Corel 11 OR Adobe Illustartor 10

Just can't decide..

[shaadi]

I am planning to buy Corel 11 OR Adobe Illustartor 10.
Which one would you suggest & why?

Also what are the upgrades in Corel 11 compared to Corel 8, Is corel 11 worth buying than Corell 8?

Thanks in advance.

[davis]

Illustrator's got my vote... I've never used Corel since corel 5 or so, but Illustrator is Photoshop's sibling... and you know its good

Illustrators not a _huge_ learning curve from photoshop either, so its good on all fronts :)

[peewhy]

I like corel for no other reason that I bought Corel Webmaster way back in 1997 or even 1996 - can't remember. However, I got used to its ways and methods. They also have a good free telephone support and often that has been worth its weight in gold.

Having said that Illustrater probably does too. :)

[shaadi]

davis & peewhy thanks for your response but it doesn't solve my problem it has confused me further. Can any one point out some resource, which compares Corel 11 OR Adobe Illustrator 10 I can only buy one of them as it very expensive to have both :(

Now another problem is if I go for Corel - Corel 8 is something, which I can really afford, therefore I am interested what are the upgrades in Corel 11 compared to Corel 8, Is Corel 11 worth buying than Corel 8?

Thanks in advance.

[peewhy]

Corel 8 is cheap and does the job. I don't see anything in 11 that you would kill for.

If you can get 8 in a better deal than illustrator I would go for it.

Illustator is 'industry standard' but it doesn't make it any better... Although it is good.

The more opinion you seek, the more confused you will be because you will always get conflicting advice.

Corel have a forum, why not drop in and take a look. The benchmark will be the number of "I do I fix this" type of posts.

[korkus2000]

I would suggest Freehand. I find it much more intuitive than Illustrator. I have never liked Corel. For very high end illustrations Corel just can't handle it. It is also counter intuitive for me. I learned on Illustrator and found Freehand had better functionality for me. I like freehand becuase it intagrates with Flash so easily, comes with studio MX, always one step ahead of illustrator, and works well with Quark and Photoshop.

If I could only choose between illustrator and corel I would go with illustrator, BUT I am a graphic artist and using these programs are what I do for a living. If you only need to use it for small stuff Corel may be all you need.

[peewhy]

Korkus2000 provided a perfect example of mixed opinion. He knows his tools because he is a graphic designer, I'm a web marketing guy and create low-res banners etc. Corel works for me and I'd probably never use 90% of Freehand.

Horses for courses :)

[tbow007]

Both have their advantages, but I would go with Illustrator. More people use it, therfore most people would be able to read your files. If you are familar with any of Adobe's products, especially photoshop, then you will catch on to Illustrator rather quickly. Illustrator 11 is coming out sometime this year with supposed speed improvments, I might wait just a little while and see how it turns out.

[bcolflesh]

If you have to work with multiple clients or outside vendors regularly, you're going to better off with Illustrator - it's more common than Corel, regardless of the merits of either.

[Jon_King]

In print I have always regarded compatibility as a primary goal... after all why do art in a program with which a printer has problems or will not accept? Hence a good reason for Illustrator.

However in the closed loop of most 'small web shops' any program you 'like' can probably work out fine.

A caveat: I still think that as you grow and need to hire people and contract outside for services using the most widely used graphics programs makes the available pool of talent the largest. This 'largest talent pool' has its benefits. Illustrator is the most prevalent tool by FAR.

The difference in price can hardly be an issue... whether $50 or $500 you are making a business decision about the 'machine' your production line will use. Your production line (a designer) is likely to churn out 10's of thousands of dollars (maybe 100's). I don't think the larger price of leading products has significant relevance.

There are subtle differences in the products for sure... Although I do know from experience that the same end result can be had in all (there might be some cases in print where Draw can't handle the complexity but not many). In other words, in practical matters they each do the same thing.

After using each of the big three Illustration programs for more than 18 years, my overall rating would be: 1) Illustrator, 2) Freehand and 3) CorelDraw.

[peewhy]

Jon_King made a good point and I did get caught up in it. When people join you, they are used to the 'industry standard' software.

I only began to use Corel because I used Quark and Corel for ink on paper publishing. When people come here to join me they use Illustrator.

[limbo]

Shaadi

I am interested in what design work you are trying to accomplish.

From your initial post it would seem you are wanting to create complex designs for print or is it for a mix of both web and print media.

If just print is the case then buy Illustrator or Freehand. Every graphic design studio I have ever seen has one or both of these - just check out job ads in this sector - having experience on either is par for the course.

If you are intending to create graphics for the web I would ignore an illustration package and get an all rounder like photoshop or fireworks - OK you cannot create many of the things you could using and illustration package but for 99% of webgraphics they can hold their own (IMVHO).

[peewhy]

I like the 'IMVHO' :)

It looks like there are only a small number of contenders, at least you have an idea of what to use, it's now down to purse strings.... IMVVHO :)