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As most of you know I have been a Corel user since it was first released in '88. I have heard many complaints and how hard it is to learn and how much better illustrator is and so on. Last year Corel designers went around the world and worked with designers to come up with a sweet program. The biggest thing that they received out of the tour was to take what they had add a few things and de bug it! Being one of the designers that they used and then helping with the beta test I can tell you they have released the cleanest version so far.We are running windows XP Pro and I have not had it crash in the past week since I received it. I just finished re designing our website using the whole Graphic Suite to edit the photos and it worked great.
If you have any questions let me know and I can help you out.
If your websites are testament to Corel, then I am sold! Love your design and signage work - fantastic job.
Forgive my ignorance (no way of checking at the moment)...do we do any business together? Feel free to carry the conversation on by e-mail or telephone if you think it would be more appropriate.
One last thing: Are you planning on Coming to ConSAC this year? We have something X-TREME in the works for you if you are...visit our website for details.
-------------------- Jon Aston MARKETING PARTNERS "Strategy, Marketing and Business Development" Tel 705-719-9209 Posts: 1724 | From: Barrie, ON, CANADA | Registered: Sep 2000
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So many of us who have purchased numerous upgrades should be overjoyed at a chance to ante up one more time for a version that finally is bug free? At around $250 US no doubt. I will pass Doug, and looking at the new features doesn't tempt me in least either.
-------------------- Wright Signs Wyandotte, Michigan Posts: 2785 | From: Wyandotte, MI USA | Registered: Jan 1999
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I tend to agree with David on this one. A case of to little to late. I have to wonder why now all of a sudden has the quality of the product suddenly become important. Might it have something to do with the worsening economic times and competition forces threatening to hamper sales?
I don't know but I don't want to add up my total investment over the past ten years due to upgrades. I do have to say though that all in all, I still like the program even with its minor bugs but I'll stay with my current ver.9 until I find ver.11 on ebay a year from now for $49.00
-------------------- Bob Stephens Skywatch Signs Zephyrhills, FL
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Doug's designs have to be some of the best you will ever see. He has a tremendous ability to use his creativity in a wide range of applications.
While I'm sure that Corel 11 is a fantastic piece of software, it is not Corel that produces what you see on Doug's website, but what Doug has in his head (and heart). They haven't invented software yet that will design....they just do what you tell them to do.
Congratulations Doug on an awesome site and examples of what the rest of us try to achieve.
Now, I have to go coat out some boards.
-------------------- Chapman Sign Studio Temple, Texas chapmanstudio@sbcglobal.net Posts: 6306 | From: Temple, Texas, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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One noteworthy feature of the CorelDRAW 11 suite is its cross-platform nature. The Mac (OS X) and PC versions are together on the same CD, for the first time ever. Have a Mac at home and a PC at work, or a PC at home and Mac at work? CorelDRAW 11 just doubled your productivity time.
Corel’s website for artists, www.designer.com, also got a facelift, it seems.
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Hi Doug, Gotta say that the others are certainly right about the talent part! I've been using SignLab Colormaster since 4.95 and just installed the latest upgrade to e6.1 which has added a whole new light to the way I do business. I also use the latest versions of PhotoShop, Illustrator, and InDesign...mostly because they are what I started on and am most familiar with. I've had Corel 8.0 on my computor simply for those folks who would bring in files from Corel, and cause a good friend of mine "RON" keeps persuading me to Convert to Corel. My daughter, who also has a pretty good command of all this software, espressed a desire to check out the new Corel 11, so we got her an Achidemic version and I must say I having a hard time getting on the computer at home, and when she comes down to work after school, all I here is, "Dad, you gotta bring Corel 11 into the shop!" So I've been messing with it at home in my spare time, HA-HA, and I actualy like it. While it is not my main stream software, it is another tool to add to the box and explore its potentual. Robin
-------------------- Robin Sharrard Sharrard Graphics & Sign Fallon, Nevada rds@phonewave.net "Proud $$$ Supporter" Posts: 282 | From: Fallon, Nevda, USA | Registered: Feb 1999
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Corel hasn't crashed in an entire week? Man, that's gotta be awesome!
Too funny.
