Corel Draw vs. Paint Shop Pro vs. MS Paint
Keith Howard
complicated. I graduated from MS Paint to PaintShop Pro a while back and am
considering taking the plunge and buying Corel Draw. I'm trying to
understand if Corel Draw will solve the following problem:
I created a logo with text and a graphic within PaintShop Pro. I to use the
logo for 2 purposes: 1) as the background for a large splash screen which
appears when a certain application is loaded; 2) as a 3 inch by 1 inch logo
which appears at the top of letterhead. The logo that I created in PSP looks
fine when used in the splash screen but it looks fuzzy and jagged when I
shrink the bitmap to use on letterhead. I tried saving the file in .PSP,
.TIF, .BMP and .WMF formats, but could not resolve the problem.
Can CorelDraw solve this problem? Thanks in advance.
Doug Driskell
I use both Corel Draw and Photo-Paint v.8 as well Paint Shop Pro for similar
stuff. My guess is that Corel Draw will resize the fonts and vector graphics
better than Paint Shop Pro but will have a similar problem with bitmaps. I
usually rescan bitmaps to the desired size and resolution and get better
results. Someimes I resize a bitmap and then blow it up and clean it up bit
by bit. It's time consuming and doesn't work well with complicated images.
Ulead software makes a program called Smartsaver Pro which is designed to
optimize and resize bitmaps for the internet. You can find it at:
http://www.webutilities.com/
I used the shareware version to optimize some bitmaps and liked the result.
The program expired before I had a chance to resize anything. If you try it
let me know if it works well for resizing images too.
------------------
Doug Driskell
(dris...@rof.net)
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Peter
I am in the process of learning CorelDRAW. I go back to one of the
other programs for almost everything.
I purchased CorelDRAW because:
1/ It will be on Linux.
2/ During the interim, it works on NT.
3/ It is a good overall package with lots of fonts.
4/ It is vector based instead of raster based.
CorelDRAW is a pig to learn. It was sold to be on special with free
training. The free training never happened. I purchased CorelDRAW
early April at a trade show and I still cannot use it for anything
productive.
If you do not need vectors, Paint Shop Pro is far easier. The layer
feature in PSP takes care of many construction requirements.
PSP and every other program in my workstation displays blue as blue.
CorelDRAW displays blue as purple. CD displays yellow as mustard and
displays orange as yellow. I am sure there is a trick that will force
CD to display the colours the correct way. I just cannot find it.
Almost all my output goes to the Web as GIFs or JPEGs. My one and
only attempt to generate a GIF with CD ended up a disaster. CD
presented an almost meaningless series of screens asking questions
unrelated to what I was doing. CD generated a GIF with weird colours.
It did not use the colours I specified. It did not use the weird
colours displayed on the screen. It just made up a completely new
set.
I eventually found things to click on to correct some of the problems.
PSP had all these options figured out years ago. In the end I opened
the CD GIF in PSP to correct all the colours.
I am sure there is a use for CD. It is not for working on the web.
You have to continually fight CD to make it do what you want.
HTML is based on RGB. CD is based on something else. Half my time is
spent changing CD back to RGB. I tried using their Netscape and IE
palettes but the colours looked nothing like the colours in the
Netscape and IE palettes.
As I need to match colours in GIFs to colours already specified in
HTML heading etc, I spent a lot of time trying to get CD to cooperate.
So far I have had to give up on CD and do the work in PSP. If you are
working with HTML, CD is a bad choice.
The same with pixels. Oh to have a simple setting in CD that says
"Internet". Just click on it and have everything work the way PSP
works.
If you are creating print output first then generating web pages from
the print stuff, CD would be better than PSP. You could go in to CD
and simply resize. Anything else is a pain to learn.
Even something as simple as a triangle is a pain. You have to misuse
a polygon tool. The slightest mistake makes a curve instead of a
line. Drawing equilateral is like having sex with a Windsurfer when
you are hanggliding. If you are building business graphics, use PSP,
Visio, anything that understands triangles.
