does it rocks?

 

CorelDRAW

 

There are pros and cons in all software, sure. Whatever floats your boat. Look into Affinity series.

 

I made this entirely with open source applications, I am very happy with the versatility and depth of GIMP and Krita as well as Inkscape. The community driven development leads to a real sense of developers being in touch and aware of the needs of the daily drivers as well as hobbyist and others.
I respect Corel Draw, for what it is in the industry, but a pretty steep learning curve for the most part in my opinion,

 

see below update

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 10, 2022

TLDR; at the bottom

So I installed Xara Designer Pro+ 22 and tried a quick mockup logo design. After mucking around for an hour I couldnt figure out how to merge everything, text and objects, to one object layer for image export png. I did a few searches for tutorials but none covered what I wanted to do so frustrated I just saved the project file and did a screenshot, windows paint grab for quick image reference inside my artwork folder. An hour later I came back to it and upon opening the project file a popup said something like "are you ready to get started?", I closed it out and tried a few other methods of opening the project, still the same popup so finally just clicked "yes".. sure enough it opened an internet window asking me to register for whatever blah blah blah some crap. Opening the main program application first and then using file menu to open the document worked, but meh. Closed. Delete delete delete. Gone.

I thought wtf download old Adobe illustrator 2017.. then realized hey dummy its also "CC" cloud crap. Delete delete delete. Cs6 on a new system "may also require online activation before use offline.. it may try to update and upgrade if/when the PC is connected". AWESOME. Also, might have to run it in compatibility mode to even work UGH FFS I want to smash this computer right now. No thanks, after another system restore to the earliest point available, finally got Microsoft Edge back, not that I use it much, but it works fine again. Cleaned up my system and registry, all back to normal now. I can breathe again.

Next up was Affinity. I had Serif Affinity Photo 1.10 and Serif Affinity Designer 1.9. One of the instruction files was all in Russian, which I dont speak and translate was a bungled mess. The other had like 4 installers and no instructions. Yeah um no. Delete delete delete. Actually, both downloaded files were semi-deleted after the latest reinstall anyway.

TLDR; I found individual English versions for Serif Affinity Designer and Photo, but theyre both 2 years old and both listed as V1.8.5.703 (x64). These are the 2 newest versions I could find. Before I download and install these, does anyone know if they are workable in Win11? Are these always gonna try to connect online (I read in older versions they try to call Google, Amazon etc.), activate, update and/or install a bunch of crap that will always try to autorun in Task Manager? If so, I wont bother.

Any other options or bright ideas guys?

 

Once again, Inkscape, no idea why you haven't tried it yet after several people told you how good it is.

 

1.) paint.net 4.3.12
www.getpaint.net/index.html

2.) Here is what I consider my "Essential", award winning , plugin pack for Paint.NET v4.2.12 and beyond.

It includes 46 plugins in 36 files, 1 palette file, and 48 shapes. This allows you to pick and choose to install
only the effects you want. Then, later you can run the installer and uncheck an item to uninstall it.
https://forums.getpaint.net/forum/44-plugin-packs/

 

Affinity suite is great,
no need for cracked versions (all you need is block them in firewall and generate licenses, there are some keygens flying around the internet), but you can buy legit product very cheap compared to Adobe
direct links (legit) are this way:

https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/publisher/1/
https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/designer/1/
https://store.serif.com/en-gb/update/windows/photo/1/

 

because im thick. very thick.

Downloading it now. I hope in this case free doesnt translate to crap and its truly 100% free and 100% offline as advertised

Thanks!

 

thanks guys. downloaded all of the above. now need to find a keygen and look at 2 pages of paint plugin packs?

 

tried sending you a pm but cant? if you could pm me where might I find a clean keygen for the latest releases please?

 

Hmmm... this is one of these cases when you don't know if you should feel honored or mocked
Good one Bob, it still rocks

PS. at this point I think if I could do a compilation of all the memes I've "starred in" would be a lot of laughs...

 

inkscape has ridiculously tiny toolbars, as in unusable, so how to resize them? (and no, I am not changing my windows display settings for this one program when everything else, including all of the other design softs I am demoing, appears perfectly as it should). I cant upload an image to this page for whatever reason. link to screenshot below.

https://freeimage.host/i/toolsbars-are-so-small.QimSZN

 

Last edited by a moderator: Oct 10, 2022

I was a big fan of Mediachance Real-Draw and CompactDraw 20 years ago, I don't do any design work these days (might go back to it).

https://www.mediachance.com/compactdraw/

 

Last edited: Oct 10, 2022

Did you even bother trying to find out how to do this yourself, all you had to do is go into the prefs and theres a whole section for toolbars with 2 great big sliders to set the toolbar icon sizes.

 

now why would I bother wasting my own time when I have you to do it for me? duh

 

only $300, Video Editing, MPEG2 Encoding, Multi-Camera, DVD Authoring AND Vista compatible???!! count me in!!!!

 

'What's Vista, grandad?'

'Grandad? Why you little...'

 

GIMP? Open source and free.

https://www.gimp.org/