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Need Help Canva Files Won't Open In Corel

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
With a paid, commercial application such as Illustrator or CorelDRAW the cost of the app works as a barrier to the rank amateurs who just don't even want to know the difference between pixels and vectors.
Ai and Draw are dirt cheap, even more so now, their cost is a very low barrier to entry even in the CS days for the Master Suite (but I also come from an industry that the full version of 1 program goes for $15k-$20k for the full version and to upgrade x-1 is about the cost of the Master Suite, so yea, Adobe is cheap). Of course, that isn't going into those that sail the seven seas for them as well.

The problem that one also has is with software abstraction so much away from the user is that younger "professionals" do not have the knowledge that was actually expected of users in previous generations (good or bad, that's another topic) and that is only getting worse. Adobe isn't doing themselves any favors with the "skip the photo shoot" ad campaign either.

Now, in the 90s (early-mid 90s is when I started) that may have been true. Not so much anymore.
 

Kemik

I sell stickers and sticker accessories.
Why can't you just send the canva pdf to print? Why use CorHell at all? I am taking Canva files straight into Onyx with no issues.
As a side note, if you take a vector file and open it up in AI6, not the cloud version and save it as a .svg file. It seems to up load back to canva and retain the vector attributes.
The majority of the Canva files I receive are not even the correct dimensions because they just open up any template they like and start designing thinking it will fit any shape they require, or they've added a cut line that the rip can't recognize, etc.
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
WildWestDesigns said:
Ai and Draw are dirt cheap, even more so now

"Dirt cheap" is based on your own personal perspective. Casual/hobbyist users and office workers who have to dabble in graphic design tasks have a different point of view. Price comparisons with perpetual license software in the past is also a bit of an apples to oranges thing as well.

Many office workers and other amateurs gravitate to Canva for multiple reasons. It has a free version along with its paid, premium version. The app has a bunch of clip art and templates. It also has a decent collection of fonts. Non-pro users can bang out some graphics work using those pre-existing elements. The problem is the elements they're using are often a mixed bag of stuff that can cause time-wasting technical problems.

I think $60 per month for a full Creative Cloud subscription is a pretty good value. But most non-professional users are going to balk at a $720 per year (currently) subscription price. CorelDRAW is a little less than half the price, but the "suite" has only two applications. Affinity Designer is only $100 and Serif runs pricing specials on it from time to time. But the app doesn't have a lot of extra "goodies" (such as fonts, clip art, etc). It's easy to see why Canva became popular with anyone looking to do graphics tasks on a low budget (or for free).

Usually if someone is serious enough to pay hundreds of dollars per year for something like Adobe CC they're going to put at least some effort in learning how to create production-ready artwork with it. Granted, I'll still get customer provided art files made in Illustrator that have problems. But the technical issues are usually not as bad as those I see in Canva-generated PDFs.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
"Dirt cheap" is based on your own personal perspective. Casual/hobbyist users and office workers who have to dabble in graphic design tasks have a different point of view. Price comparisons with perpetual license software in the past is also a bit of an apples to oranges thing as well.
If it's for the office, it can easily be subsidized as a write off/expense, so that really doesn't hold much weight. For the casual/hobbyist, that may be true.




Many office workers and other amateurs gravitate to Canva for multiple reasons. It has a free version along with its paid, premium version. The app has a bunch of clip art and templates. It also has a decent collection of fonts. Non-pro users can bang out some graphics work using those pre-existing elements. The problem is the elements they're using are often a mixed bag of stuff that can cause time-wasting technical problems.
This happens even with the ones that are there with pro tools as well. Especially if it's for physical, non printed production. The odds my be greater for Canva.

Now Canva has another issue and that could also create other problems. It isn't a native app (not even the "binaries" that they have for Windows/Mac, those are webview wrappers) and by native, I would also include programs whose UI is all OpenGL/Vulkan (Blender would be the one that most would think about, it's all done on the GPU, it doesn't have the draw call issues as if it was doing what a game does, but it is all GPU Immediate Mode), in other words, non browser context programs (no Electron/Webview (although Webview is better compared to Electron, but that's another topic).

Now it being non native app, that means how it interacts with the file system, fonts etc are all beholding to the browser context. That's a big deal, although, I imagine that native desktop apps are going to go away. People just don't know how to code for them and we see even companies like MS moving more apps to web first and wrap it in Electron, so things are going to get worse.

