Neil O

Design software

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What is the best design software for a sawgrass printer.

I find the free Creative Studio useless since you can't save your own designs!

Any suggestions?

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I use flexisign pro as I am familiar with it but for those that are proficient in corel draw or Illustrator I think would be great - heck even photoshop as you can use raster images for sublimation as long as you image is clean - it comes down to what you are comfortable and skilled in using

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My "go to" program is CorelDraw.  It's quite versatile as you can create both raster and vector designs, flyers, etc....

I have Illustrator but have never been comfortable with it...too intricate for what I do.  PLUS, I don't like their new "rental" only program...

At least you can still buy a disk for Corel.

 

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8 hours ago, Sue2 said:

At least you can still buy a disk for Corel.

Amen!

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I'm always surprised by the fact I never see Affinity designer referenced in these forums. Its a a great Vector designer that can export svg and many other formats. Pretty much the best app out there IMO. One time fee you own the software no rental fee! Been using it for years prior to getting into this industry.

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I am new to sublimation and using Vinyl Master LTR and I can't get the sizing correct.  I put the dimensions in and when I print it the Height always prints out smaller than the size that I have put in there.  When I go to print my design then it is so hard to just get what I want to print to come up on the display to be printed.  I have used this program to do vinyl and it took me a while to learn but now I'm questioning if it is a good program for sublimation.  Maybe I am missing something that needs to be changed in order to do sublimation.  

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I am new to sublimation and using Vinyl Master LTR and I can't get the sizing correct.  I put the dimensions in and when I print it the Height always prints out smaller than the size that I have put in there.  When I go to print my design then it is so hard to just get what I want to print to come up on the display to be printed.  I have used this program to do vinyl and it took me a while to learn but now I'm questioning if it is a good program for sublimation.  Maybe I am missing something that needs to be changed in order to do sublimation.  

Most of the softwares are pre programmed to cut with some margin as their default preferences settings. Look out your software, preferable under the setup/preferences sections or directly on the printing dialog box what % of size w.r.t. the nominal size is getting printed. As you said, it is printing smaller than the sizes you enter in the drawing, there should be a figure of less than 100% somewhere under that setting. It can also be though about some deflections during printing but unlikely if the profile you end up getting is what you programmed

 

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In VM settings, there is a Calibration feature. Maybe you are missing where that functionality is located in the program?

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Thank you guys for all of your suggestions but I'm still lost:(  I have looked all over this program and I don't see anything off.  I find the calibration on it but I'm not cutting it, I'm just trying to print it to my sublimation printer. That may not matter but I'm not sure how to calibrate for printing instead of cutting.   The height prints correct but the width comes out short every time.  I attached a couple of pictures of what my screens look like.  Maybe you will see something that I am missing

screenshot 1.PNG

Screenshot2.PNG

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Thank you guys for all of your suggestions but I'm still lost:(  I have looked all over this program and I don't see anything off.  I find the calibration on it but I'm not cutting it, I'm just trying to print it to my sublimation printer. That may not matter but I'm not sure how to calibrate for printing instead of cutting.   The height prints correct but the width comes out short every time.  I attached a couple of pictures of what my screens look like.  Maybe you will see something that I am missing

screenshot 1.PNG

Screenshot2.PNG

Check this thread I found online. Hopefully this helps

 

https://lkc.hp.com/forum/printers/prints-are-printing-out-smaller-than-the-file-size

 

https://support.uscutter.com/hc/en-us/articles/360037959931-Cutter-is-Cutting-Jobs-Too-Big-or-Too-Small-Calibrating-Cutter-Scale-in-VinylMaster

 

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Have you tried creating a simple square of a given size and printing it to see if it comes out the correct size? I'd start with that and maybe it will help you nail down what's going on. Some files can have hidden objects that are outside the visible spectrum which can cause printing problems. I have the VM Pro version and just tested my size with a 50mm square. It nailed it perfectly. If you do something simple and it works then you know there is something else going on causing the problem.

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