OK, you win CS4 or X4???

[Dave Johnson29]

Hi people,

I am going to bite the bullet and spring for some later Corel or PhotoShop. I keep seeing a lot of add-ons for PS so am leaning towards it.

I'd like some collective wisdom to guide me please. :) I cannot afford both. I can print to my laser from anything so it does not have to be Corel.

[Lee DeRaud]

The X4 suite is more versatile: Photoshop is better than Corel PhotoPaint for hardcore photo manipulation, but it can't do vector graphics. Unless you can get a really good price on a Photoshop/Illustrator combo, this is a no-brainer.

[andy blackett]

I'm with Lee for an all round package you cant beat corel x4, you can still get loads of add ons (eye candy filters are my favourite!)

Vector wise I've not found any better than corel draw, we've got signlab but its almost redundant now.

Everyone to their own favourite though

Andy

[Frank Corker]

Corel. Photoshop is well overated, uncecessarily over complicated, if I had to get rid of mine right now I probably would'nt even miss it. Take away my Corel and I'd be devastated. It's a 'no brainer' question.

[Doug Griffith]

CS4 assuming your talking the creative suite and not just Photoshop. I'm still at CS3 and couldn't live without it.

There is a reason why Adobe products are so embedded in the professional graphics industry. Power. I'll take a Ferrari any day over a VW.

I have a brain.
Doug

[Larry Bratton]

I use both. I find Photoshop to be very valuable for editing photos before laser and making documents for printing. I have a Canon wide format printer that came with a plugin for CS3 that allows printing directly from Photoshop to the Canon. I find myself using both programs sometimes to produce graphics for the laser. I prefer Corel Draw for outputting to the laser and Corel is the greatest for vectors. Both of these programs have pretty steep learning curves, but if you can afford it, get both. Learn to use them and you'll find that proficiency in both of them is very useful.

[Scott Shepherd]

Depends on what you plan on doing with it.

If you want to share files and have people help you, and be able to use files people post here to share, then Corel would benefit you more. If you don't plan on sharing much and don't need the help of others often, then the Adobe platform is very powerful.

Doug and a small number of others are the only help here you'll have (and they are always more than willing to help). If you want to post a question and get an answer quickly, then you'll have more luck with Corel.

Again, not sure what you plan on doing with it, but from the help side, interacting with the laser, you have a lot more help on one side than the other.

[Lee DeRaud]

CS4 assuming your talking the creative suite and not just Photoshop. I'm still at CS3 and couldn't live without it.

There is a reason why Adobe products are so embedded in the professional graphics industry. Power. I'll take a Ferrari any day over a VW.

I have a brain.
DougCS (including Illustrator) vs Corel X4 is a whole different question.

Although when someone says "I can't afford both" and one is 3X the price of the other...

[James Stokes]

Instead of photoshop I would get Photoimpact x-3 It is much more user friendly. Also the newest version is only like 89 dollars. It does every thing photoshop does. I have all of the programs. The ones I use most in order, Corel draw, PhotoImpact and Autocad.

[Hilton Lister]

I'm still back in the dark ages, using X3 I guess. Value for money, it's got to be Coreldraw. Being in a retail situation,
we very seldom do any graphic creation. It's mostly just importing/converting customer graphics or logo. Some adobe users give the impression that they must do better work than non users because they use CS3 etc. And it's not just here that it happens, but commonly throughout professional graphic artists/designers field.
However, give me the VW any day over the Ferrari. My investment is far less and I can afford to run it.

[Mike Null]

Corel is compatible with every piece of equipment I have including my vinyl cutter.

My customers send files in all formats and Corel will open 90% or more of them.

I don't do a lot of photo work so PhotoPaint is adequate for my needs.

[Wil Lambert]

I own both and would get Corel for laser work first. There has not been mush that Corel can't do.

I own Adobe CS because of Photoshop and a lot of my design customers use CS products. Most of the work in CS is for non-laser customer work.

Wil

[Dave Johnson29]

Hi All,

Thanks for the rapid and decisive views.

Then X4 it is. I have been using Corel since v5 and quit upgrading at 10 but the constant flood of Corel 12 to X4 and later files has me twitchy to see them. I know we had this discussion recently and I could ask for them to be converted to v10, but I am just not comfortable asking all the time.

The only issue is I now have to upgrade my operating system as X4 will only run on XP and Vista and my muscle-bound (dual-core etc) desktop is still on w2k. Kicking and screaming I guess I have to go to XP at least or use X4 on the portable with Vista.
Decisions, decisions.

[Garrick Crocker]

I think that having experience will also help you. Making a change now is hard. I also found that CS only worked well with a really powerful computer. Corel is more forgiving of the hardware.