Adobe Illustrator still rules the vector art roost.
Affinity Designer seems to be well-liked, I keep meaning to get around to trying it out in earnest.
I tried it and it’s just a mess in terms of production efficiency compared to Illustrator. Just not even a competitor at this point.
I'd say its a reflection on your inability to adapt seeing as over several million former Illustrator users are now Designer fanatics.
You can think whatever you like, but a poor substitute is still not a substitute. When I use vector art and design software, it’s with a simple goal in mind: Speed and accuracy. I used Illustrator for almost 30 years and always compared the latest and greatest competitors when they came out, always attempting to find something better.
The software you evidently prefer is amateur hour stuff compared to the refined tool that is Illustrator. Like I say, it’s not even a contest.
Well, all I can say is that we use vendors from across the country, and the file type they want is Illustrator, for print, banners, posters, even booth graphics. It's been that way since the last days of Pagemaker. You may be the exception. I'm not saying nothing else will possibly work, just that the pre-press guys are going to be pissed.
You aren't given options to send EPS or PDF in addition to/instead of AI? That's odd.
I print thousands of banners, posters, vehicle wraps, and yes even booth (trade show) graphics for customers across the region every year and have done so for well over a decade. I would not insist customers only submit artwork in AI format. I'd lose more than a few jobs and even customers if I did so.
I worked with pre press for textiles and preferred AI-files. EPS was also fine. PDF not so much as they could be harder to edit.
And I agree on the PDF's depending on how they were put together. Some clients have that as their only option (other than bitmap and/or a native format from an obscure program) so we deal with it.
EPS is absolutely a preferred format to AI and FWIW Corel offers both as export/save as options anyway tho I avoid AI file exports since I've found EPS to be much more reliable.
I'm really glad that this is come about! It's just one additional competitor against Adobe which needs some competition that has serious backing, and Corel is $100 million company that can give it some competition unlike affinity or pixilator (sp). I hope they offer a trial because I think if we all give it an HONEST try, while it might not be to AI level, I'm sure it's up there!! Further to this, I FULLY support the buy once and own it!! I still have CS fully owned without paying a stupid homage fee to Adobe and there hasn't been any updates to any Adobe products that justify a yearly, let Adobe take advantage of me fee. Go for it Corel Draw, WELCOME TO THE PARTY!!
unpopular opinion: behind the awful free fonts and clip art was a vector drawing app that was at least a decade ahead of Adobe Illustrator, so obviously better I still get furious
Given the choice between AI and Corel [...] I much prefer CorelDraw's vector program.
I started with Corel, which I used for a few years, then switched to Illustrator. I was disappointed by the interface in Illustrator. I found it much less user-friendly.
However, it overcame my biggest complaint about Corel, which was how it would place objects kinda sorta in the general vicinity of where I specified. Align operations were always off a little. It was like Corel was using only two decimal places for internal math, so nothing ever lined up perfectly. Illustrator was dead accurate.
The second issue was how Corel handled conversions between color spaces. Try converting a Corel document from RGB to CMYK. It was ABYSMALLY bad. Illustrator did a much, MUCH better job.
I don't know if Corel is better now, but I no longer care. Affinity Designer is such a pleasure that the high cost of the Big Two is now a just a memory for me.
Well, all I can say is that we use vendors from across the country, and the file type they want is Illustrator, for print, banners, posters, even booth graphics. It's been that way since the last days of Pagemaker. You may be the exception. I'm not saying nothing else will possibly work, just that the pre-press guys are going to be pissed.
No way! I only provide PDF files to printers. I don't want them screwing with my artwork. The key is knowing how to properly set up the file so the printer only needs to press ⌘ + p.
I worked with pre press for textiles and preferred AI-files. EPS was also fine. PDF not so much as they could be harder to edit.
That's the thing - you are not supposed to edit PDF files. Illustrator doesn't collect fonts or placed graphics for output. There is no page set up per se, at least not like inDesign and the only way to created crops is to draw a rectangle and convert it to crops, plus there is no multipage feature. Providing Illustrator files to a printer just causes headaches for them. Proper PDF workflow has been the norm for around twenty years or more. All modern RIPs require PDF so if you send something else to the printer they have to convert it PDF anyway.
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The software you evidently prefer is amateur hour stuff compared to the refined tool that is Illustrator. Like I say, it’s not even a contest.
EPS is absolutely a preferred format to AI and FWIW Corel offers both as export/save as options anyway tho I avoid AI file exports since I've found EPS to be much more reliable.
With Adobe InDesign stagnating, and Affinity Publisher in the pipeline, this is great news for the publishing market.
Especially those of us who have been looking to get off the Adobe subscription treadmill.
However, it overcame my biggest complaint about Corel, which was how it would place objects kinda sorta in the general vicinity of where I specified. Align operations were always off a little. It was like Corel was using only two decimal places for internal math, so nothing ever lined up perfectly. Illustrator was dead accurate.
The second issue was how Corel handled conversions between color spaces. Try converting a Corel document from RGB to CMYK. It was ABYSMALLY bad. Illustrator did a much, MUCH better job.
I don't know if Corel is better now, but I no longer care. Affinity Designer is such a pleasure that the high cost of the Big Two is now a just a memory for me.
Anyone wanna buy my Adobe Master Collection 5?
Illustrator is for illustrations not page layout.
That's the thing - you are not supposed to edit PDF files. Illustrator doesn't collect fonts or placed graphics for output. There is no page set up per se, at least not like inDesign and the only way to created crops is to draw a rectangle and convert it to crops, plus there is no multipage feature. Providing Illustrator files to a printer just causes headaches for them. Proper PDF workflow has been the norm for around twenty years or more. All modern RIPs require PDF so if you send something else to the printer they have to convert it PDF anyway.