Designer Rant

"for Michigan" (formichigan)
02/25/2016 at 09:50 • Filed to: rant, design, adobe illustrator, coreldraw, xara xtreme

Subaru BRZ by STi for your time.

What kind of hack makes a drawing program that doesn’t let you scale units?

CorelDRAW 9 could do it in 1999. Bargain-bin Xara X could do it in 2000. And yet Adobe Illustrator CS6 does’t seem to understand the concept.

I just want to be able to work in real units and have it all fit on letter paper when I’m done so I don’t have to rely on the print dialogue to scale everything properly.

Another thing Xara and CorelDRAW could do 15 years ago is give you actual control over handles on vector nodes. Whereas even Illustrator CC forces you to draw vectors in convoluted ways just so you can tweak them afterword.

How is this steaming pile of dung the industry standard?

DISCUSSION (14)

Slant6 > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 09:55

I’ve been using Illustrator for a few years now but just got formal training last semester. It is very pointless a times but I’ve never known it any other way so I can get through things pretty well.

Freshman Industrial Design student here.

PowderHound > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 09:59

That whole deal where anytime you make a curve and try to go back and tweak something minor only to have the handles disappear and give you straight lines is infuriating.

for Michigan > Slant6
02/25/2016 at 10:06

BA Graphic Design and Illustration here.

I can make do with Illustrator. For the most part, it’s an excellent program and much more capable than its competitors. However, it’s vector tools are awful, which is inexcusable for a vector graphics app. It’s been a while since I tinkered with Inkscape, but I think even that has better vector tools.

for Michigan > PowderHound
02/25/2016 at 10:09

In Corel, you can give any node whatever handles you want and set it smooth out square after you draw it.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 10:23

I’ve only ever used Inkscape for vectors. I went to Illustrator because “expensive = better” and holy hell I have no idea how people manage with it.

for Michigan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2016 at 10:26

I’ve used pretty much every vector program on the market and I agree. I’m fairly certain that Illustrator is only the industry standard because it’s integrated with InDesign and Photoshop, both of which are in a different league than any of their competitors.

Nick Has an Exocet > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 10:46

I think the major selling point for me is that Illustrator, Photoshop, and Premiere all interact fairly well together.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 10:52

I’ve pretty much always been an Illustrator user (15+ years), though I dabbled with Corel a few times years back. I’m guessing the 24 second mark in this video below is part of what you’re referring to - can this not be done in Illustrator? I’ve honestly never tried... I do hate that if you’re creating a shape with curves and points, you seem to have to start all your points as curves and then go back later to edit the handles to get the points looking the way you want. Maybe I’m missing something, though...

for Michigan > Nick Has an Exocet
02/25/2016 at 10:54

I just said the same thing.

To be fair, I do like InDesign quite a bit and Photoshop has no competition. I just wish Illustrator would get competitive vector tools and let me scale units.

for Michigan > davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com
02/25/2016 at 10:56

Yup, that’s what I’m referring to. It makes creating vectors so much faster and easier.

You can accomplish all of the same things in Illustrator, it just fights you the whole way.

davesaddiction @ opposite-lock.com > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 11:05

Yeah, I could see this and other little options being very helpful.

Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 11:09

I completely fail to understand why some Adobe programs are the accepted standard. Photoshop is pretty much untouchable, but stuff like Flash and Illustrator make me wonder wtf they were thinking when they made it. Oh, wait. Adobe didn’t make it. They bought most of their programs from other companies and then tried to homogenize and put them into a “suite”.

for Michigan > Jake - Has Bad Luck So You Don't Have To
02/25/2016 at 11:19

When I used Flash, it was Macromedia and it came bundled with Dreamweaver, Freehand, Fireworks.

Drakkon- Most Glorious and Upright Person of Genius > for Michigan
02/25/2016 at 13:51

I have an odd one.

I use an industry specific graphics program and hitting the space bar zooms out to include all elements, not the art board, just the actual elements.

It becomes such a habit, I try to use in Excel and other non-related programs. Always disappointed with the result.