I think $60 per month for a full Creative Cloud subscription is a pretty good value.
Now it's your turn with "personal perspective". It really comes down to what one values and at what cost one values it at. With what Adobe has become (more of a data company compared to a vendor for creatives), not really. This isn't even going into their business practices (which most SaaS after indulge in to some degree or another).

Bare in mind, when Adobe first started this, it was what 50 and now it's 60. No upgrade discounts, flat 60 (or whatever it will be later on) now until you stop needing it. It adds up, add in all the other software that is now SaaS, long term it's not sustainable.

There is more value for the customer (that's the key thing) in the old model compared to this one. They didn't do this out of the kindness of their hearts. And outside of 5.5 (I don't think of a point release as being a release that should be charged full price for, but I digress), I have bought the Master Suite every version (and only once was it the upgrade path, I didn't like how had to keep the older version, install that first and at that time install the upgrade if swapping out computers) and I had been an Adobe customer since the early/mid 90s.


But most non-professional users are going to balk at a $720 per year (currently) subscription price. CorelDRAW is a little less than half the price, but the "suite" has only two applications.
There will be people that will balk at anything, no matter what it is.

Usually if someone is serious enough to pay hundreds of dollars per year for something like Adobe CC they're going to put at least some effort in learning how to create production-ready artwork with it.
Like with anything it depends. I know plenty (even on here) that just though having a Mac made them a professional or that people were less of a professional if they didn't have a Mac.

It's a tool, it depends on the knowledge of the person that's using said tool. I think what has happened is that too many people are beholding not just abstractions, but sometimes they are hooked on very specific abstractions. Give me some of the basic tools, I can still do what I need to do and that allows me to move from one program to the next without degradation in what I'm able to do (ironically, sometimes I still actually have to use those tools, because the more automated ways still can't do it at the level that it needs to be done). Oddly enough, even if the other tool has an option that someone may need, sometimes it's done a different way and the person doesn't want to learn the new way, because they have done it the original way for 30 odd yrs. That's a them problem though.

But I digress.
 

myront

Dammit, make it faster!!
...I think $60 per month for a full Creative Cloud subscription is a pretty good value. But most non-professional users are going to balk at a $720 per year (currently) subscription price. CorelDRAW is a little less than half the price, but the "suite" has only two applications....
2 options for Corel. Yes, only includes Draw & Photopaint. Photopaint is almost exactly like Photoshop. So much that I use it more often as you can easily edit images with a click of a button then go right back to Draw and press on, no need to re-import etc.

1. subscription $22.42 p/mo
2. One Time Purchase $549
You could be good for several years. We're still on Corel X7 and can churn out signs and complex designs pretty fast with it. Think of the savings. Do the math.
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
Think of the savings. Do the math.
Back when CC was just 49.99 and still had CS, unless one needed the master suite, it would take 7 yrs (upgraded every new release) and I think it was the Production Suite or something like that, would be cheaper compared to the subscription (there was a reason that Adobe only did 3 yrs out on their own calculations). Now if needed the master suite, I think it would take 20 yrs for it to pay off (we are over half that time now, I think this came out in what 2013 when it was CC only). Now that assumed staying at that same price, but even when they did change, if the percentages were the same for both with regard to the changes, it would still mathematically end up the same, but that part is speculation.

This isn't a good thing for the customer, it really isn't. Plus they have been more iterative compared to innovative. I don't consider the AI stuff to be innovative, I'm not a fan of it at all, but I could be a relic of a bygone era I dunno. I'm also not a fan of a production machine being on the WAN, which for some functionality it has to be all the time, and for others, it has to connected every so often. That isn't good.
 

rialine

New Member
Why can't you just send the canva pdf to print? Why use CorHell at all? I am taking Canva files straight into Onyx with no issues.
As a side note, if you take a vector file and open it up in AI6, not the cloud version and save it as a .svg file. It seems to up load back to canva and retain the vector attributes.
If its only to print thats fine, but most of the artwork clients send to me needs cutting as well, and then I need to work through Corel to add cut lines. even finecut doenst want cava artworks, and corel has a rasterslink plugin.
 

Softwaresab

New Member
Has anyone had problems with Canava Files not opening in Corel? I imported the vector PDF file, and it says the file is Corrupted. Did both standard and print exports from Canva.
File works in photoshop and Adobe but I like using Corel more. I have Corel 2021 64bits.
I assume it might be Canva trying to export the text intact and causing problems. Is there any way to export a vector pdf file in Canva with text converted to curves?
There is no option to convert text to curves when exporting PDFs. You can fix this by opening the PDF in Corel PDF Fusion flattening or rasterizing the text and then saving it for use in CorelDRAW.
 
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