Comment by Razengan | Hacker News Reader

Comment by Razengan | Hacker News Reader

I still remember the joy of receiving my first app on CD – CorelDRAW 5 I think – and discovering it required Windows 95, and then upgrading from 3.11 just to use that app..

Until I switched to macOS, I had always preferred CorelDRAW and Corel Photo-Paint over Adobe's stuff, because Corel felt more at home in the Windows GUI, whereas Photoshop still seemed to lean towards Mac UI conventions. Corel's tools were also more intuitive in general (drawing vector curves with the mouse was especially easier in DRAW than Illustrator, thought I cannot specifically remember why.)

Now, on the Mac, I prefer Pixelmator and Affinity etc. over Adobe because they feel more at home in macOS...

I also found Bézier curve drawing more straightforward in CorelDRAW! than in Illustrator. I made the shift so long ago that I can’t remember the specifics, but the main difference was that Corel let you more easily switch among the modes for a point: cusp vs. smooth, split handles vs. symmetric, move mode vs. draw mode, etc.

There’s a learning curve you can get past that makes this difference go away, and it’s mainly down to grooving the modifier keys into finger memory. Once you stop consciously thinking “hold Command to switch from pen to white arrow mode” and such, you can work just as fast in Illustrator.

Illustrator helps teach you the modifier keys by changing the cursor as you hold down the modifiers. So, the next time you get stuck, just press them down one at a time until you get a cursor that looks like it should do what you want and see if it helps.

For people who are used to the Corel method, Inkscape works almost exactly the same.

I personally could never get used to the Illustrator way.

Corel also used to officially support and allow sales of earlier versions of CorelDRAW i.e. If you didn't need the latest version of the programme, you could buy the cheaper, discounted earlier version.

Though, I still wish there were some modern apps that mimicked the workflow of Deluxe Paint. :)

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