I was reading the posts below on corel draw and am looking for a new program as i now use printmaster which is very basic.half my work is free hand routed wood signs and the rest is hand painted signs and car tags.Im looking to make more complex designs but want to keep things as simple as posible .I have no vinyl cutter,I make a transparency and project it on to what i m doing any sugestions? thanks
Posted by Elaine Beauchemin (Member # 136) on :
xara?
price is good features are great! works well with bitmap and vectors intuitive too Posted by Steve Eisenreich (Member # 1444) on :
Stan if you noticed a lot of people here use CorelDraw. Look for a version 11 for cheap and learn it. That way you have one of the very best software tools out their for the sign industry and more and you got it for a low cost. Also their are a ton of expert CorelDraw users here ready to help with the learning curve. Xara was pitched out by Elaine and it is a good program but you will find better support for Corel and the amount of different import and export filters that come with CorelDraw are why better than Xara.
Posted by Stan Yates (Member # 3176) on :
elaine, xara looks like a really cool program love all the demos. may i ask what retailer u got your program from? thanks.
Posted by Elaine Beauchemin (Member # 136) on :
Stan, I got Xara online from the web site. As Steve stated Corel version 9 or 11 would be a good choice too. If you are on winXP you can download a bunch of 30 days full working trials from Corel site too.
Posted by Kelsey Dum (Member # 6101) on :
The designer I replaced used XARA and I found it extremely outdated. I know it's expensive, but with Adobe software (Illustrator, Photoshop) you can never go wrong. File formats are easily manipulated, imported and exported, and Adobe software will interact with other software very well...if your thinking long term I think this is the way to go.
Posted by Dave Grundy (Member # 103) on :
Stan..I'm a Corel user.
I've tried the downloadable trials of both Illustrator and Xara.
I found both to be confusing (because they weren't what I am used to, of course)
Illustrator was something I could figure out, Xara was something that I could not only not figure out, but found it was very "clumsy" (just my experience)
I would agree with Steve and Kelsey. Get a program that others, here, can easily help you to figure out.
In my time visiting Letterville I can't remember anyone asking or answering specific questions about Xara.
Posted by Ralph Kelly (Member # 6087) on :
Stan i like tto use the logo creator...its real easy!!!.and very affordable.i think i paid $20 for mine..they have a free demo download ..heres the link..http://www.thelogocreator.com/
later i'll make a sample logo and post it for you..
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