QualeT Graphics

Need advice please....

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Hello Friends,

 

I was just looking for some advice on an excellent cutting and editing program. I am using scalp and inkscape at the moment but want to get deeper into the graphics world. My question is, what is the top notch software to help me out? I am so used to scalp so would like to use that but as far as editing software, what would be a good one? Corel Draw?

 

Any information would be greatly appreciated.

 

Thanks

 

Shane Quale

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Oh, boy... that's like asking "who makes the best cars?" or "which NFL team is the best?"... everyone has an opinion and there is no right answer...  Although I'm sure there are many wrong answers...

 

I'm a big fan of CorelDraw, but primarily because it's what I started on way back in the olden days (CorelDraw v3 was my first - not X3 which is actually v13, but v3) and I continued to use it up through v6 before switching over to using Xara as my primary vector art program.  I still love Xara (now sold as Xara Photo and Graphics Designer), but too many of it's features do not work with cutters, as many of it's effects are rasterized on top of vectors.

 

When I purchased my Graphtec package from US Cutter, it came with CorelDraw X3 and I began using it again because I could cut from inside of CorelDraw, and then upgraded to X6 a few months back.

 

I also have Illustrator CS3 and CS5.5 but I almost never actually use them.  I don't like their UI and I am not a fan of how they like to use different words/names for fuctions that are commonly used in many other programs - it also seems like a lot of important functions are buried in layers of menus or palettes or some other UI device and I can just work faster in CorelDraw.  I'm sure that people who started with Illustrator probably feel that it's way is the right way and everyone else does things backwards, so it probably all depends on what you start with.

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Inkscape while free is pretty powerful and from what I understand does just about everything that the big pay for software packages does in terms of design. There are some file limitations in terms of opening or saving off but most of them can be worked around. I think the question you need to ask in terms of design. What do you want to do that you can't already do?

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I started cutting with flexisign. I love it it does it all print cut plot all the settings ya need. but comes with a price tag. If ya can find a good used copy grab it. 

 

But try them all and see what you are comfortable with. There are some free, and cheaper ones out there. I just like to for the most part, use 1 program to do it all. Even tho i still use inkscape alot since it vectorizes very well...

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You can get a full version of CorelDraw x6 for like $25 a month subscription instead of shelling out the money to buy a full version ($400 +/-) or $200 for a year subscription. Its by far my favorite design software for this industry so far.

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I got hooked on inkscape mostly cause it's free and was the first program i sat down to learn.   I doesnt like eps or ai. files but ive found a couple file converters than turn almost all eps and ai. into svg or pdf

 

and uscutter has a plugin for inkscape so you can send your work to SCAL.  I'll stick with Inkscape and SCAL until they cant do what I need.

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You can install ghostscript to allow Inkscape to open eps files and I've recently discovered that a lot of .ai files, if renamed to .eps will open with Inkscape once you have ghostscript setup.

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I use Illustrator only because it was the first vector based software I began working with. Most people from what I read use CorelDraw and are happy with it. I tried to use it before but it was just frustrating because I'm used to Illustrator, and Illustrator works great for me. 

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Ive been using Photoshop 5 for years now. Im not toooo heavy into graphics but, I do enjoy it.

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Ive been using Photoshop 5 for years now. Im not toooo heavy into graphics but, I do enjoy it.

I , too am a Photoshop 5 user.  How do I change images into usable art that will import into the software for the cutter?

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I use illustrator, photoshop, and VE LXi master (cheap version of flexi)

i love illustrator and photoshop, i have used the open source versions (gimp, and inkscape) while they are good free programs

they can't compare.

 

I , too am a Photoshop 5 user.  How do I change images into usable art that will import into the software for the cutter?

File>export paths to illustrator.

however unless your file is built with shapes and true type fonts it generally will not export correctly,

I just save as high-res jpg RGB and trace it.

Illustrator's live trace works reasonably well.

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I , too am a Photoshop 5 user.  How do I change images into usable art that will import into the software for the cutter?

Get InkScape FANTASTIC program for turning just about anything into a cutable vector.

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I read all the time about people using photoshop for vinyl work and I always come to the same conclusions: why use a raster program to design in when you know you're gonna have to make it a vector in the end. Seems like twice the work than working in a vector based program to begin with so when you're done, you're done. No conversion necessary.

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When I first started I used PS to design also. Then I got CorelDraw x6 and never looked back. I even used Autocad in my first design cause I couldnt figure out how to do a simple thing in any graphic program and could do it in cad in less then a min.

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