CorelDraw vs Layout

Dennis_n · 28 Mar 2011, 01:53

How would you compare the new Layout to CorelDraw?
Does CorlDraw has any advantages these days?

jason_maranto · 28 Mar 2011, 02:20

Layout has a number of advantages but also some disadvantages -- a few prominent ones that come to mind are:

A real lack of sophisticated fill/stroke options
No compound shapes (shapes with holes)
No support for text as shapes
No Blending Modes
If you are on a PC no CYMK support

There are others that may be more important to you, I think the most bothersome issue to me is no support for common vector files formats to import objects from other packages which eliminates alot of the vector clip art out there from being useful... which is a total deal breaker for alot of graphics people.

That said I do love it and hope it overcomes these issues soon as I would love to make it my primary vector app.

Best,
Jason.

JuanV.Soler · 28 Mar 2011, 19:21

There is one important function for me that CorelDraw has and Layout 3 still does not and that is the ability to insert PDF and DWG files directly.

Dennis_n · 29 Mar 2011, 02:16

How about large presentations. I'm talking about 100+ pages. Can Layout handle that. I know that is the worst thing about Corel: I can get 20 pages or so and then it is dead. So I have to break my presentations into several files. Needless to say that sharing the master page is not simple.

Also, Seems like there is a general dismay towards the Layout when compared to Corel Draw. Now, is there anything that Layout does better except linking the SU?

jason_maranto · 29 Mar 2011, 16:19

Well certainly do not downplay the significance of the SU integration as that is the centerpiece of the software.

In all honesty I see if more being analogous to Quark or InDesign than illustration packages like Corel Draw... and it can handle longer documents (text to page flow controls are non-existent here) but would have to be handled in the same ways as a page layout software meaning low-rez renders of all the linked SU files. This works fine for print output where you can specify to output at high rez but if you want to use Layout's presentation features that would not be something I would recommend.

The interface is very nicely designed and the tools are powerful and compact -- I mostly think of Layout 3 as Layout 2 because the first was really a Beta... from that point of view I think it is slicker and more capable than either Corel Draw or Adobe Illustrator were in their early versions.

There is a creeping "feature bloat" that has taken over the older packages that really becomes tiresome when most of the old tools are the ones still used most anyway... I know they have sell new versions but mostly the new features are there for the gee whiz factor and the meat and potatoes is stuff that has existed largely unchanged for over a decade.

Best,
Jason.

Anssi · 29 Mar 2011, 21:08

If I am making a publication where I must combine many kinds of material and SketchUp appears only as renders, and the material is unlikely to change, then I use InDesign or Illustrator, but for a presentation of a SU design, especially if design changes are likely to happen, LayOut has proven very useful to me, as updating the model is a snap, compared to outputting every view as a separate image or drawing file, postprocessing these to fit the publication, and adjusting every page for the inevitable glitches appearing in the process.

Anssi