The problem with fuzzy fonts is a problem with fuzzy fonts. Both CD
and PSP generate the same output from fonts because neither generates
output from fonts. Both pass the text and font to the True Type font
renderer in Windows.
CD offers control of line spacing. To generate 2 lines close together
in PSP, I just generate 2 lines and move them close together. CD lets
you specify line spacing as a percentage of character height.
On the down side, CD sees only some of the fonts supplied with CD.
PSP sees every true type font in Windows using the same name as
Windows. CD sees a subset using weird names that are nether the font
name or the font file name.
For the moment I will use PSP for things that matter. If I receive
the free training included with the product, I might learn how to use
CD for something serious.
Peter
Copyright 1999 Peter Moulding @ http://www.helpnet.com.au/
Foster D. Coburn III
Many of your complaints are the result of not understanding things in
CorelDRAW.
You see strange colors because CorelDRAW uses color management to
simulate printed colors. Select Tools | Options | Global | Color
Management and turn it off. By default, you are working with a CMYK
palette. Since you are doing Web work, you'll want to load an RGB
palette instead. This will clear up all of your color problems.
I also don't understand the trouble you're having with triangles. If you
need an equilateral triangle, hold down the Ctrl key while drawing with
the Polygon tool.
<<On the down side, CD sees only some of the fonts supplied with CD. PSP
sees every true type font in Windows using the same name as Windows. CD
sees a subset using weird names that are nether the font name or the
font file name.>>
This statement really baffles me. CorelDRAW sees all PostScript and
TrueType fonts installed on your system. Are you talking about the
Symbols Docker instead? By default it only sees Symbol fonts. You can
change it to see everything.
<<The problem with fuzzy fonts is a problem with fuzzy fonts. Both CD
and PSP generate the same output from fonts because neither generates
output from fonts. Both pass the text and font to the True Type font
renderer in Windows.>>
CorelDRAW has its own internal TrueType and PostScript text renderer.
What is the problem with "fuzzy fonts"?
--
Foster D. Coburn III
Unleashed Productions, Inc.
http://www.unleash.com -- The Ultimate Resource for the Graphics User
Tips & Tricks, Training Classes, Books, Videos and much more
Peter
Thank you for the information on the screen display of colours. If
Corel had supplied a "Start here to create Images for the Internet", I
would be using CD instead of PSP.
Re triangles and other regular shapes. I tried to create a triangle
then resize it for various locations in several images. I ended up
tripping over all sorts of things in CD. Sometimes I would end up
dragging a handle instead of a corner. I could not lock in the shape
as an equilateral triangle then just drag a corner to change the size.
Once the sides were curved, I could not lock them back in to a
straight line. Each time I ended up scrapping all updates to the
image and going back a few steps.
In other products, certain aspects are locked in by the tool
selection. I would like to use the flexibility of CD to change the
shape but then lock specific aspects. Lock the sides to straight
lines. Lock the proportion of the sides. I would like to lock the
width of the outline so it stays at 1 pixel no matter how large I make
the image.
Perhaps I will find this by reading the Corel manual. Perhaps there
is a better book to read. I am certainly not finding the information
in either the Corel table of contents, the Corel index or the Corel
Help screens.
Re fuzzy fonts. I did not know CorelDraw had it's own rendering
engine. I thought that went against the idea behind true type fonts.
Either way, the rules for interpreting a true type font are the same.
If a font was designed for a 30+ pixel representation, it will look
jagged at 10 pixels. Fine lines will die out at small sizes unless
the font author included hints for reproduction at small sizes. The
person who posted the original question about fuzzy fonts needs to
change font or move to a larger size. Changing software will not make
Augsburger Initials work in 4 lines of text placed within a 50 pixel
high banner.
Re fonts missing: I installed all the fonts from the Corel directory
F. There are 22 Futura fonts on my workstation. When I look in the
fonts directory, the fonts section of the control panel, in PSP or
other programs, I see the 22 Futura fonts. When I look in CD Artistic
text, the fonts list shows only 12 Futura fonts.
Thank you for your help. I will look through your site for
information on locking lines.
Peter
Copyright 1999 Peter Moulding @ http://www.helpnet.com.au/