Corel Draw Replacement
I recently inquired about the installation of Corel Draw, which lead to the knowledge of not being able to reinstall my precious Corel Draw. And then I went to research it.
You cannot load Corel Draw on a GNU/Linux operating system.
That made me want to throw a tantrum, I was very upset because Honestly, Corel Draw was ALL I used in my work.
How can this happen to me? I was sure I was taking one step forward, and now I am suddenly fifty thousand steps behind. My faith faltered one hundred percent. My freelance work is falling behind. I refuse to go back to Windows.
Perhaps running a VirtualBox or duel booting my laptop into Windows just for Corel Draw, or maybe look in WINEHQ? NO, WHAT? HUH? YOU DRINK WINE?!! Wel..... don't you?
I am a newbie at Trisquel GNU/Linux, stop it, I do not understand this alien language you speak in.
-InsScape is okay, but it does not give me everything I can get out of my Corel Draw, because I needed different things from it, not just playing around with nodes and editing pictures.
After researching different ways of MAYBE getting my Corel Draw back, I stumbled upon an amazing freedom program called sK1 ( http://sourceforge.net/projects/sk1/ ), that has CD features, imports .cd files and does everything Corel Draw does. E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G. Amazing, I saw light.
All I could find in this Forum was a Spanish topic about it. (https://trisquel.info/en/search/node/sK1)
..... and now I just need to figure out how to install it. I found an old 2008 How-to (https://trisquel.info/en/search/node/sK1).
I hope this helps someone who struggles out there in the unknown as well!
--InTheLifeOf'aNewbie
Found this:
easy copy and paste terminal line commands (I love the line command system)
http://www.webupd8.org/2009/09/sk1-ubuntu-repository-vector-graphics.html
:3
Well... Could you kindly tell me which features you use in CorelDraw
that you can't find in Inkscape? The more detail, the better, please. :D
Or in GIMP, for that matter.
Firstly, I do not know if I was just stupid or what, but I tried to edit out text on a Bitmap, and it did not want to. Then I tried to redraw a Bitmap, it does not. the blocks I drew with InkScape kept a hairline outline in light grey. But I needed the product done quickly and I was not at home to use my DeskTop, and the client didn't see the grey lines, but the point is, I saw it and I was slightly ashamed of my work which never happens. I am not hating on InkSccape, I am simply just too stupid to work with it yet. I will keep both and play with both.
Then, the Bitmap redraw for exporting to be cut. like uh.... Look at the Trisquel Logo, then at the Shop and in it you find shirts. sometimes you cannot just directly print logos like that on a t-shirt, and again you do not want to spend a lot of money on, say for example a shirt that says "bride", so you need to cut PoliFlex to Press it into a T-Shirt. Also Signage making, Cut of Vinyl. Which is most of my work.
Well...
If you just want to add a new text to a bitmap image, you can just read
the following two paragraphs and then ignore the rest of this message.
Otherwise, read the whole message.
To add text to the image, use the text tool, then to make arbitrary text
(read: "that is free from boundaries"), simply click somewhere in the
project area. To make block text (read: "that respects the limits of a
rectangle"), hold the left mouse button to start drawing the text
area/rectangle and move the mouse to resize it, letting go of the left
mouse button when you're done, and immediately entering the text afterwards.
If you want the text to follow a path: Do text alignment (for example,
if you want the text to be centered along the path, that is, if you
don't want the text to start in the very beginning of the path) PRIOR to
selecting the path and the text (use Shift + Left click on each one to
select both), and going to Text menu, and then selecting Adjust text to
path. From the same Text menu you can also flow the text inside an
object (provided that the object is perfectly enclosed). And you can
also remove text from their associated paths and objects, to redo any
alignment and other things.
Finally, to get rid of the stroke and fill of the path that the text is
following or flowing in to. If you can (don't worry, see the note in
this same paragraph if you are unable to select the path), select the
path, move your mouse over the tiny square filled with an "X" in the
lower left corner of the window, and Shift + Left click on it (to remove
stroke) and then left click on it (to remove fill). Note: If you are
unable to see or select the path, just select the text and see
Inkscape's tip in the bottom of the window, it'll say that you can
select the text's parent/path using Shift + D (that's the same as going
to Edit menu, then Clone, then Select original).
