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Illustrator vs. DrawPlus vs. Designer vs. CorelDRAW


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As a user who experimented a lot with vector graphics over the years, I find it might be helpful for others for me to share the differences between Illustrator, DrawPlus, Designer, and CorelDraw. A lot of you might be unfamiliar with one or more of the programs. There are things I like about each and things I do not like. Onur has decided to help out in giving me background to CorelDraw since that is one I am unfamiliar with.

 

I will explain why I prefer certain programs and why I don't prefer them with the features that I find most or partially helpful. Here are 26 I came up with.

 

Last Updated (1/27/2017)

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Flood Fills

Being able to add fills to unclosed shapes (overlapping regions)

  • Illustrator: Yes, but fills cannot be added to weight variations, brush strokes, or effects
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Artboard Tool

The overall canvas which can be resized manually or multiplied

  • Illustrator: Yes
  • DrawPlus: No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Nested Layers

Layers that can be expanded to reveal the paths within

  • Illustrator: Yes, but sublayers will cause each layer to be expanded when the file is open (CC1 & below)
  • DrawPlus: Yes, but sublayers cannot be added, and paths and groups cannot be hidden or locked
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Pencil Path Continuation

Being able to continue a path from its end point with the pencil tool

  • Illustrator: Yes, but sharp corners or sensitive handling will cause the shape to delete or change form
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No, but it will be added in 1.6
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Fast Loading Effects

Effects such as inner and outer glows, shadows, feathers, and blurs

  • Illustrator: No, They take far too long to load depending on the amount (sometimes 5 minutes)
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Image Tracer

Converting a picture into vector artwork

  • Illustrator: Yes, but it takes far too long to load depending on the size (sometimes 5 minutes)
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Rounding Single Corners

Creating round corners to a single corner as oppose to all corners of a shape

  • Illustrator: Yes, (Updated)
  • DrawPlus: No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes, but not as simple as Designer

Transparency Tool

Adding a fade effect to objects

  • Illustrator: No, but there is one for InDesign?
  • DrawPlus: Yes, but it only works on single objects or groups
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Fill/Stroke Switcher

Switching the color of your stroke to your fill or fill to your stroke

  • Illustrator: Yes
  • DrawPlus: No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: No

Pixel Tools and Layers

Having pixel tools and layers available

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus: No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: No

Pasting Inside

Being able to paste clipboard selections into objects

  • Illustrator: Yes (Updated)
  • DrawPlus: Yes (Updated)
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Replicate Tool

Being able to make duplicates of an object by resizing its bounding box

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No, but a replicate feature will be added to 1.6
  • CorelDRAW: No

Customizable Vector Patterns

Ability to change the size, rotation, and skew form of a pattern fill while its selected

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No
  • CorelDRAW: No

B-Splines

Creating B-spline curves enabling the nodes to be in an outer fenced area

  • Illustrator: No, not in CS6 and below at least
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: No, but it has the Smart Curve Pen Tool
  • CorelDRAW: Yes (Updated)

Smooth Gradients

Having to easily create gradients, then rotate and resize them easily

  • Illustrator: No, You must use the Gradient panel resulting B/W first, then adjusting it is not user friendly
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Smooth Type on Path

Having to easily create type on a path, and then being change the path's size or shape

  • Illustrator: No, Changing the size and shape was made a lot more difficult than they needed to be
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Over 1,000,000% Zoom

Able to zoom into your drawing over 1,000,000% zoom size

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus:  No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: No

Pixel Preview

See what your vector drawing would like like in pixels

  • Illustrator: Yes (Updated)
  • DrawPlus:  No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Realistic Brush Presets

Brush presets that that look natural

  • Illustrator: No, there are several brush presets, but they are all flat
  • DrawPlus:  Yes
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: No

Lots of Shape Tools

Having a variety of shape presets to choose from

  • Illustrator: No, a total of 6 in the latest version, and live shapes weren't introduced until CC
  • DrawPlus:  Yes
  • Designer: Yes, and excellent manipulation for the cog tool
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Redraw Paths

Able to redraw a selected stroke

  • Illustrator: Yes, but it can change the form that was not altered
  • DrawPlus:  Yes, but it can be tricky to figure out
  • Designer: No
  • CorelDRAW: No

Indicators

Indications of which tool, swatch, path, or other options are selected

  • Illustrator: Yes
  • DrawPlus:  Yes/No, no indication on swatches, paths, or effects
  • Designer: Yes/No, dark indications on tools are hard to see with the dark background
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Eyedropper on Select

Copying a color while an object is selected to change the selected object to that color

  • Illustrator: Yes
  • DrawPlus:  No
  • Designer: Yes, but it cannot copy the other properties
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Vector Eraser Tools

A tool that erases vector objects and maintains its quality

  • Illustrator: Yes, but it changes the shape's proportion
  • DrawPlus:  Yes
  • Designer: No, but there is a pixel eraser tool
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

3D Extrusion

Turning flat objects into 3D objects, and then rotating them in a 3D perspective

  • Illustrator: Yes
  • DrawPlus:  Yes
  • Designer: No
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

Full Boundary Selections

When objects are selected with a complete close from its selection box and not partially selected

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus: Yes
  • Designer: Yes, and partial selections can be used as well if adjusted in the preferences
  • CorelDRAW: Yes 

 

If this is very helpful to people, then I will update this list as progress moves forward. I hope this helps.

