Prepressforums.com

caled · #1 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 01:31 PM

As a long term user of Corel draw, I am extremely disapointed in Corel's latest version which has proved unstable, unreliable and full of bugs. Even the installation routine has a bug.
Shame as it has the capabilities to be a very good competitor to Adobe with several fantastic enhancements.
Any one else had a bad time with draw X3?

tuff_gong · #2 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 04:12 PM

I seem to remember you're the only one on the board using coreldraw.

cera · #3 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 04:44 PM

X3 has a great trace tool. Far better then any else. Everyone should try it! X3 trace rule!

tuff_gong · #4 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 05:36 PM

Just checked corel's website. No mention of availability on mac, but they do feature a Portugese version. Their marketing research team must be radical.

walksin2trees · #5 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 05:52 PM

I talked to one person who tried the trial version and had no problems, but many people in this and other forums report bugs. have there been any patches yet? that one person has windows64, a brand new computer, and all kinds of ram to spare so it might be that he just has the resources to prevent the bugs from ever showing up.

in spite of these bugs though I'd still like to know if it can output a decent acrobat file, and I'd like to evaluate this file on my system... since I can't afford it on my own (and want to wait for the bugs to be worked out anyway) and this company won't buy it, and I want the file to be output from a non-trial version. I'm hoping that someone here can provide it. it should have examples of every kind of object included in the output file, some overlapping others, and include use of gradients and transparency.

almaink · #6 (**permalink**) 05-10-2006, 07:12 PM

No disrespect, and welcome to the forums, but if you are going to be doing professional work, buy a professional program that everyone uses. Buying a proprietary application like Corel Draw is just asking for trouble.
I wish I had Windows64 :cry:

caled · #7 (**permalink**) 05-11-2006, 08:56 AM

>>X3 has a great trace tool. Far better then any else. Everyone should try it! X3 trace rule!<<

As a long term devotee of Corel draw I'm afraid I have to disagree and say that the trace tool in Adobe Illustrator CS2 is superior. I'm a big fan of the detailed illustration trace tool in Illy and use it every day.

As for X3, right from when we tried to install X3 on our computers, we hit major problems. Seems there is a installation bug that is caused by the hints dialogue box being open during a first install. Doesn't give me much faith in a product if I can't even install it.
There are lots of other bugs too that I'd need a new forum to go over! Seems a classic case of getting a product out to the masses before actually making sure it's ok. Bit like Windows eh?
It's definately not our computers. We have very high spec pc's with dual processors, 4gb ram, ATI X1900XTX graphics cards etc. and keep our OS and anti virus up to date.
As to Acrobat files, they are a shambles. Export a Corel file to pdf and place it in Indesign and black is CMYK no matter what settings you use. Transparency is an issue too. Import an Indesign pdf file into Corel draw and it resembles a hundred piece jigsaw puzzle. Not nice.
So we're going to stick to version 12 as it's a great piece of kit until Corel start to release patches for X3.
CS2 is still the one to go for if you have a choice between it and X3 or stick to version 12.

Caled

walksin2trees · #8 (**permalink**) 05-12-2006, 03:52 PM

hmm several things to address

I use Draw at home, not at work, from a design point of view Draw is superior in many ways, from a non-Draw-specific prepress point of view I agree that it sucks. however most of the probs that I know that Draw 12 had are supposed to have been fixed in X3, I'm just curious if they really had or not, and the best way to know for sure is with a test file.

with Draw 12 I had no trouble ripping a PDF 4 file, and could work with the settings to produce a usable file, even if not editable in other software. The main difficulties with them were with transparencies and gradients. Font troubles I could always fix by converting the fonts to lines.

I think their programming problems can be chalked up to deadline stress. I have heard in the past that Corel overworks their programmers, plus they are in competition with Adobe and so are probably premature in releasing the next version in an attempt at staying competitive. Personally I feel that this is always a big mistake for any company, because poor quality drives customers away, no matter what the new features might be.

tuff_gong · #9 (**permalink**) 05-12-2006, 04:55 PM

"In competition with Adobe" - not really, with no mac version. Just another niche app with a small core of users. I really wonder how they stay up and running. I bought a Compaq a few years back, Word Perfect Suite was OEM, but that can't pay the bills.

walksin2trees · #10 (**permalink**) 05-12-2006, 07:16 PM

I've got Wordperfect too, it's better than anything else out there, but you need to know how to make use of it, and most new users probably wouldn't know many of the advanced features or if they do they don't know how to make use of them. I've been a Wordperfect user since before Corel bought it and it's only gotten better since then. My beef with it now is that they don't integrate it with their design software and they try to push stuff through the works too quickly so it ends up being buggy.

I know what you mean regarding being competitive w/ Adobe (Microsoft too). I think they've given up trying to steal customers from them and concentrate on their existing customer base, but from a business standpoint Adobe is still their top competitor.

if they could get their bugs worked out and make thier PDF and PS output as print-friendly as they try to make thier software design-friendly, they'd probably have a better chance at winning new customers.