I just cleaned up a candy cane graphic. With Corel, I would have been able to do the entire thing with one hand on the Shift key, and one hand on the mouse. The entire thing.
With Adobe, I had to use the mouse, and the A key, the P key, the H key - because hunting for the button in the bottom scroll bar is annoying - the shift key, and click on the curvature tool, the corner/smooth node, and join once when I forgot that if you delete a node in direct select that it breaks the path.
In Corel, I'm used to selecting/highlighting a node, and clicking the right mouse button to delete them. Done. That's it. On to the next node. Add a node? Double click on the path. Need to curve the line? Take the mouse. click and hold the line and pull. Right in the Direct select tool, no extra tool, no extra node created, no extra clicking. Three node states - corner, smooth and symmetrical. Need to move a node, click on it once, and move. No need to click twice, or you move the whole object by accident. Why would I want that feature in direct select,anyway? that's what the other select is for. No hunting for handles, they're right there. I click, hold and move on the background with the mouse, and it pans around, and I can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. No need for the alt key, or H key.
I have my color swatches that never leave my workspace in lines down the right side. Need to change the stroke color? Click with the right mouse button, Change the fill? Click with the left button. Tried 5 different blues, and want to go back tot he first one? No problem, every time you use a color, a swatch of it appears at the bottom of the workspace. So simple, and fast.
No need to mess with ctrl, or alt, or menus and preferences. Not a steep learning curve that takes time to learn. Really, it's so tedious the way that Adobe has it set up.
You say that InkScribe isn't essential. A Ferrari isn't essential, either. You can drive a Ford Fiesta and get to your destination. And if you've only driven a Fiesta, you'll probably think it's great. But if you're used to driving a Ferrari, , switching to a Fiesta is going to feel slow and tedious. A bit of an exaggeration to get my point across.
It's not about getting there in the end, it's about the ability to work faster and cleaner. It's about how I first used Illustrator over 20 years ago, and the basic, necessary function of manipulating nodes has not improved since. If I'm freelancing, and it takes 20 minutes to clean up art in Corel, and an hour in Adobe, which program is costing me money?
Will I get faster as I go? Sure, but it's been 2 months of almost daily use, and it still takes way too long to clean up objects.
There are a lot of things that Adobe gets right, and a few other things that it gets wrong like color management, which is also a big pain and waste of time. Corel has it's issues, also.
I just can't understand how Adobe can't get it's act together with something so intrinsic to vector graphics, the very foundation of this program. And it's not like it can't be done in Illustrator, as InkScribe has proven.
I'll use Adobe, because I have to, and I'll learn it. But if Adobe can't be bothered to improve, I don't see myself staying with it outside of my current situation. In the end it's all about your workflow, since there's only so much time in the day.
Laura
You're right, I meant InkScribe. lol
I just cleaned up a candy cane graphic. With Corel, I would have been able to do the entire thing with one hand on the Shift key, and one hand on the mouse. The entire thing.
With Adobe, I had to use the mouse, and the A key, the P key, the H key - because hunting for the button in the bottom scroll bar is annoying - the shift key, and click on the curvature tool, the corner/smooth node, and join once when I forgot that if you delete a node in direct select that it breaks the path.
In Corel, I'm used to selecting/highlighting a node, and clicking the right mouse button to delete them. Done. That's it. On to the next node. Add a node? Double click on the path. Need to curve the line? Take the mouse. click and hold the line and pull. Right in the Direct select tool, no extra tool, no extra node created, no extra clicking. Three node states - corner, smooth and symmetrical. Need to move a node, click on it once, and move. No need to click twice, or you move the whole object by accident. Why would I want that feature in direct select,anyway? that's what the other select is for. No hunting for handles, they're right there. I click, hold and move on the background with the mouse, and it pans around, and I can zoom in and out with the mouse wheel. No need for the alt key, or H key.
I have my color swatches that never leave my workspace in lines down the right side. Need to change the stroke color? Click with the right mouse button, Change the fill? Click with the left button. Tried 5 different blues, and want to go back tot he first one? No problem, every time you use a color, a swatch of it appears at the bottom of the workspace. So simple, and fast.
No need to mess with ctrl, or alt, or menus and preferences. Not a steep learning curve that takes time to learn. Really, it's so tedious the way that Adobe has it set up.
You say that InkScribe isn't essential. A Ferrari isn't essential, either. You can drive a Ford Fiesta and get to your destination. And if you've only driven a Fiesta, you'll probably think it's great. But if you're used to driving a Ferrari, , switching to a Fiesta is going to feel slow and tedious. A bit of an exaggeration to get my point across.
It's not about getting there in the end, it's about the ability to work faster and cleaner. It's about how I first used Illustrator over 20 years ago, and the basic, necessary function of manipulating nodes has not improved since. If I'm freelancing, and it takes 20 minutes to clean up art in Corel, and an hour in Adobe, which program is costing me money?
Will I get faster as I go? Sure, but it's been 2 months of almost daily use, and it still takes way too long to clean up objects.
There are a lot of things that Adobe gets right, and a few other things that it gets wrong like color management, which is also a big pain and waste of time. Corel has it's issues, also.
I just can't understand how Adobe can't get it's act together with something so intrinsic to vector graphics, the very foundation of this program. And it's not like it can't be done in Illustrator, as InkScribe has proven.
I'll use Adobe, because I have to, and I'll learn it. But if Adobe can't be bothered to improve, I don't see myself staying with it outside of my current situation. In the end it's all about your workflow, since there's only so much time in the day.