Then here comes the other side of my message. I MUST BE AND I AM SORRY
for writing this way. It ISN'T supposed to be offensive to anyone.
Please don't read the following text thinking that.
By basic knowledge on how image editing and publishing works, WE BOTH
know that images can't be easily edited after exporting to bitmap
formats, that's because bitmap formats like PNG, BMP, GIF, JPG and so on
ARE LOSSY (read: "have data loss each time they're changed").
CorelDraw just makes the user think that he doesn't have such data loss
by hiding what it does from the user (that is, it does the same as
Inkscape's Path, Vectorize bitmap, and testing the options).
As the nature of the image IS LOSSY, I would recommend you to request
your client to handle the source file (read: "lossless", "have almost no
data loss each time they're changed") to you instead of giving just the
LOSSY IMAGE, that way you get the chance to open the source file with a
free software equivalent and saving it to a FREE (as in freedom)
standard to use afterwards to finally edit the text.
Lossy sources make 10% more lossy results. It DOESN'T mean lazy work, it
DOES MEAN that the result WILL be more lossy THAN the ALREADY LOSSY
source because of the NATURE OF THE ALREADY LOSSY SOURCE.
Even if you leave the lossy image unchanged and just include it in your
project, it'll be still a lossy image.
Although I didn't know of such functionality of editing bitmaped text, I
find it very counter productive because CorelDraw would have to:
* do optical character recognition on the bitmapped text. Resources will
start frying to do that;
* save the recognized text somewhere;
* find a way to recognize which text typeface/font is being used for
that bitmapped text. Note: WHAT IF... The user doesn't have the
typeface/font installed? How is the software supposed to detect
something that isn't available to compare against??? Anyway, resources
will start frying to do that too;
* save the name and location of the text typeface/font somewhere;
* find a way to know the rotation, dimensions/size, inclination, and
matrix of the text against the characters used by the text
typeface/font. WHAT IF... as before, the text typeface/font isn't present?
What I mean with all of this is: How are we supposed to work for them if
they don't really support us by giving us the source of the projects
that they have? Or if they do not have the source, couldn't they at
least point us to those who do have it? If we use a lossy image for our
work then it's our fault, not the fault of those who provided just the
lossy image??? What is the point of accepting to do this job if we know
that we won't be able to achieve our full potential and instead will
just get more complaints such as "my company's image is messed up" or
"the text typeface/font isn't right"?
Correcting my mistake:
For newcomers:
Replace "following two paragraphs" with "following THREE paragraphs".
For almost advanced GNU+Linux users:
s/following two paragraphs/following THREE paragraphs/p
For those who want to know what is this "s" thing, open a terminal of
your choice and type:
info sed
Then press Enter.
To leave GNU info, press Q.
GNU Sed and GNU Info programs are part of the GNU project.
the problem was not with the text, sorry I am not English thus do not express myself correctly.
The problem was: I drew a fillable square (not text) over some text I wanted to hide on the Bitmap. That square had an outline. I will upload the image when I am home. Maybe that would explain it better? I even set the outline fill on nothing. I tried white as well. it still stays.
Like I said, I will still use InkSkape. I just found something better. I do not wish to offend, nor am I stupid. I pick up programs rather quickly.
I am a member!
Gimp is one of the better known alternatives. There are also MyPaint and krita.
I am a translator!
Gimp is the most funny piece of software I ever used and to use it as I do (simple and basic stuff) you don't even need to study it - just play and have fun!
I am a member!
Corel Draw isn't free unfortunately although it did once run on GNU/Linux. Corel actually was behind Xandros (sold off, was called Corel Linux under Corel) which eventually went defunct shortly after acquiring Linspire. Though there is another company I believe that acquired Xandros's assets. That company is still around, but the products are all gone. Corel was actually paid by Microsoft some insane amount of money to back off its move to port all its applications to GNU/Linux. The CEO got scared because it was costing the company money to do the porting. As a result things weren't looking good, but had they continues Corel would probably be Microsoft today. One of its primary problems was it didn't have an operating system whereas Microsoft did. And they also had at one time one of the popular office suites until Microsoft ate there lunch.