Illustrator vs Photoshop vs Corel Draw

[acevedor2]

Hey all,  I really love the images, CPOs and themes everyone puts together.  I, however, have no skills.  I am hoping to teach this old dog some new tricks and start learning how to use some image editing software to make some nice projects.

With that said, and assuming I can only get one, which is better to have, Illustrator, Photoshop, or Corel Draw?

Also, what are the big differences between them - yes I have searched this site and also their respective websites. 

Lastly, Photoshop seems to be the most popular, but what version do I need?  I have seen both Photoshop elements, and CS4.

Thanks for the help!

[Blanka]

If you are a vector NOOB, you can best try-out Freehand 10. Should be able to find it somewhere.
It has the best pen-tool of any vector program. Period! And that is what you need most to design the classic looking cabinet art.
It still works better than Illustrator CS 5 (which does not exist yet, but its probably a good prediction) for all non-effect stuff, has a multipage pasteboard, for easy designing all sides of a cab in one document at 1:1 scale, and does halftoning on object level, great for recreating the classic panels that were done with halftone dot transfer sheets.
And did I mention "Paste Inside"? This oh-baby marvel sucker feature alone is worth working with a 2001 program! It's the best of the best feature ever created in Vector editing, and Adobe is so SUPER-STUPID not to include it in Illustrator, they should win the DUMB and DUMBER award for it. Clipping Masks aaaargh. Go eat your own poop Adobe!
And since the program is OLD, it runs lightning fast!

[u_rebelscum]

I don't have any of them, though I used to use CorelDraw a decade ago.  So grain of salt, and you probably heard most of what I'm going to write, but, anyway...

What's best depends on what you're going to do.  Are you going to hand draw the images, trace photos or jpgs, or make a collage of a bunch of pre-existing images?

Photoshop is primarily a bitmap photo editor, with Elements doing ~90% of what the full blown CS4 version does.

Illustrator & CorelDraw are primarily vector based editors.

So if you're starting with pictures, and want to edit or collage them, Photoshop is the better choice.  It also is the most used of the three apps, so you'll find online help more easily than the others.  If you go photoshop, you probably only need the elements version, depending what you want to do, of course.  I've heard it's easier to learn than CS4, too.

Illustrator is the more popular of the two vector editors you asked about.  Both are better for tracing and hand drawing, but I don't know them well enough to recommend one or the other.

[Blanka]

Don't go with Photoshop Elements. That's a digital-camera-image enhancer, made for chicks, who want to make red eyes go away, or remove their pimples.
The old Photoshop LE, that came with scanners etc, is way better than even the newest Elements. The way of working between Elements and CS is totally different. CS4 may be a memory hog, but the basic functions are still easier then to use Elements beyond snapshot retouching. Try an old CS (1 or 2) if you want simpler.
Things Elements is missing: masks, pen tool and CMYK/LAB colour spaces (pretty necessary for cabinet art). Photoshop LE had this!

[patrickl]

For CPO's and themes you probably would need a vector drawing program like Illustrator or CorelDRAW. I absolutely hate illustrator. It's onw of the worst drawing programs I've used. I can't imagine why it's so popular. Unfortunately it IS the most popular program and so if you want something printed properly it's probably your best option. I've always been a big CorelDRAW fan, but I've had big problems getting stuf converted to something the printer could use (ie Illustrator).

You can draw vector art in Photoshop too, but in essence that's a foto manipulation tool. It's the tool of choice if you want to incorporate lot's of scanned images though.

[Blanka]

I can't imagine why it's so popular.

It is the worst ever created by Adobe, and made popular by throwing it in for free into the bundles for years.
The dumbest of all is that Adobe bought Macromedia and killed Freehand. Fireworks is the only tool that still has some Freehand history.
Haven't you tried that Patrick? Corel Draw is a memory hog too in my opinion.

[ViciousXUSMC]

I have not used them all but the way I see it illustrator is focused on vector stuff and web based stuff.

photoshop is based on photo editing

and corel draw I never used.

A full fledged version of photoshop can do anything from enhancing a picture to full blown drawing and photo manipulation but its missing some of the specialized points of Illustrator. 

I am a photoshop person, the learning curve was not too hard and there is an abundance of online tutorials and guides to both get you started and improve your skills and ways to use the program.

[patrickl]

I can't imagine why it's so popular.

It is the worst ever created by Adobe, and made popular by throwing it in for free into the bundles for years.
The dumbest of all is that Adobe bought Macromedia and killed Freehand. Fireworks is the only tool that still has some Freehand history.
Haven't you tried that Patrick? Corel Draw is a memory hog too in my opinion.

Yeah Corel DRAW can be slow and a memory hog. I never tried Freehand or Fireworks. I don't draw vector stuff often enough anymore to warrant an investment in other software.

[Spectrum]

Remember too that Adobe has trial versions available for both Illustrator and Photoshop.  Just download them and try them out!  Might want to look for some tutorials as well.  If you have never done any image manipulation/editing either one will have a pretty steep learning curve.  Don't let that scare you away though!  Once you get the basics down you will learn faster and faster.

[orion]

If you are considering using photoshop, you might want to consider GIMP. It's the next best thing to Photoshop, if not its equal. I quit using Photoshop years ago because GIMP seems just as good to me and it happens to be free.

http://www.gimp.org/windows/

[patrickl]

I have never tried it myself, but if we are mentioning alternatives then maybe Aviary would be a good one. It's a suite with all types of editors including vector and picture editors. I've seen the results of it on Worth 1000 and they look pretty good. Last but not least it's free too (still).

[acevedor2]

Thanks for all of the help guys.  I just want to make sure I read correctly - I should be able to do almost all the same things with Elements as I would with CS4?  Thanks again!

[billpa]

No...Elements is basic basic photo retouching...not much more than that. If you want to do vector drawing ie graphic design, use Draw, Illustrator, or even Inkscape (which is free). If you want to alter bitmapped images ie cut them out, add effects, etc...then use Photoshop or Gimp (which is free as well)

[acevedor2]

I looked at Gimp which seems to be a good app.  They just don't have a mc version and I hate switching between windows and mac.

Aviary seemed pretty nice as well since it is web based.  I might try that for a while and see how it works.  Thanks again!
Cheers.

[billpa]

They make Gimp ports to Mac.

http://www.gimp.org/macintosh/