Corel Draw X3 or Photoshop ????

[Kreskin]

Has anyone used Corel Draw? Someone told me it was a better application for pure graphic design than Photoshop which is apparently an "image manipulation" program rather than a true graphic design program (so some say). I get confused by this stuff. I want to purchase the tool that is better for creating website graphics. Corel is $489, Photoshop $699. Or is Adobe Illustrator ($599) a graphic design product?

I already have Paintshop Pro and know it quite well but want something to bring graphic design to the next level.

Anyone out there than can give me advice? Much appreciated if you can.

 

[iARTthere4iam]

I use both programs and they are excellent. It sounds like you would want Corel Draw. Photoshop is very effective at manipulating photographs. I use corel , for business cards, logos, signs, etc. I don't know anything about web design, can't help you there.

 

[Kreskin]

Thanks. Is it true that in Corel it can covert to html?

 

[iARTthere4iam]

That seems to be the case. There are functions on it for publishing to the web, HTML and such, but I have never done web work and don't know how it works.

 

[Kreskin]

Thank you very much for the insight.

 

[TomG]

If you don't have definite ideas about what you want to do with vector graphics, you might play around awhile with GIMP for free. GIMP might even do the job for you, but not the web stuff. I think I'd go for which graphics program works best for you, and I'd use GIMP as the standard for comparison since it is open source and free.

There are plenty of inexpensive alternatives for web publishing, and If you don't spend the money on a graphics program, you might spend it on a Wacom Intuos 3 graphics tablet, which could have a greater positive impact on your graphics work than any new software.

I haven't published a new web page in a few years, but I never thought that the code related to images was especially difficult. However, I'm still writing transitional HTML code with some CGI and PHP modules. I just use shareware HTML editors and ftp clients. They work fine, handle CSS files and code related to transitional HTML, and the error checking is specific to the transitional code I write. I've never thought that the web publishing features built into packages such as MS Publisher are particularly good. I think I have Frontpage somewhere on my system but don't use it.

I am just getting used to Adobe CS 2 and Mac OS-X myself after many years of using a shareware produce under Windows. The shareware produce eventually was acquired by Corel and 'repositrioned in the market'--ruined would be my description. Anything I have to say about Corel wouldn't be objective, although I suppose I should thank them for providing the goad that started the process that will lead to a Microsoft free life for me.

 

[DurkaDurka]

Kreskin, go with Illustrator or Corel if you have exceptional drawing skills, go with Photoshop if you are more interested in manipulating/creating images for the web.

I used to use Macromedia Fireworks extensively, which is a jack of all trades vector drawing/image manipulation tool. I'm not sure if it is still available since Adobe bough macromedia .