Photoshop vs Corel PhotoPaint is a religious war for many although
I find them both to be top of the heap editors. I use both and find
myself wishing for a product that would include the best of both tools.
Here are some random comments.
- Corel is easier to learn and has a more modern user interface
(menus, choice boxes intead of drop down boxes,
font preview for text, ...).
- Corel uses "objects" instead of layers. I find this more intuitive and
modern for transforming, grouping and selecting.
- I use keyboard shortcuts extensively with PS. This is makes it
faster than mousing over menus in PP, although one must learn
those ackward shortcuts (use of pg-up instead of up arrow for
example).
- PS seems better fine tuned for pro work, although many pros do
use Corel.
(I believe PS is still slightly better for CMYK printing.. although Corel
may have caught up by now).
- PS is the standard. This means anytime your work has to be passed
to another company or printing shop, PS is the tool to get.
Corel reads and writes psd files but not perfectly. If you output
to TIFF, I don't see any difference between both tools.
- Color management. I find PS better here. If you're dealing with
photos with different color space, PS will work and save
each image preserving their color space. Corel converts photos to
its internal working color space, so you need to change the working
color space (this is from the best I could figure out. Correction anyone?)
- EXIF/IPTC. Both read most (but not all) EXIF info. PS reads and writes
some IPTC (but not all). Corel strips IPTC. Why can't both tools get
this simple feature right???
- Scripting: Both tools now have full API for scripting. New in PS 7,
in Corel since version 8 at least.
- Selection tools: I give an edge to PS.
- Color tools: Slight edge to Corel.
- Filters: Corel. Better preview and more extensive filters.
- Text: Corel. Always been more extensive on this side although PS has
vastly narrowed the gap.
- Web: Was corel for a while (version 9), then PS, don't know
who's on top anymore, probably PS.
- Support: I don't know about you but newsgroups are now my
number one source for figuring out problems. Both PS and Corel
have extensive newsgroups, but PS has vastly more traffic reflecting
its importance in the marketplace. So, the edge goes to PS here.
- Help: Corel by a large margin. A native Windows (I use windows)
help system beats the simplistic and limited browser based help
files in PS 7. Corel's help replaces a book in itself.
- Books: PS by a large margin.
- Price: Corel by a large margin.
Corel Graphics Suite 11 (which includes PhotoPaint 11) ships for
a fraction of the price of PS 7 alone.
Both tools have trials. Downloads are huge so broadband is really
needed. I think this is really the only way to go for individuals wanting
to decide between both tools.
Note that you should really try the latest version. PS has improved
feature wise and Corel quality wise so commonly heard complains
for either tool may have been fixed.
"to photoshop an image". The word/verb "photoshop" is now so
extensively used that it's starting to mean any image editing.
And about Corel's health.. they are indeed looking for a buyer.
They have consistently been on the brink of chapter 11 for years
(saved the last time by $200M from Microsoft) although this time
it does feel bad. I do believe though that even if Corel dies, their
graphics suite would survive, maybe through another company.
They've got too strong a following, specially on their Draw tool.
We'll all be losers if Corel PhotoPaint folds. Adobe will then be
with even less competition in the high end market. It is already
too strong and their bloated price reflects that.
Even if you're a die hard fan of Photoshop, you should wish for
a healthy Corel offering to bring PS's price down and features up.
Corel has kicked Adobe from complacency in the past (Corel version
8 and 9 for instance). Let's just hope for more competition.
Casey
hello
im just wondering why people dont talk abouit corel draw and
photopaint,
i used corel draw in the past and i liked it, is ther a big
difference between poto paint from corel and photoshop?
thanks,,
patrick
d7i, eps 2200 laptop
,
you think that photop aint is as good as photoshop,
i should buy the corel suite,
