Corel Draw has some fans out there, but Corel burned users with horribly buggy releases for so long that many people just don't care anymore. For several versions it was not possible to draw a solid 45 degree line! I'm pretty sure that angry users even filed a class action over Corel Draw 5. Anyway, Illustrator and Freehand got so busy trying to outdo each other that most people pretty much forgot about Corel Draw.

As for Ventura, I've never heard of anybody actually using it, and never seen it on the list of formats that most printers accept. Given how much trouble designers have just getting printers to accept the latest Quark and InDesign files you might want to talk to your regular printer and find out if they can even use Ventura files.

If you're only getting it to save money, just bite the bullet and get the Adobe Creative Suite. Between the fonts and the software, it's worth every penny.

I use Corel Draw, simply because I've been using it since version 8, and every time I try to use Illustrator, I get frustrated by little details (e.g. keyboard shortcuts) that are different.

I hate Corel for its lack of support of OpenType features. If you want to use any ligatures, etc., you have to insert them manually. It's a pain.

If you're starting from scratch, don't go with Corel, or at least wait until they support OpenType properly... which might be a while.

- Lex

I use Draw too, since version 10.

I have been using Corel since the version 3 and I can say it had its ups and downs. Not mentioning version 6 that was a pain in the ass - especially the Czech translation, I had no major problems with Corel. It is true, that until the version 10 it was almost impossible to "snap to objects". Also version 10 and 11 used so many system resources, that my CPU ran on 95% almost all the time. Right now I am using the version 12 and I am very satisfied. I can do any graphics in no time. I've tried probably all other DTP programs (even the Linux ones :) just out of curiosity (always looking for something better :), but everytime I switched back to Corel. It just suites me better. It's easy, intuitive and doesn't force me to do things the way I don't want to.

I think that it is not a graphic program that makes a goot graphics designer. I could show you my old man's designs he did in Corel 3 and you could say if you were able to do it in the latest releases of the best DTP programs.

"The reason I ask is that I would like to get a decent DTP package and Corel is way more affordable, especially with their special pricing for non-profits."

Adobe recently started offering non-profit discounts. These may or may not be available to you depending on the type of non-profit and where you live.

TechSoup is one example of where you can find such discounts.

I used to work on Corel Draw for vector graphics and light layouts but since I switched to an employee position (with macs which don't run Corel) a year ago I have been usind Illustrator. I have started to like Illustrator a bit more than Corel but I still think that Illustrator might learn a couple of things from Corel such as:

* Selection of objects can be done in the Illustrator way (being touched by the frame) or the Corel way (being inside the frame only) you switch by depressing a key only. Sometimes it's a real pain to select objects in Illustrator.

* BCPs are so tiny and hard to select in Illustrator it really desperates me. Corel has a better way of selecting and editing BCPs.

* Corel has graphic handles for tracking, word spacing, kerning and leading in the artistic text mode so it's very easy to adjust logos, headlines and type tricks.

* Corel has a very practical way of joining and breaking apart paragraphs, sentences, words and glyphs so it's ver easy to play with type as well.

* Corel has a much more practical way of handling vector objects than illustrator's pathfinder.

* Shortcuts are better in Corel.

* Lining, arranging and grouping objects seemed easier in Corel to me.

On the other hand transparency sucks, paragraph type control is hard, no open type support, it crashes a bit more and bitmap effects are bad. However being the economical situation in México as it is, Corel remains a very popular program and many respectable designers use it.

Corel Ventura, I've never tried it.

Héctor

I've been using Corel Draw for drawing since version 1.2 back in 1990 or 1991. I have version X3 now, and I sometimes use it for drawing shapes. I've been trying to move to Illustrator completely, but I still find Corel's drawing interface *far* superior. I sometimes keep moving work back and forth between Corel and Illustrator.

However, it should be noted that I'm not a full-time illustrator or anything like that.

A.

