Illustrator vs Corel Draw vs Inkscape vs Xara Xtreme

Hello! Welcome to open discussion.
There is old opininion that professional use only Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw, that these are the only choices.

But there are Xara and Inkscape - cheaper or freeware options.
Both have been developed for a long time.

Are they good enough to work on them to create professional illustrations, logos, etc ?
What do You think about that ? What are Illustrator advantages over these younger cousins ?

 

i've been using inkscape and i was very satisfied.

the good thing is: there is a big community. you can find many video tutorials and advanced users ready to help you. in the end of the day it is very easy and enjoyable program.

the bad thing: i've faced some instability issues at last version for windows.


personaly i started using inkscape (and gimp) because they were free, light footprint and opensource. adobe is still the leader but i dont regret the fact that i trusted the inskape (and gimp) so i hope you'll give them a try!

 

Definitely Illustrator followed by Corel. The Free ones currently lack simple features and workflow.

Corel has the most features though Illustrator is Adobe so it integrates into the whole CS4 package flawlessly.

 

well, I'm disappointed by the replies you got here, so I'll lay it all down nice and easy for you.

Adobe Illustrator is, and for the better part of a decade has been the leading vector app in the industry. You cannot go wrong with AI.

Corel Draw is a great piece of software, truly advanced. Corel almost went bankrupt though, thanks to Microsoft (Corel had released a version of linux and had ported their software to Linux providing a direct competitor to Microsoft's windows platform). Corel's doing fine now, and they have a rock-solid software suite that does everything you need it to (but onl windows only). However, even Corel uses Adobe's software to do their own promotions. that should say something.

As for Xara, apart from it being open-sourced and a fast renderer, I haven't done too much with it. I't not, nor has it ever been a major player in the industry, although, the codebase is supposed to be merged with inkscape in the future - kep your eyes open!

Inkscape is the hidden gem here. I know entire groups of professional designers who use Inkscape (even though they've purchased Illustrator) because even for all the money you pay for illustrator, Inkscape has better features. Inkscape has had RGBa colours for a long time, has advanced path effects and opens and saves SVG FAR better than AI. I personally use both AI and Inkscape daily, and often simultaneously, and it's funny how they fill in each others gaps.

AI is better with text, Inkscape is far superiour at general illustration (colouring, making icons, comics, illustrations). If I couldn't buy Illustrator, I could do just fine using Inkscape alone as a professionally trained designer.

This whole "it can't be as good, or else they'd be selling it" is flawed and false. Yes, good software requires money, but there are more ways to fund a software project than via sales. Google sponsors coders, people volunteer, and others make donations to the project, which allows for volunteer and paid work to be done, all the time. You have 24/7 free support, and if you go onto #inkscape on freenode, you can chat directly with the programmers and ask them your questions - something you could never do with an adobe product.

So, enough with the free software bashing already, it shouldn't hurt your ego that a free program is better than your paid app you bought - there's nothing stopping you from having both if it's free! I bought Illustrator because I wanted it, even though I had Inkscape, and it by no means has replaced Inkscape for me, but the advantages it does have for me are worth the amount I paid, so I'm happy, Adobe's happy, and Inkscape is happy.

also check out GIMP, even if you've got Photoshop - I still use both, each according to their strengths.

 

Hi! Innovati, I think you are right. Inkscape has better, handy interface nad is better than illustrator for drawing, bad when it goes to typing text. I have never used Corel so i will not talk to much about it.
Xara is interesting becouse it provide more text options.
So maybe good choice is Xara + Inkscape?

I'm still beginner so i depend on Your opinions. Have You use Xara or Corel? Maybe You can provide link to similar discussion or something?

 

I am playing with CDraw for last 9 years. I 've also prepared a video tutorials CD about some of it's options.

Now, I am making a video CD about Adobe Ilstr CS3 & during this I feel it a more powerful than CDraw... specially for transform & masking options. It is better to use it when we need to toggle between ilstr & PShop for more pixel based options.

I tried XARA Xtreme too & I feel it a good choice for logos etc as it have a powerful options about transparencies.

Good Luck!

 

Corel draw is good, and it allowed mixting of two spot-colours, something Adobe hadn't managed to pull off until CS4.

I wouldn't recommend you being a professional without Adobe's software. Inkscape is wonderful and you could sneak by with it if you're really smart, but Illustrator and Inkscape is the most powerful combo I can think of.

Nobody uses Xara. Like when I say nobody, I mean other than the fact that they stopped developing the open-source version for linux 2 years ago, I have never heard it mentioned. Oh, I've had it installed before and used it briefly, but it didn't provide any advantage over inkscape so I never bothered.

Don't use Xara and think you're on top of the world.

