Corel and Quark offer rather confusing plans that combine individual purchases with subscription fees for future upgrades, but there are still some attractive and affordable options for designers on a more limited budget, most notably in the form of Serif’s Affinity Design and Publisher. Adobe’s range of Creative Cloud applications have taken the ‘software as service’ approach, which requires customers to sign up for never-ending subscription payments – rather than a simple, one-time purchase. There are plenty of powerful software tools in both categories but, to a large extent, your choice will probably be dictated by your budget. And then there’s CorelDraw, which now calls itself a ‘graphics suite’, combining impressive vector graphics and versatile page layout within a single wide-ranging program (and even throwing in some extra photo-editing software as well). And, at the same time, many page layout programs will also include pen and line tools for simple freehand drawing, or running text along a path – always good for an eye-catching headline – as well as a selection of simple vector-based geometric shapes and objects. Most drawing programs also include tools for creating and manipulating text, which can then be combined with vector artwork to create simple page layouts. There’s a lot of overlap between these two types of software as well. However, graphic design can also cover page layout software as well – also known as DTP or ‘desktop publishing’ – which allows you to combine text and graphics for magazine articles, web pages, sales brochures, or incredibly long and boring technical manuals.

These drawing programs use vector graphics tools to create artwork ranging from corporate logos to technical drawings, and even sketches and illustrations that mimic the appearance of paint and other natural media.

On the more artistic side of the fence there are ‘illustration’ or ‘drawing’ programs, typified by the mighty Adobe Illustrator. The term ‘graphic design software’ covers a multitude of sins – and we use that word advisedly – but in the creative industries it most commonly refers to two main types of software. Whatever your budget and level of expertise, there’s a wide range of cool design tools to choose from.

Corel vs adobe programs