Painter vs CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Likelihood to Recommend

Corel Painter does have a lot of great brushes, and they do emulate real art supplies very well. Especially the thick paint is well done.But unfortunately there are so many functional and UX bugs that overall it is just horrible to work with. When contacting customer support about it, they really seem clueless about the seriousness of the situation, and clueless about what proper UX is in general. They have tried to make it work a bit like Photoshop, which is a good move but then some things are absolutely not intuitive at all and they are definitely missing the mark horribly with so many issues. I would highly recommend using Photoshop instead, though you'll have to download them separately; it also offers a lot of great brushes nowadays and works much much smoother without all those aggravating bugs of Painter. The price of Corel Painter is just not at all worth all these horrible bugs.

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Iris Shields

Senior UX/ UI Architect

Self EmployedArts & Crafts, 1-10 employees

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The tool is fairly easy to pick up and do some basic functions. Which makes it great for non-design folks to participate in collaboration. It also has a lot of power so we can take ideas and really refine them into a quality design. Although I say I like collaboration, this tool does not offer a shared interface where multiple people can work on a project at once. The would be an interesting upgrade to see this ability of teaming in a design environment.

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Verified User

Manager in Product Management

Accounting Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Pros

Watercolor Compatible
Multiple variety of Brushes and shapes
Captured Dab Library

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Engineering

Computer Networking Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Easy to learn - especially if you have experience with other graphic software. It is fairly intuitive which is helpful.
Creating high resolution graphics is a breeze with this software - and it has the ability to export into a large variety of formats!
I am able to import a wide variety of file formats. I have also had success with importing and editing PDF files which has been helpful.

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Pam Fultz

Marketing/Development Coordinator

Sidney-Shelby YMCANon-profit Organization Management, 51-200 employees

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Cons

Way too many functional bugs, makes it hard to work with
Bad UX and usability, too much unintuitive behavior, makes it particularly hard to work with
Overall looks and behaves as if it was coded in the '90s, it really needs a complete UX overhaul
Did I mention the many bugs yet? Yeah? I'll mention it again because it's bad

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Iris Shields

Senior UX/ UI Architect

Self EmployedArts & Crafts, 1-10 employees

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Documentation on many features are absent or obscurely hidden which I feel deters users from learning about or how to use certain aspects and features of the suite.
VBA in Corel is a major asset and used by many. The lack of knowledge of VBA from many users could be addressed with a more user-friendly way of creating custom macros and toolsets. I feel Corel should implement a user-friendly way of creating custom macros as the VBA abilities of Corel are a major asset that could generate more users and sales while giving current users a more powerful way of using the suite.

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Richard Reilly - Fluid

Executive Creative Director

Fluid DesignsApparel & Fashion, 1-10 employees

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Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

—

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

—

Painter Editions & Modules

—

Additional Pricing Details

—

General

Free Trial

Yes

Free/Freemium Version

—

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

—

Entry-level set up fee?

No

Starting Price

$249 per year

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Editions & Modules

Edition

Download	$499.00¹
Physical Edition	$499.00¹
Subscription	$249.00²

One Time Fee
per year

Additional Pricing Details

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Usability

Painter 1.0

Based on 1 answer

If it wasn't quite clear yet, I'll state it again: the usability of Corel Painter is, simply put, horrid. And I am not talking about rendering, lagging, etc., it is not even all that bad there. I am talking about the weird issues like being unable to move a brush into a custom brush palette when you work on a second screen, like being unable to move the software onto the second screen in the first place unless you separate all the palettes and the windows (and if nobody tells you upfront there is no way of knowing because the manual doesn't state this at all), and then having to drag all your separate windows and palettes over one by one every time your computer wakes up again, and they won't really want to move to the other screen but only through a tiny corner of your screen, and the fact that you have to scroll through lists and lists of fonts but can't search and when you apply this font, add another piece of text the font jumps back to the default font of all the text already applied even when you haven't selected any of the text. Just to name a very small few.

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Iris Shields

Senior UX/ UI Architect

Self EmployedArts & Crafts, 1-10 employees

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CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 8.0

Based on 1 answer

Just like any design program or suite, I wouldn't recommend it to anyone who doesn't do graphic design professionally. If you're not adept at learning a program or experience, it isn't a program you can just pick up and start using easily. Outside of the learning curve, it's a nice program with a decent user interface.

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Mandy Cramer

Graphic Designer

Miss Mandible DesignsGraphic Design, 1-10 employees

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Support Rating

Painter 3.0

Based on 1 answer

It was really hard to get them to understand what I was having problems with. It was hard to get the message through that Painter has an unacceptable amount of functional and UX bugs. When I finally talked to someone who was easier to communicate with, he was very stoic about the situation, like they didn't really care about the awful amount of bugs.

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Iris Shields

Senior UX/ UI Architect

Self EmployedArts & Crafts, 1-10 employees

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CorelDRAW Graphics Suite 8.3

Based on 20 answers

Overall, CorelDRAW meets all my needs as a researcher and allows me to create beautiful and clear graphics to illustrate the main ideas for publications. It does not lack any functionality for my needs; however, it has some bugs that impact productivity, such as the color drag and drop that sometimes stops working and needs restarting, and crashes, especially when working with large bitmaps.

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Pablo Lacerda Silva

PhD Candidate

The University of British ColumbiaHigher Education, 10,001+ employees

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Alternatives Considered

Corel Painter has support to multiple OS and across all the devices. Coloring and multi layer imaging works very well. The new enhanced brush settings and the redesigned brush libraries.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Engineering

Computer Networking Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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CorelDRAW Graphics Suite has the advantage of a fair price, tools are on par with what Adobe Illustrator, many I find far simpler to work with, I have had firsthand experience where CorelDRAW Graphics Suite has been head and shoulders above anything else on the market. I have used free software that is extremely cumbersome, CorelDRAW Graphics Suite beats them hands down all day long.

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Daryl Garner-Savory

General Manager

Elemod ElectronicsDesign, 1-10 employees

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Return on Investment

Customer support could be improved in my opinion.
Multiple bugs while working with layered designing.

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Verified User

C-Level Executive in Engineering

Computer Networking Company, 5001-10,000 employees

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Ease of use reflects on less time to train new users, a positive impact in investment and productivity.
The practicality to make new designs results in less time needed to do them, again a positive impact.
The integration with other graphic programs could be better if needed to finish a rendering using the design made in Corel Draw it's needed to export in formats that don't carry all information and the process is not that simple.

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Stéfano Bellote

Engenheiro de desenvolvimento de produtos Jr

ElectroluxConsumer Goods, 10,001+ employees

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Painter vs CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Painter

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Attribute Ratings

Likelihood to Recommend

Painter

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Usability

Painter

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Support Rating

Painter

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite

Pros

Cons

Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

Painter Editions & Modules

Additional Pricing Details

General

Free Trial

Free/Freemium Version

Premium Consulting/Integration Services

Entry-level set up fee?

Starting Price

CorelDRAW Graphics Suite Editions & Modules

Edition

Additional Pricing Details

Usability

Support Rating

Alternatives Considered

Return on Investment

Screenshots

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