Edited by bleduc

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Pasting Inside: "DrawPlus: Yes, but then the clipped object can't be manipulated"

 

Unless I've forgotten where to find the 'Paste Inside' option, DrawPlus only has 'Draw Inside'. However, the 'Clip to Top/Bottom Object' commands have the same effect as 'Paste Inside' (albeit as a separate step) and you can manipulate both the clipview object and the clipped object(s) as much as you want.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Hi Alfred, thank you for your feedback. You are right. I overlooked something. In this video I recorded, I show that before I clip the three dots to the frog's skin, the frog's skin has nodes. After the dots are clipped to it, it no longer has nodes. However, what I didn't realize is that I have to hold Ctrl to bring up the nodes (not in the video); similar to as I would need to do for grouping. I'm making the correction in my list now.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • 2 months later...

This is the Corel Draw (at X6) version if anyone curious:

 

Flood Fills
Being able to add fills to unclosed shapes
Yes (Default is No but you can change it from preferences)
 
Artboard Tool
Yes
 
Nested Layers
Technically 'Yes' but CDR layer system is rocket science for me
 
Pencil Path Continuation
Yes, also you can continue with line tool too.
 
Fast Loading Effects
Yes, easy to change preferences of effects too
 
Image Tracer
Yes - Very good and detailed controls besides with pre defined settings for quick action :) 
 
Rounding Single Corners
Yes but not simple as affinity designer
 
Transparency Tool
Yes
 
Fill/Stroke Switcher
No but Corel has best color pick options. Left click fill right click outline (stroke) color
 
Pixel Tools and Layers
No
 
Pasting Inside
Yes - Powerclip 
 
Replicate Tool
No
 
Customizable Vector Patterns
no
 
B-Splines
not sure what it is
 
Smooth Gradients
Hell yes.
 
Smooth Type on Path
Yes
 
Over 1,000,000% Zoom
266,000% but not a million.
 
Pixel Preview
Yes
 
Realistic Brush Presets
No, absolutely crappy brushes
 
Lots of Shape Tools
Yes, many of them
 
Redraw Paths
Didn't understand it
 
Indicators
Yes
 
Eyedropper on Select
Not just color but also effects, lenses etc. with a second picker tool
 
Vector Eraser Tools
Yes
 
3D Extrusion
Yes but i don't know if it is better than others.

Win 10 Home - 64 Bit on Asus X55A (original specs except SSD)

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Thank you very much for the list, Onur. This topic may just turn into a good source for research now.

 

B-Splines

not sure what it is

 

B-Spines are very similar to the Smart mode Pen Tool, but it's bezier curves are caged in. See in this example.

 

 

Redraw Paths

Didn't understand it

 

Drawing over a part of a line while the path is selected will update that part to match the new mouse action. (Does that make sense?)

 

Excellent Comparisons!

 

I suppose your list concerns DrawPlus 8?

 

Thank you, and yes, this is comparison to DrawPlus X8.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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I see, for B-Spine in Corel, you use Bezier tool but no need to adjust curves, just regular lines and then select all nodes (it's CTRL+A after double click that line drawing) and press smooth curve button. Not a dedicated one click button but in 2 clicks you can solve it.

 

Still don't understand 'ReDraw Path'

post-32505-0-87060500-1480197020_thumb.png

Win 10 Home - 64 Bit on Asus X55A (original specs except SSD)

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Just to be clear, the thing that makes up B-splines (baseline curves) is to have the nodes as a box around the selected object. It is for reducing the amount of nodes.

 

Here is a video example of what I mean by redrawing paths.

https://sendvid.com/6t5twji7

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Ok i see it now. No, CD doesn't have redrawing paths.

 

 

Just to be clear, the thing that makes up B-splines (baseline curves) is to have the nodes as a box around the selected object. It is for reducing the amount of nodes.

 

Here is a video example of what I mean by redrawing paths.

https://sendvid.com/6t5twji7

Win 10 Home - 64 Bit on Asus X55A (original specs except SSD)

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I was thinking it would be a good idea to add Corel to the list, but I am working on more comparisons to add to this topic, and I really don't know much about Corel. Would you be up to backing me up if I add it?

