Graphics tools: The three best programs for your bucks

AnchorDesk

Graphics tools: The three best programs for your bucks

Bill Machrone
Contributing Editor PC Magazine
Monday, March 12, 2001

Add your opinion

Forward in

Format for

A challenger to Adobe Illustrator? Imagine that! After you've read what you can do with CorelDraw 10, you might want to reconsider your choice of drawing packages.

But it's never that simple, is it? You'd love to use the best package, but not if it entails relearning how to do basic tasks and definitely not if you're a mixed-platform shop and you have people running Illustrator on Macs.

PAINT PROGRAMS ARE a little different. Corel Photo-Paint is a darn good program, but Photoshop is better. PC Magazine's review tells you why. But neither of them can do the tricks that Canvas can, where everything is editable, all the time.

Even the best draw/paint packages have some limitations when it comes to preparing Web graphics. Macromedia Fireworks, however, is built for the task, and nothing is better.

Most people think you need to be an artist to use a drawing program or to do the fancy stuff beyond color correcting and resampling images in paint programs. I'm no artist (just ask any of the art directors I've worked with over the years), but I've used these programs, mostly the Corel suite, heavily over the years.

I'VE CREATED LOTS of flyers, some award certificates (printed with one of those Tektronix/Xerox solid ink printers on thin, sheet aluminum--very snazzy), logos, sample magazine covers, decals, and even some very precise numeric scales for the controls on my benchtop milling machine.

I've also done a lot of photo manipulation with both the Corel and Adobe products, and like our reviewer, I'd give Photoshop the edge in sheer power. Take a look at the latest versions of all these tools--there's a lot to like. Read the full review from PC Magazine.

What graphics tools do you like to use? Is Adobe really the king, or are there worthy challengers to the throne? TalkBack to me.

Special sponsor stores

Dell Home