I'm trying to make the switch to Adobe after using Corel Draw and Ventura Publisher for the past 17 years. Any Mac-head will tell you that Adobe is far superior. Advice: don't listen to them. They've never used Corel so they don't know. I'm amazed at how much InDesign lacks when compared to Ventura Publisher. Here's just a few examples:

• Corel Ventura can vary the widths of individual column within a frame. Column widths within a frame must be of identical value with InDesign. This is an unbelievable fact to me.

• Paragraph breaks. Corel allows for 'No Break' paragraphs meaning that entire paragraphs can sit side by side within the same text frame. This eliminates the need for columns or threaded frames in Ventura (it's still available, just not needed). Surprisingly this feature dramatically streamlines your work.

• Document navigation is far better in Corel Ventura. Ventura embeds chapters into one vp file and lists the chapters in it's navigator window. A simple click takes you to that document. InDesign requires a separate document file for each chapter. (Ugh - a MAJOR disappointment).

• Interface. Corel relies heavily on dynamic context menus/pop up windows. This removes a lot of the clutter found with the InDesign interface. Additionally, Ventura let's you edit several paragraph styles without having to close and re-open another dialog box.

• Ventura is considerably faster with long documents.

CS3 is far better with color, especially spot colors. Ventura has a hard time with spot color bitmap files. A huge turn-off for print shops.

Corel's biggest mistake is the fact that it's only on Windows. Since the vast majority of graphic designers are Mac based, Corel automatically reduced their fair share of the market thus eliminating any consideration as a competitive graphics package. A real shame seeing how much has gone into that program.

If you're looking for something easy (actually kinda fun) with lots of features, then Corel is your answer. Well worth the value. Adobe has room to grow and I'm sure a lot can be expected of them in the next few years.

I have Corel Draw and Photo-Paint 11 on my Mac. It came in a $99 bundle with Bryce 5, Toon Boom Express and a bunch of Bitstream fonts. It has gotten me over a hump while I've been unable to afford my Adobe upgrades, but the damn thing explodes if I try to enter anything from the character pallette.

Why Corel abandoned further revisions on the Mac I don't know. It would seem that the merger of Adobe and Macromedia (with the death of Freehand) would be a window of opportunity for them. Did they really expect that they would instantly sell more than 3-10% the copies for MacOS than they do for Windows, when another company dominated that market segment and there are only 3-10% Macs out there anyway?

At least Corel is still porting Painter. *sigh*

I used Corel since version 3 (!!!!!) and got so used to it (currently on V12, haven't installed X3 yet) I can't switch to anything else.

I thought it would be easy for me to switch to Illustrator, because I consider myself (toward) expert user of Photoshop. But no. Corel stayed with me.

I agree Corel had many probelems with huge bugs, but latest versions (after 10/11) are stable enough to work with. I got used to set Auto-save to a 5 minute interval. :) But seriously 12 doesn't crash that often. Compared to Adobe products that I use (Photoshop/InDesign) is still much more unstable. But not to a point where it would interfere with my work.

When I used Corel, I thought it rocked, but I'd much rather use Illustrator. Some times, one needs to move on....

We used to use Ventura to publish our monthly journal. It was very unstable, and would crash several times a day. We got to know some of the things to avoid doing—that is, things that would always bring it down. Anyhow, we upgraded to InDesign, and find it ever so much more versatile and stable. It beats Ventura in every department, especially typography and graphics.

I like the similarity of tools in the Adobe programs. Shifting from Illustrator to InDesign is easy. Since I do article with a lot of fonts I wish there were keystrokes that could return the fonts in use when going from subheads to text and display.

Adam,

I'm a corel user from v.2 and agree with a basic issue for a typedesigner: Vectors controls are very superior and easier in Corel.
So why Fontlab doesn't copy-paste so easy with Corel vectors as Illustrator does? Why the clipboard from a Corel doesn't fit as a vector in FL?
What I do? I draw in Corel and "have to" export the file to Illustrator and then, to FL...

L.Cardinali

On Corel since version 3.
The rule used to be; avoid even number releases.

The rule used to be; avoid even number releases.

Hmm, the inverse of the Star Trek movies, huh?