 

While 99% of the design community uses Illustrator, I go with Xara. Thanks to it's lightning fast speed, I'm able to deliver projects faster. So please keep promoting Adobe products as the only choice. It will allow me to secure even more clients. BTW, it exports to all Adobe formats, and about 15 others. If you have never used it, check out some videos on youtube. Versions start at $59 and the Xtreme Pro is about $299

 

I agree with innovati, then cry over the price of CS4 (for which I had to shell from my pockets)

 

Do you people think that designer's creativity should be limited by kind of software they use ?? From my humble opinion any software that SUIT to our condition, is the best. I used Illustrator, Photoshop, and Corel when designing, and I'm comfortable with it. However, other open source softwares (especially GIMP, Xara and FilmGimp/Blender3D) were also great programs we can use. I hardly think that the choice as well as our opinion about the best is depends on many factors like:

1. Do I can afford, or willing to buy non free products or not ??
2. Do I know well how to use any of those products.. (What the benefit of even the most expensive design software, if I can't use it optimally due to lack of knowledge about its features ??)
3. How easy we can find resources (like tutorials) for any particular products.

Believe me or not, a friend of mine in Indonesia running a small printing studio (mostly T-Shirt printing) and he only know how to design using POWERPOINT lol.... But yet many of His designs were awesome...

 

Illustrator is the best !!

 

There's a very simple and very big difference between Professional applications like Illustrator and consumer products like whatever freeware you care to mention. And this answer goes for any and all products. Professional tools are equipped with the things that professionals need. If you're an Illustrator, you're probably saying that Inkscape does all the illustrating you need. And I would quickly agree that this is more or less the case, but that's only a part of what Illustrator does, a small part I might say. What if after you finished illustrating your art in Inkscape, you also needed to color separate it, set traps, and provide some special backer plates? First, you might say, "huh?". After that you will quickly find that Inkscape doesn't now, and likely never will move in that direction. In other words, Illustrator and Coreldraw are powerful, professional tools, capable of getting the job done across multiple industries. People who never have illustrated a single piece in their lives make their living using Draw and Illustrator or Photoshop. For them, Illustrator is like a hammer, or a drill, not a paint brush. These advanced programs are not just "drawing" tools. Inkscape might not be far from that description though, and if all you need to do is draw, then Inkscape may be fine, though I'm sure there are countless advantages in Illustrator over Inkscape. At a glance, it couldn't possibly replace Illustrator or Corel Draw unless you're prepared to give up an awful lot just to use a free program. It would be nice, but Inkscape is not Draw and not Illustrator. And when you do the same comparison between Photoshop and Gimp the difference is even greater. If you're an Illustrator, then really, you can draw with anything. I've seen an amazing demonstration on youtube using Windows Paint! It's what happens after you finish your illustrations that is maybe getting overlooked.

 

Fore the price Illustrator seems to be the good one..
Inkscape rocks as a free one.
Very versatile tool...

 

Well, I can see that you pulled that one out of your ... No seriously, you don't know what you are saying. You said you used Xara briefly - that is why you said it was no good. If you were to use Xara extensively, you'd find out just how mistaken you really are. I've used CorelDraw, and could have written the manual for several versions, Illustrator from 1.1 on, and Inkscape, and when I started using Xara X, which was the first version I've used, I was convinced that it is THE superior vector program. Try zooming in 1600% and doing ANYTHING in Illustrator or Inkscape, or even CDraw. Not going to happen. Now I have Xtreme 6 Pro, and couldn't be much happier with it. This is not to say that those other programs aren't good, but rather that you can't know what you're talking about having only used Xara briefly. You REALLY should try it for an extended period, for a professional purpose, i.e., a contract. Do that without reverting to the ones you know, forcing yourself to work through the learning curve, and you will find that Xara Xtreme comes to be your favorite program.

I only wish they would continue producing the Mac OS X version!

 

Illustrator is the best for me!

 

Have you tried Xara? Don't believe what you hear from the Illustrator crowd. Xara knocks the socks off Illustrator. It is a COMPLETELY professional solution, at a fraction of the insane price the Adobe is charging.

 

Xara is the clear choice. Search for a side-by-side comparison. The proof is in the pudding, as they say. It's only a marketing thing, really. And a Macintosh/Windows thing. Xara actually makes Windows palatable.

 

Actually, what makes Windows "palatable" for me is running it on VMWare on my iMac. I gave up on Windows in 2006 on the advice of my daughter's boyfriend (later, husband) and purchased one of the first dual-core iMacs. Have you had any experience running Xara on a Mac? For that matter, is Xara Mac compatible? I'd never heard of it become stumbling across this forum. Anybody had any Mac experience using Xara? I'd love to hear about it before I plunk down some of my limited currency.

 

I tried using parallels/win7 on my macbook pro - not so good.

 

After speaking with my daughter -an IT type - my guess would be that perhaps your problems were less with Parallels and more with Windows 7. I've never used a Windows product later than XP 64 bit, and it has run flawlessly under VMWare on my iMac.

I went to the Xara site, and it seems everything they have is for Windows platforms. They do mention a version for Linux, but the last update I saw on that was from 2006. I have had, and used Adobe, but Adobe's customer service strikes me as something between that of the Postal Service and the IRS, in addition to their opinion of their product, ie, everything they sell is 24 karat gold. I'm currently using "Inkscape" as a substitute for "Illustrator" and I"m curious as to whether or not "Xara" might be a valid alternative. Or perhaps I should just put my efforts into becoming more proficient with Inkscape.