I sometimes think this of magix, but for slightly different reasons...
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I think Corel Draw is targeted to the embroidery, large graphic, t-shirt, sublimation markets. I used it and Xara in the '90s and early 2000. It was very good at using images across different products. I abandoned it because, at the time, only Xara could easily bend a line. Corel, then, had to convert a line into a different object. I still think it can't bend a line. My sublimation friends use it extensively.
There was a 320$ Cad offer for the whole suite when I visited, big price variation.
While I don't love the Corel Draw interface, they appear to be making useful improvements of creation tool.
It seems it becomes more and more difficult as a program mature to do so.
Attachment 127055
I wonder if Corel Draw 2020 is good.
Just like.. the problems are laid out in a way such that going around them is fun. Does this make sense?
BTW: Is there no disc version of it? CD 2020 is only "ESD"?
Edit: Oh, there is a disc version. Corel CDGS2020DEHMDP Amazon has it for 579,- EUR
And does CD 2019 need internet at all? Internet is not listed in the requirements on the Amazon page.
And the requirements list for CD 2020 has internet in it, for activation purpose.
So, CorelDRAW 2019 did really not need internet for activation? Or did Amazon Germany just forget to tell customers it needs internet?
The first and only reviewer seems not to like CD 2020 because of subscription model things.
I don't really get it.
---- Got an answer from Kamal from Corel.
CorelDRAW always requires internet connection for activation. Program requires for login email ID and password, which requires active internet connection.
-----
So, Amazon Germany just forgot to mention it and I was dreaming.
Still, activate once, use forever, offline. Only, ... that reviewer says, collaboration functions are not in then. But ... don't need collab, so that would be okay. Just need it to go from splash screen to main application, and things like that.
amazon are very much cavet emptor when it comes to the description of products - even the ones they supply themselves direct; there is a system in place to report errors
the same goes for their reviews, you have to be careful to check they actually refer to the specific product you are looking at
this from a prime meber who uses amazon a lot...
Sadly CorelDRAW is not what I was looking for anyway. I think I should not post the following, because it looks like I want to stretch a point or something.. but...
redacted version of my chat from just now
me: (I'm bad at creating english sentences)
[asking how often I need to go online with CorelDRAW]
Corel support: (exact words)
"you must connect at least once a month with CorelDRAW"
me: (exact words)
"Oh, and with 2019 version?"
Corel support: (exact words)
"with Any commercial version from Corel you need that"
-----
*sigh*
I was hoping it's not like that. I know from someone's online posting somewhere, that X6 or so could keep running (opening it, no updates, just drawing) virtually forever, I believe.
Anyway, they said 'once a month'. So... it's like Illustrator. It's no real problem.. just.. hm.. Windows 10 starts doing internet-things, install-things, I just ... just hate it. :o
you could try inkscape - you don't need activation for that and it's free
https://inkscape.org/
.... or if you prefer raster to vector krita, also free
https://krita.org/en/
Tried CorelDRAW 2020. Have Corel decided not to do anything about the artistic media tool? Or I am too dumb.
I can't parametrize any of the line profiles (have no wacom etc, guess it would take line width input from it), so the least I would want is to convert the line thing to shapes so that I can adjust line thinkness by hand. But CTRL+K does not break apart any artistic media into shapes, it does nothing, and I can't find any option like that. So all it offers is line thinkness doing things between [0 and 1] instead of let's say [0.3 and 1]?
Also, it drops down the artistic media drop-down do upwards outside the screen. I mean... it also displays the first entry to the left, the others to the right. And I cannot see what it offers, because the GUI is broken.
When it's like this I could just use Inkscape, also only offers constant line profiles.
Attachment 127453
Also, I tried to use no feather, because I guess it's a slow effect, but the right shadow on the smurf house is done with a huge blur effect thing via feather, so I hope it's not slow. It's weird that the highlight thingy on the left side of the blue house body is doable with a elliptical transparency, but the anti-thing on the right side just won't ever look okay with any of the transparency tools, so I used the feather-feature.
In Inkscape all blur things are very slow. But actually if it works in CorelDRAW I could just ignore any of my prejudices about how fast it is.
I have not understood the line thing in CorelDRAW in 2004 and now it's the same, I have no clue. Need to find "break apart media" somewhere.
in inkscape if you press the left or right cursor key [arrow] on the keyboard as you draw, the line width will change - this does take some getting used to...
corel will break shapes apart but you need to 'convert to curves' first and then 'break curves apart'