By the way...Raymond's statement about computers not doing a lick of the designing is so right. I think it can safely be said that no program will ever include a "make me a great design" button. I've seen horrible designs come out of great design programs....as well as your great design work, Doug.
[ September 04, 2002, 12:49 PM: Message edited by: Don Coplen ]
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Just picked up my copy of Corel 11. It is still in the shrink wrap right now, so I can't make any comments on it yet. However, I stopped and added up how much I have paid over the years for various versions of CorelDraw. Bought ver 2 for about $50 used. 4 was $100 used. 8 was around $200 I believe. 9 and 10 we about $300 each I think. And now version 11 just cost me $370. All on Canadian bux. Grand total $1370 Canadian (appx 890 U.S.)..over a ten year period. That is still cheaper than the mainstream signmaking progs and it included the absolute latest upgrade. Not really that bad when you consider the ammount of money earned in the last 10 years with it.
One thing I noticed in the system requirements on the box. It requires a minimum monitor resolution of 1024x768. I have no idea why that particular resolution but I thought I would mention it for anyone who is considering upgrading and still only runs 800x600.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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All I have to say is Doug's work, like alot of folks on this here board, is absolutley awesome. If they ever learn to package that and sell it, somebody will get rich. Great work Doug. I am respectfully dropjawwed right now.
-------------------- Maker of fine signs and other creative stuff. Located at 109 N. Cumberland ave. Harlan, Ky. 40831 606-837-0242 Posts: 4172 | From: Ages-Brookside, Ky. Up the Holler... | Registered: Jul 1999
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've been in the Sign Business for 50 odd years. The last 12 working with computers. Computerized signmaking has come a long way, so has the technology and the software. I am at heart a Casmate Pro user, couldn't run my business without it. I have used CorelDraw since Version 2. and upgraded often. I am still using the fonts from Version 5. CD as I like the font arrangement. CorelDraw 8 has given me great service until I decided to upgrade to Version 11. This latest upgrade is truly usefull, it has a lot of features to help a sign designer. While most upgrades in the past, basically had been fixes of the previous Versions. CorelDraw 11 is a brand new program to stand on its own. It may not have the fancy graphics of a pretty Women on the cover or the screen, its down to basic graphics and it works. Version 11 has numerous features found in Xara X, the onetime relationship between Xara and Corel shows through. For the first time I have received my moneys worth on a truly worthwhile program. As for crashes, I really have had very few either with Casmate or with CorelDraw in the past, I think a lot has todo with how the computer is set up. CorelDraw 11. likes a minimum of 128 ram, which is the bare minimum for a graphic program anyway. It hung up on me once, telling me "to finish the editing of a Power Clip" and it wouldn't let me shut down the computer. I am working on what that Power Clip is all about. Otherwise CorelDraw 11. is a great program to work with. Cheers Wolf
-------------------- Wolf Roesner Wolf's Sign Studio Ltd. Vernon, BC Posts: 17 | From: Vernon, BC Canada | Registered: Nov 1998
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quote: I really have had very few either with Casmate or with CorelDraw in the past
That is an amazing fact. You are fortunate, as well as having some valuable knowledge on setting up your system. I have never heard of anyone NOT having LOTS of crashes with CasMate.
I love the program & have learned to minimize the crashes during design work, but still have it crash my system right when I close the program for the day about 5% of the time.
I bought Corel for the fonts about 4 years ago. Good deal for about $140
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Thank you everyone for the kind comments about my designs. The one thing I want to get straight is I am not here to sell the program. I am only letting you people know that Corel has sat down with sign people and designers and put together what I think is a great program. I use it for absolutely everything I design.
As for the pasr Corel was absoutely mismanaged and now Derek Burney whao has taken over is really driving the company in the right direction. I hope so, I would like the shares I bought in the company to go up a little higher!
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CorelDraw, like most professional graphics programs, brings out the passion in it's users. Like most of you, I've been a 'Corelian' through most versions, even the ill-fated V6 (bad, but not as bad as you've heard.. it was a transition period for all software, Corel just took a lot of heat since they were the leading PC graphics app). After reading many posts over the years, I've come to a few conclusions.
Number One - I've crashed Corel Draw, all versions for that matter, at least once or twice. However, since V7 I've had fewer and fewer crashes, and with V10, I might've crashed MAYBE twice in a year.
