Re: Doing your own graphics

[David Jones/KSBEISD <David_Jones/KSBEISD -dot- KSBEISD -at- DATAHUB -dot- COM>]

Marta kindly said:
>John Posada wanted to know about graphics programs.
I like CorelDRAW, but I stick to version 3.0.  It's robust and has all the
features I need.  Corel 4.0 was full of bugs, and the patch was 7 disks.  As
well, when I first installed it (pre-patch) it overwrote all of Word 6's OLE2
.DLLs, and I had a huge a problem when suddenly Word started acting up. I've
tried version 5.0 on a Pentium 90 w/ 32MB RAM, and any program that takes over
3 minutes to load on a machine like that is more trouble than it's worth.
Version 3.0 is my all-time favorite (I don't know if you can still get
it--though if you can, the price should be right, as I understand version 6.0
is now out...)<
   CD3 is still available -- it is Corel's entry in the low-end graphics
market. Check Tiger Software or any of your favorite software sources. I've
seen prices from $49-69, less for the CDROM-only version. I've also seen it
(also CD4) bundled with some scanner packages.
   Corel has announced no plans to drop CD3. They seem to be using the
different versions to fill different price points -- CD3 <$100, CD4 < $150, CD5
< $200 or $250, CD6 at the high end. (Personally, I think that when CD6 gets
established, or they finally come out with a W31 version, CD4 will vanish and
CD5 will slide down into it's present price point. I know if I was on their
support staff, I'd be fighting to bury CD4 as soon as possible.)
   CorelDraw 6 has been out for a while now. Sales have been slow because they
only have a W95 version, and a lot fewer people have switched to W95 than MS
led Corel to expect. CD6 is faster than CD5, which is good, but consumes a lot
more memory and disk space. I wouldn't want to run it on anything less than a
P133 with 32MB. I would recommend even more memory if you work with complex
illustrations, or like to OLE link CDR images into other apps. I would also
recommend really researching any video card used with CD. PC World uses CD3 as
part of its video card test suite, and some display adaptors work much better
with CD3 than others do.
   Another tool to check out is CorelXara. It's a combined illustration/paint
program, like Canvas. I understand it is *very fast*. It was *not* a Corel
product -- they bought it from someone else. (Part of CD's performance
problems, I think, can be traced to low-performing graphics library routines.
Micrographx Designer has always run rings around CD, because Micrographx began
life as a company supplying high-performance graphics libraries.)
   I'm a confirmed CD addict, began with CD 1.0, but I've drawn the line at
CD3. CD4 is the world's third largest bug (Xerox Ventura Publisher 3.0 for
Windows 3.0 is the second largest). CD5 seems to be (mostly) bug free, but far
too slow to use on my 486 boxes. CD6 is W95 only (I don't feel like taking an
OS downgrade to run it) and is still far too slow to use on my 486 boxes. If
you're already running W95, CD3 works well (unless long name support is your
definitive requirement).
   Just my verbose opinions -- sorry for the length.
   I am checking into CorelXara, particularly for work on Web stuff. Anyone
have any experience with CorelXara? I'd appreciate any related mail.
   BTW, Corel has announced a version for Mac, finally. Don't know what release
level it is, but it would be interesting to compare the two platforms.

David Jones, Technical Writer
David_Jones/KSBEISD -dot- KSBEISD -at- Datahub -dot- com
Kamehameha Schools Bishop Estate

DISCLAIMER:
"I do not speak for my employer, my computer, or any other living thing."

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