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Check "use Fill" and you're done...  ;)

 

By that first feature, I mean making "flood" fills entirely by overlapping regions. Applying a regular fill on an open path will just create the fill from the beginning point to its end point.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Hello everyone, there has been a major update to the original post and title.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Pasting Inside

Being able to paste clipboard selections into objects

  • Illustrator: No, but it does support clipping in a less intuitive way
  • DrawPlus: Yes (Updated)
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes

 

 

Illustrator can do this...  ;)

I'm using it right now.

The white dog, making tools for artists, illustrators and doodlers

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  • Staff

The problems with this kind of comparison is why Affinity was actually created. DrawPlus marketing became just about ticks just like your list above. Flood Fill is a good example as the DrawPlus version actually attempts to trace the rasterised version of the interior of a shape. This produces a terrible quality result but it got a tick on the list. Affinity is an attempt to be different and only introduce high quality tools and features. This is still a work in progress but sets out the path we are trying to follow. We could add AutoTrace, Flood Fill, 3D extrusion etc in a few weeks by using similar methods to DrawPlus but we just don't think it's the right thing to do.

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By that first feature, I mean making "flood" fills entirely by overlapping regions. Applying a regular fill on an open path will just create the fill from the beginning point to its end point.

 

Or rather, flooding areas outlined by visual boundaries.

 

DrawPlus marketing became just about ticks just like your list above. Flood Fill is a good example as the DrawPlus version actually attempts to trace the rasterised version of the interior of a shape. This produces a terrible quality result but it got a tick on the list.

 

I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement, but the DrawPlus implementation generally produces quite a reasonable result for the use cases that I've encountered.

Alfred spacer.png
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for Windows • Windows 10 Home/Pro
Affinity Designer/Photo/Publisher 2 for iPad • iPadOS 17.4.1 (iPad 7th gen)

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Illustrator can do this...  ;)

I'm using it right now.

 

Really? Can you explain how?

 

Affinity is an attempt to be different and only introduce high quality tools and features. This is still a work in progress but sets out the path we are trying to follow. We could add AutoTrace, Flood Fill, 3D extrusion etc in a few weeks by using similar methods to DrawPlus but we just don't think it's the right thing to do.

 

I understand, and I hope this list doesn't cause controversy for that reason. The crew of every program has different intentions in what they are trying to sell. Some overthrow everything, some keep it simple, and some only use the essentials. This list isn't comparing which one is the best of all time; it is comparing which works best for the user. After all, every designer benefits differently. But just to be clear, I prefer Designer.  :D

 

Or rather, flooding areas outlined by visual boundaries.

 

Right, but I think Paolo was saying that feature was in Designer, so I was trying to be more clear in what I was getting at.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Check your inbox  ;)

 

I just made the update. I've been using Illustrator for about 6 years, and I never knew that.

 

To avoid confusion, that to me seems more like 'clipping' than their other feature, 'clipping mask.' The clipping mask in Illustrator seems more like a cropping mask.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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  • Staff

Or rather, flooding areas outlined by visual boundaries.

 

 

I'm sure there's plenty of room for improvement, but the DrawPlus implementation generally produces quite a reasonable result for the use cases that I've encountered.

 

The problem is the method used is fundamentally flawed so can't be improved. Sometimes you just have to do it properly and invest the time. 

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Well on a good note, for those who want to accomplish something very similar, making fills out of pixel selections sounds like the next best thing. I am just hoping that there is a way to make selections more precise in between overlapping curves.

The website is still a work in progress. The "Comics" and "Shop" sections are not yet ready. Feel free to connect with me and let me know what you like or what can be improved. You can contact me here, on my contact page, YouTube channel, or Twitter account. Thanks and have a great day!

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Is there a "Gallery" feature in Designer?  And I suggest that several of teh items considered to be "NO" for DrawPlus should be yes ie:  Rounding Single Corners

Creating round corners to a single corner as oppose to all corners of a shape

  • Illustrator: No
  • DrawPlus: No
  • Designer: Yes
  • CorelDRAW: Yes, but not as simple as Designer

http://snap.ashampoo.com/9P9biYuQ

 

I am happy with my DrawPlusX8 and hope that Serif will continue to support the program which I find incredibly capable for my needs.

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Affinity is an attempt to be different and only introduce high quality tools and features. This is still a work in progress but sets out the path we are trying to follow. We could add AutoTrace, Flood Fill, 3D extrusion etc in a few weeks by using similar methods to DrawPlus but we just don't think it's the right thing to do.

 

 Tony,

 

For what it's worth, thank you for that. Some of us have long hungered for a truly elegant vector drawing program with cleanly integrated features, real geometric power and accuracy just under the surface, and true vector-based innovation, as opposed to just yet another "me, too" grab-bag of instant-gratification eye-candy features repeatedly re-packaged into ostensibly "new" features.

 

Please encourage the team to hold fast to the vision of functional elegance.

 

And please never let Adobe acquire Affinity like it did FreeHand.

 

JET

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