypresses I do, don't end up with the results I'm intending. I have access to illustrator via another business so could try it but its hard enough learning one of these applications so didn't want to confuse myself at an early stage
Mark

[AlanD]

I think of macros for Draw as a an untapped resource as not many people seen to know about them and they can add so much to Draw. VBA is required and that is NOT included in Student versions (not sure about Essentials) even the plugins from the plotter manufacturers need it. For those who are into coding you can right your own and of course Draw does have the recording feature for automating several key presses.
Draw should not be considered a 'poor' relation to Illustrator, the more recent versions are very strong and have everything you are likely to need for the majority of what you are likely to do, there is generally a solution.
Check out Coreldraw.com, goto the community tab and there is a good forum for asking questions about Draw and it is regularly frequented by fellow testers and Draw staff apart from other knowledgable users.

[socialgiraffe]

We ditched X7 and returned to X5 due to its handling of exporting files.

Complete disaster and if you have previous jobs created in (X5 for example) you will not be able to recreate the colour. This is probably more aimed at those using a print n cut and it was my business partner that investigate it all properly. It is very well documented online if you want to know more.

[AlanD]

I'm not aware of problems exporting files although certainly some users experienced colour issues with earlier versions. The colour management was completely revamped for X5 and onwards, doing away with the sometimes confusing graphical chart with all the arrows and it should be more accurate now but like everything else that changes there is a learning curve.
I send alot a files away to trade houses for litho and digital output primarily using pdf X1a and don't have an issue, I always use cmyk colour model to work in and the colours of the jobs that come back are fine but I appreciate that if you had fine tuned your output in X4 to your own device it may have been slightly different in later versions but you would have experienced the same I think with other software packages.
FYI here are the settings I use

vB_ID:3484

colour settings.JPG (76.66 KiB) Viewed 26 times

Publish to pdf has its own setting regarding how colour and fonts are handled but using the default pdfx1a and then fine tuning and saving is the way I go and I've not been let down yet (I'm now crossing everything I have 2 of!!)

[RogerC]

Unless you go for the full monty you won't get the full support for Versaworks. The Education/student version has limitations/elements disabled....at least it does with X6. (I bought it to see if the new version was worthwhile intending to upgrade if it was. IMO it wasn't so I didn't) If you want a cheaper pretty good working copy I'd recommend X3.

[socialgiraffe]

I will find out what our exact problems were Alan as it was pretty bad, I know it had something to do with X5 > X7 and colour, but I can not remember what. We have the full versions so I know it was not an issue with license restriction.