CoralDRAW or Inkscape?

[Head in the clouds.]

Hi all.

As is typical with myself when it comes to anything 'computer' it all falls apart. I want to be able to design my own stuff, mainly decals but with an eye on the future, maybe 3D printing.

I have downloaded the latest version of Inkscape, purchased a book to teach me  but I think the book covers an older build of this programme and the walkthrough instructions seem a little at odds with what I see and happens on screen. Add to this that if I generate a square and then make a mistake and undo it the method of making the same square again seems different and this leads to frustration as I cannot get the same square generated again. Even if I start a new document it seems to carry these settings over. I am lost and that does not bode well when I am sat at a computer as my frustrations go from zero to full on frustration.🤬

 

So is CoralDRAW any easier and will it serve my needs better. Also, are there books out there that can walk you through it on the latest version. Am I being thick?

Give me something with moving parts any day of the week.

 

Thanks folks.

 

Gary

[Ade H]

Gary, which PC OS are you using? Mac OS, Windows, Linux distro? You forgot to mention it.

 

Regarding, Inkscape, I have (rightly or wrongly) always put it in the same bracket as GIMP. Free, potentially useful, but awkward and unpolished. Among people who can suffer Linux with a fake smile, the open-source apps are popular. But that small core market holds them back on all platforms. There is probably quite decent community support on YouTube (I have never needed to look for it), but probably not in comparison to the biggest two: Illustrator and Affinity Designer.

 

Since Adobe started treating design professionals as cash cows and schmucks, I dropped its software in a hurry and switched completely to Serif. Affinity has huge community support, is almost unbelievable value for money, has frequent improvements, and is mostly accomplished. The only thing which I miss, especially in relation to our hobby, is the lack of a tracing tool. The same issue can apply to making decals. I work around that by tracing manually, but if I had to do that a lot, it would be a timesuck.

 

Regarding Draw, I'm not sure whether there will be many up to date books at any given time, simply because it lags behind the professional userbase of Adobe and that's the primary driver for publishing, but there should be some. Check wherever you like to buy books. As it now apparently has three versions, you would need to check the fine print for the features which you need, and perhaps try a trial installation first.

 

HTH

[Head in the clouds.]

4 minutes ago, Ade H said:

Gary, which PC OS are you using? Mac OS, Windows, Linux distro? You forgot to mention it.

 

Yep, sorry, Windows 10, 64bit(whatever that is) and a complete beginner to such programes. Thanks for the advice, I shall do a little reasearch on your suggestions.