corel or adobe

[Frank barry]

First of all thank you all for the forum I have learnt so much

I haven’t bought my laser yet but am down to 3 manufactures in china [as I need to keep my costs down]

I don’t have the software yet and was wondering which as best Corel or adobe

Software is so expensive

Do I need the most up to date version

Can anyone suggest where I could buy at a good price

Thanks in advance

[Michael Hunter]

Corel Draw is the most popular, so you will get the most help with this if you need it.

Although I would recommend getting and learning the latest version (X6.1), earlier versions will be fine for lasering.
I still use X3 to drive my laser, though I have X6 in the office.

The downsides of X3 are that there is no upgrade path (you would need to buy the full version of X6 if you decided later that you needed it) and you would also need to download patches to get it to work with Windows 7 (and possibly Vista - I cannot remember now). The "tracing" functions are better in X4 and above.
If you are on Windows 8, then you need to do some research on the Corel site to find out which versions work/can be made to work.

[john banks]

Corel is cheaper and capable for a laser and it is probably this that makes it more popular than Illustrator which many argue is "better", but for a laser you don't often need anything like a recent version, sometimes you can find offers that give you valuable software free in return for a trial or purchase of a much cheaper product or service.

Consider the free Inkscape.

[Joe Hillmann]

I am still using corelDraw 11. Since I only use it for printing to my lasers I probably don't uses about 90% of the functions that it has. You can find corel 11 on ebay for $50 buy it now price so if you are trying to keep within a budget that may be a route you could look at. Of course I have never used anything newer than 11, if I had I may think that 11 is obsolete .

[Martin Boekers]

One thing to remember if you get an older vesion of Corel is you have to make sure if people send you files
they have to be for your version or earlier. Most here are aware of that and save it "downed" to lower versions.

Sign up for emails alerts from Corel they always have a sale going on so don't pay full retail.

Corel also has a photo editing software Photo Paint included with the software so you can do editing too.

There are "open Source" programs out there, I can't speak for them, others here might. Gimp (similar to Photo Shop, Photo Paint) Inkscape (similar to Illustrator, Corel Draw)
But they are free.

Welcome aboard!

[Michael Hunter]

Joe -
I did not mention V11 in my previous post because X3 is so much better in many ways.
(I've been using Corel since V6, but had V11 when I bought the laser and was EXTREMELY pleased when I upgraded to X3)

I still prefer X3 to X6 for most things, but use X6 for file transfer and tracing.
X6 is quite a lot slower than X3 on my machine - I think that they wrote it assuming the latest whizzy processors.

[Steven Cox]

I'm a bit old school, I've been using corel since version 3 when corel installed from half a dozen floppies. Nowadays its much faster and can do more things. Over the years I've used Photoshop for all image work and then corel for all layouts and final production. I know corel has photopaint but I could never get into it and much prefered Photoshop. On the corel side of things though I've used it commercially for over 25 years in printing, signwriting, graphic design and more recently running the laser. For layouts I couldn't (or wouldn't more to the point) use anything else!..... Yep I'm old school and hate change but love corel!.

[Jeff Greer]

I just started using Corel in August and am 100% self taught - stinks but that is the way it goes. I ran MasterCam X5 CNC programming software for a living before changing careers and I started on Corel 11 and hated it as MasterCam that I was use too was much more user friendly for wire frame work. I upgraded to X6 once I bought the company and X6 is vastly nicer to use then 11 as it has simple snap to features and drag functions that I was use to in MasterCam that made it easier to get around. Little things but when you are use to them and then you dont have them - killer... I hear illustrator is the way to go if you are a graphic artist thou.

[David Fairfield]

I use both Corel and Adobe Illustrator. For me, AI is superior, or as I like to say, working in Corel is like working with Adobe with a sinus headache. Corel costs less, and does less, but it should do what you need for laser engraving. But AI is truly a joy to use, once past the learning curve.

Dave

[Talley Boatwright]

I switched from Adobe CS3 Suite to CorelDraw X4 then to X5 Corel Designer Technical Suite. Leave X6 alone...it has bad glitches and does not run well on 64 bit. I stay with 32 bit and nice size HDD. You will find more compatibility with Corel vs Adobe Illustrator. Try looking up tutorials, how to setup laser files in Illustrator compared to Corel.
Is Adobe powerful? Not doubt but Corel is as well and equipment compatible.

[David Fairfield]

Just a note regarding compatibility, Illustrator and Epilog play nicely with each other nowadays. The old (2005?) Epilog driver was not compatible with Illustrator without a bunch of workarounds, the new Epilog driver runs it flawlessly.

-Dave

[Mike Null]

I've been using Corel since version 8 or about 16 years. I haven't found anything i want to do that I can't do with Corel. It is the standard for the engraving industry if that means anything to you.

I also have Engravlab which cost 5 times as much as Corel and I hate it--but must use it to operate another piece of equipment.

[Frank barry]

thanks to all of you

Dave your comment is very interesting that different software works better with one machine and not with another

I taught you would use either adobe or CorelDraw for design then send it to the software in the laser and let the machine run on whatever software it comes
with I can see now it is not that simple

I do plan to buy from China

[Ronald Erickson]

<snip> Leave X6 alone...it has bad glitches and does not run well on 64 bit. I stay with 32 bit and nice size HDD. <snip>

I've been running CorelDRAW X6 64-bit on Windows 7 for 3 months now without issue. I have a modern PC (i7-2600k, 16gb ram, SSD primary/OS drive with a mechanical Data drive) and have not experienced any performance issues or glitches. Based on my experience I would have to wonder what problems people are actually having with X6 64-bit?..

I wouldn't hesitate to recommend X6 64-bit if you're running modern equipment (again, based on my experience).

[Mark Ross]

We got Corel 6 off Ebay for less than 100 brand new, sealed, not an upgrade. Took a few days to win an auction at what we wanted to pay, but it was worth it.