Corel to lend DS expertise at sign trade show. Huh???
March 23, 2008 by Dave Haynes
Ottawa-based Corel has been around a long time as a competitor to Adobe for publishing and graphics.
Somehow or other, one of their guys is leading a session on digital signage at the International Sign Expo trade show this week.
“CorelDRAW(R) Graphics Suite has always been the leading choice for sign makers,” said Gerard Metrailler of Corel, in a press release. “We have consistently worked with our customers to understand their needs and introduce innovations that enable them to take advantage of new business opportunities and remain competitive in an increasingly dynamic market. Digital signage is becoming more and more pervasive and this show provides us with an excellent opportunity to meet with signmakers and share best practices for integrating digital signage into any business enterprise.”
As far as I can tell, iVideoToGo Platinum, which is for home movies, is the only thing Corel has that even does motion graphics.
It’s the biggest sign show on the planet. Surely they could have had someone actually doing real digital signage come in and run a session.
A few years ago, Matrox started bundling the CorelDraw software suite as part of their “digital signage” graphics card bundle. I don’t recall all the specifics of the offering but I think they expected you to use Corel’s Flash authoring tool (since dropped from their software suite).
Perhaps they are planning to re-enter the motion graphics business with a new product!
When I read this press release a few days ago I had the same reaction. But, then I realized that the are not talking about the same “Digital Signage” that we refer to. Corel is talking about “Digital Output” for PRINTED signs. It all makes sense when you consider that Corel Draw outputs vector.
I’m not so sure about that. I understand what you are theorizing, but I don’t get that from the press release language.
Well, then I’m confused I guess. If Corel is really going to speak as digital signage “experts” then it’s truly a WTF moment in digital signage history. I guess we’ll have to see…