Re: Graphics Apps - Adobe vs. Corel

[Max Wyss <prodok -at- PRODOK -dot- CH>]

Barb,

Photoshop is essentially for raster graphics. It can rasterize EPS, however.

DXF is another chapter. Due to the totally different model CAD systems are
using, you may need some trickt to kick it to the desktop... One thing is
to add different colors to every pen. With this, you can select at least
the same pen style.

The more serious problem is, however, that the DXF format does not support
polylines very well. You will get lots of unconnected individual lines,
which you would have to connect manually to get the right effect for your
illustration. And, the support of curved lines is very very rudimentary.
You will end up in almost any case with polygons.

For the Mac, I do know of some products which claim to do some reasonable
conversions to EPS.

If the drawing is rather complex, however, it would be useful to rasterize
it anyway. My normal procedure for this is to use the PDF format as
intermediaire.

Hope, this can help.


Max Wyss
PRODOK Engineering AG
Technical documentation and translations, Electronic Publishing
CH-8906 Bonstetten, Switzerland

Fax:  +41 1 700 20 37
e-mail:  mailto:prodok -at- prodok -dot- ch    or    100012 -dot- 44 -at- compuserve -dot- com



Bridging the Knowledge Gap



_____________


>>Photoshop counts as industry standard for image processing.
>I've heard good things about Photoshop, but does it handle vector art?
>In particular, I need to be able to edit text entities.
>
>I am also curious about how well it deals with DXF imports.
>
>To answer the original question: I have been very happy with CorelDraw
>for over seven years. As a contractor, I need a lot of import/export
>options, and Corel has provided them. I have used it successfully with
>DocuTechs and with files that are converted from Frame to PDF. I have
>not used it extensively for EPS output, which seems to be the
>complaint that others have with the program. (I import the Corel files
>by reference into Framemaker; no conversion on the Corel side.)=20
>
>The option that works best for you might depend on the type of writing
>you do. Most of my work is for engineering departments who supply
>their drawings in DXF, and more recently from Visio.
>
>My experiences with Visio have not been as positive as those with
>Corel. It's wonderful for creating images, but I've found it to be
>more difficult to use when editing DXFs. (A particular problem I've
>had is changing line weights across an entire drawing. I've also run
>into problems when trying to ungroup large drawings.) I confess that
>I'm by no means an expert Visio user, and export or import the drawing
>to Corel as soon as the going gets tough.
>
>Hope this helps,
>
>Barb
>
>Barbara Philbrick, Caslon Services Inc.
>Technical Writing. caslonsvcs -at- ibm -dot- net
>Cleveland, OH