Adobe vs Alternatives

[MyCoalescen]

Im graduating with my BFA in graphic design in july. Ive become dissatisfied with adobe move to stop making perpetual license software. I own no creative software and am a blank slate so upgrading does not matter to me. Ive used adobe products mostly illstrator, photoshop and indesign for 10 years since high school. Ive done research on many companies and programs and my top picks are adobe, corel and xara. Suggest anything you think is a good replacement to adobe.

How does xara compare to adobe and its products? Im looking for a company that provides at least a few good alternatives to adobe. I know xara and corel can both import/export AI/PSD which only a few programs can do. I also like both companies web sites and the look of their products.

Im starting the xara trial version very soon. Can xara compete with illustrator, photoshop and indesign?

Corel looks like the next best to adobe but who knows maybe its Xara or some one else. Its harder to find information on xara than corel. Im asking around the forums of different companies to have customers give me honest feedback on their software. Tell me the good and bad about xara and other companies. Im not decided on who I will go with but it will not be adobe CC (cash cow). I have till july to make up my mind and want to see what companies do in next few months. New editions, offers, reacting to the market/customers and giving me a reason to look at them. Unless Corel and Xara have some epic fails i will probably switch to them but may still get a student edition (which is allowed for commercial use) of adobe design standard for 450$ as a back up or expensive file converter and get the best of both worlds but would prefer not to. Many have sworn to use CS6 till it dies so probably the next 1-3 years.

[Cloud]

If you are going it alone and setting up your own company than I would recommend Corel, the only thing that let corel down in the past was the colour output, with the latest version it's colour output is as good as the adobe lot. If you are thinking of working for someone then they will be using adobe (all our designers use adobe products) , I have used both corel and adobe since I was a teenager (24 years or so) and I personaly prefer coreldraw to illustrator but photoshop is a whole different level to anything else out there.

If you supply files to a printer then corel is the best option after adobe. 99% of the designer who supply artwork to us for printing are sending pdf files created adobe products, the remaining 1% is mostly coreldraw. I have not used xara for print work but I think you will find that it is certainly not in the same league as indesign.

For us as a company which takes on work from designers, having the latest version of adobe products is a must, we have always had to purchase the latest version and the new system is fine by us but I know many, many designers who have nothing but negative things to say about creative cloud, having said that they are all paying up as there is no credible alternative out there; yet..

[gwpriester]

I graduated from Art Center College of Design in Los Angeles (many many years ago).

I worked in advertising for 15 years and had my own graphic design company in San Francisco for 12 years.

I currently work on my own, and have written graphics software reviews for over a decade for Communication Arts Magazine.

I started using CorelDRAW in 1990. But in 1996 I switched to Xara and NetObjects Fusion.

Today I use Xara Designer Pro X9. I use it for everything, from website design, to logos, to print advertising, to collateral. It does everything I need. And I have never had any issues with printers or publications with my PDF/X files.

[pauland]

MyCoalescen, what are your career plans?

Are you working alone or with others?

Are you looking to join an established design firm or start your own?

If you are starting your own, who will your customers be and what services do you intend to offer?

You've had good advice, but really the best solution depends on how you intend to work and your plans.

[MyCoalescen]

MyCoalescen, what are your career plans? Be a full time graphic designer, eventually after years work from home most of the time or freelance

Are you working alone or with others? Im a student currently. I would plan to work with others as maybe a design/advertising agency.

Are you looking to join an established design firm or start your own? Im looking to join a design firm and maybe in the future start my own small business.

If you are starting your own, who will your customers be and what services do you intend to offer? Not 100% sure but hoping I will find my place after a few years of work. I like branding a lot.

You've had good advice, but really the best solution depends on how you intend to work and your plans. I would like to work for maybe a small team/company. I worked for ups in warehousing for 6 years. Hated doing the same thing everyday and the bureaucracy of the huge company. Think I would like something smaller where Im a valued employee not just a number.

I plan to move to a medium size near my wife's home when i graduate. Get work for a design firm. Work there a few years and get some experience and connections. Move to my wife's close but tiny home town, work from home and/or freelance work and go to town a few times a week if needed to meet with clients or printers ect.

Thank you all for the advise it does help. I will be taking a good look at corel and xaras trials. I dont want to be chained at least not at this point to a subscription like adobe cc. I also dont want cs6 which will be 2 years old when i graduate and be more than broken in when I get it. cs6 has no future moving forward so I wants what has a future but also allows a past. CC has a future but does not allow a past when you leave as in no perpetual license. Im sure by 2020 most software including operating systems will be by subscription only. Luckily several things have to happen with hardware and internet connections to allow for such a huge undertaking. I would like to put that off as long as reasonably as possible.

I see adobe as a Greek tragedy. The hero eventually after long hard struggles achieves their goal and all cheer them on. In time they start to become arrogant and vane. In time they turn on those who cheered them on and fall and take them selves down and all their loved ones with them. That is a possible turning point I see adobe at. If it does not make some big changes sooner rather than later it could do what quark did and alienate its customers and they flee to their enemies. As I already am looking to do... Adobe rise was epic and its fall would have to be equally epic.

[zaphodeist]

Like the last paragraph! Very good analogy. Also like the way you're thinking ahead, things change so rapidly in your line of career and you're aware of that. As an outsider I would suggest that if you are going to be solo then find the program you work best with but if you will be part of a team I suspect that Adobe will stay as the default, though there will be more latitude hopefully.