Number Two - Corel has gotten better with each version no doubt, but I feel they have wasted huge amounts of time and effort on parts of the application that no one I know ever uses (ie - the website/page creating parts) while ignoring the would-be-heavily-used parts (ie - sign/printing specifics, like a better tiling/plotter engine, plotter support, various ink things, etc.)
Number Three - Corel remains lightyears ahead of the competition in terms of vector, illustration and page layout. They will never, ever, ever put a dent in Photoshop's stranglehold on the raster world. I really wish they would spin off Photo-Paint into a seperate suite and not make me/us pay for it. Some will say it's a 'freebie' as Draw is still the star and worth the box price, but I'd gladly do away with it, if it was only $25 less, or even not having to uncheck the boxes when I install the programs. Corel Capture, barcode wizard, Trace etc - must all stay, as they are all leaders in their fields. Rave may prove to be worth it's weight in gold, as it seems a much better GUI than industry leader, Macromedia Flash.
Number Four - Corel has made some bold moves to position themselves to be the choice of both PC and Mac graphics users. Purchasing the 'stars' of Metacreations programs, lower prices, two versions in one box (pc & mac) etc. With the 4-user license pack on Word Perfect coming at a time when MS is alienating their longtime customer base, I expect Corel to buy back the $135 million chunk they sold MS and start taking over both the Adobe (graphics) and MS (office) areas. To us, the graphics community, this means bigger and better apps, more often.
Number Five - If there is one chink in Corel's armor, it is the stigma associated with CorelDraw as being somehow less a 'professional' tool than Illustrator or to a lesser extent, Freehand. Having come from a mac based, Illustrator/Freehand background, I cant figure this out, as neither of those antiquated programs can match CorelDraw in any category.
As with any profession, it's the person behind the tooling that makes the difference. Let us hope that Corel's new leadership and arsenal can finally bring their products to the forefront of graphics production.
As for myself, I've yet to find anything except web browsing and email that CorelDraw can't do. I do all my design work, page layout, correspondence, invoicing, faxing, quoting, and 50 other things I'm sure I'll think about once I send this post, ALL in CorelDraw (as I have, since V5). CorelDraw's abilities are only matched by it's bang-for-the-buck power, which keeps it as my only 'can't live without' program.
Like the crashing problems so many speak of, your mileage may vary.... but the above is my take on things.
I've just installed V11 and started setting up the GUI, and already find it to be a faster, sleeker program. It 'look's much better too, nice icons, and other eye candy. It will take me a month or so to get a good GUI made up and use to the new tools and such. If anyone else is working on their own GUI, I'd like to see it as we shared the V10's a while back (V11 wont use them, unfortunately).
posted
Well..Spent all day with Corel 11. Drawing, node editing, cutting...pretty much everything I could do to make it hiccup. NO PROBLEMS!!!!
I am liking this!
It does install somewhat different on Win 2000 than on Win XP. (Yeah, I know I shouldn't have it on two machines but I am the only one using it and I can't use both at the same time! )
One thing I noticed..It installed slightly differently in 2000 than XP. For example 2000 required a re-boot prior to using and XP didn't.
Yesterday I was working on a file in version 10 and it came up with the "error writing file" when I went to save it. Had to save it in CMX format, an occasional problem in version 9 and 10. Today I opened that file, cut the graphics and when I went to shut down Corel it saved it perfectly in CDR format. So THAT seems to be ONE flaw fixed.
Finally, Since the interface is so similar to ver 9 and 10 it was a breeze to customize the workplace.
[ September 05, 2002, 05:07 PM: Message edited by: Dave Grundy ]
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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Well letterheads;this Doug Downey is the reason I got into the sign business in the first place.His brother and I use to go up to Stratford on Mondays and soak up the knowledge and inspiration Doug was handing out that day.Doug and his family and crew always made me feel welcome.The site looks fantastic and if I ever feel down I know I just have to see and read all the great comments and true fealings of the oso many inspiring letterheads.Give me a call Doug.
-------------------- Randall Campbell Randy's Graphics, 420 Fairfield N. Hamilton Ontario Canada Posts: 2857 | From: Hamilton Ontario Canada | Registered: Jan 2002
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