I have been in the sign industry for 11 years and a hand letterer and designer by trade. I have decided to start my own small sign shop using the computer to aid in design and for vinyl signs. I will not be doing any digital graphics.
I was wondering if anyone knew which program is more user friendly: Flexi 8 (looking towards FlexiSIGN)or SignLab 7.1 (looking towards SignLab Vinyl). I have worked with both in older versions - Signlab about 9 years ago and Flexi 7.5 this year for about 6 months. I've got the retailers of each down to the same price for each.
SignLab, as I remember, was extremely easy to learn. Flexi, on the other hand, took me awhile to learn and seemed kind of awkward in the design aspect if you want to be original. This may be, though, because I have worked for a company that used an old version of Anagraph (if anyone's heard of that!) for the past 6 years and it took me awhile to get used to a new up-to-date program.
Hopefully someone out there has dipped a little into both programs and can give me some advice! I'd appreciate it!
Thanks, Jess
-------------------- Jessica Woodrow P.O. Box 212 Edgar, WI 54426 Posts: 16 | From: Edgar, WI | Registered: Jan 2000
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I have been reading the questions and responses people have put in about both SignLab and Flexi and there are far more questions about troubles with SignLab. Just wondering if more people might have SignLab than Flexi or if there are many more problems with that program. I am a Letterville resident in the making and could hang on for awhile to see more before I buy either program, but as we all know time is money. Just wondering if Flexi has as many glitches as SignLab and if the glitches SignLab has will set you back as a sign artist trying to make a business.
-------------------- Jessica Woodrow P.O. Box 212 Edgar, WI 54426 Posts: 16 | From: Edgar, WI | Registered: Jan 2000
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I do my design work in illustrator & hand off to my production people for ouput to printers & plotters. I used Casmate for yesrs, but brought on both Flexi & Signlab after hiring a production guy. He uses then every day... signlab for basic design & vinyl cutting... Flexi for output to our large format printer. I learned enough in both programs to get my work done, but not as much for doing design directly in those programs since I'm happy with the functional importing filters that allow me to just keep the lower cost, yet high end industry standard Adobe design software on my design station at work & at home. From what I've seen though, Flexi is more familiar to me. If you were ever going to own an EDGE... I'm more impressed with Signlabs Edge printing features... but I have Omega for that, so I haven't used Signlab with my Edge... just heard a lot of good things about it.
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alternately, you could get Corel Draw... (how come someone hasn't beaten me to that...)
I have a really old version of flexi that I'm happy with, but have been using Corel (12) and Illy just to get better with them. Pricewise, you can't beat Corel, though I used to hate it in the earlier versions.
-------------------- "Stewey" on chat
"...there are no limits when you aim for perfection..." Jonathan Livingston Seagull Posts: 7014 | From: Highgrove via Toowoomba, Queensland, Australia | Registered: Dec 2002
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CorelDraw fan here. Use it for both design and cutting with a Roland cutter.
CorelDraw full version $399, upgrade version $179. Quite affordable.
[ September 21, 2006, 08:07 AM: Message edited by: Dave Grundy ]
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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For overall versatility, I stick with CorelDRAW.
The sign capabilities are there along with the tools to do other kinds of design work as well. From business cards to website art and advertising design, it has all the tools to make things happen. Should you decide to venture into digital printing later, it'll do the job for you just as well.
Welcome to Letterville. Rapid
-------------------- Ray Rheaume Rapidfire Design 543 Brushwood Road North Haverhill, NH 03774 rapidfiredesign@hotmail.com 603-787-6803
I like my paint shaken, not stirred. Posts: 5648 | From: North Haverhill, New Hampshire | Registered: Apr 2003
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Thank you for your help so far! I probably won't go into digital printing for years from now so there will be no need for a program that supports anything to do with that for now.
I didn't realize that you could actually plot from corel drew. I have a summa D60.
I'm glad that Stewey said that the older versions of Corel Draw he didn't like because I would have never looked into them if otherwise. Does anyone know what Corel Draw won't do vs. other actual labled "sign programs". There is quite a price difference, but that might be due to digital printing features the "sign programs" have.
Thanks Doug, Stewey, Dave, and Ray!
-------------------- Jessica Woodrow P.O. Box 212 Edgar, WI 54426 Posts: 16 | From: Edgar, WI | Registered: Jan 2000
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Okay, before anyone makes fun of me, I do know that Corel does still Draw and it didn't Drew. lol! I guess I should preview my posting before I add them! Jess
-------------------- Jessica Woodrow P.O. Box 212 Edgar, WI 54426 Posts: 16 | From: Edgar, WI | Registered: Jan 2000
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Just so you know, you can edit a post by clicking the little icon of a pencil & pad above your post. It is a feature that is available for a limited time. i don't know the time frame, but I think it might be a day or so.
Ray said that Corel is good for digital printing (which you don't plan on doing) .. but while i'm sure he is correct, I think it would require a rip program. I believe some printers include one. other printer do not, but the more expensive "sign" programs often include that, so there is one difference.
I also think the sign programs may have more universal compatibility with the numerous plotters, while Corel may have some limitations. There are several Corel experts here, & I think any one of them could offer enough justification for the Corel choice, that I may have chosen to go that route myself had I joined this site sooner.
As it is, I own all Flexi, Signlab & Omega. Each one serves an important enough purpose in my shop that I feel they have been making me money far beyond costing me money...
Do you own your plotter already? If so, post what plotter you will be using. I think another program, co-cut, is sometimes required to get cutting from Corel. It is also reasonably priced, but I also know some roland plotters can be driven directly from Corel.
I own a Graphtec plotter & Howard, the former spokesperson for graphtec's merchant sponsorship of Letterville notified me that they offer a program to allow driving Graphtec plotters directly from Illustrator. (& Corel, I believe)
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Thanks for your help, Doug. I own a Summa D60. I also own WinPC out of Canada. I could just use that, but can't find any help with it as it is an older program and tech support is far and few between. I would like something a little more up to date.
-------------------- Jessica Woodrow P.O. Box 212 Edgar, WI 54426 Posts: 16 | From: Edgar, WI | Registered: Jan 2000
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Jessica Since you have a Summa D60, have a look at the free downloads at the Summa website located HERE
This might help you out a bit.
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
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Jessica I do have a fully equipped digital print shop and own both Flexi & Signlab. Coreldraw is the program we use for design by choice. It also runs just about everything, we cut to a big graphtec directly from it, we print & cut to a 54" VersaCamm (and now a Pro III )directly from Coreldraw and we run all desktop publishing to high speed color & B/w lasers directly from Corel.
You can design in CorelDraw and cut the file with WinPC, if that is what you are comfortable with.
[ September 25, 2006, 11:42 AM: Message edited by: Mike O'Neill ]
-------------------- Mike O'Neill
It has yet to be proven that intelligence has any survival value. - Arthur C. Clarke
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)directly from Coreldraw and we run all desktop publishing to high speed color & B/w lasers directly from Corel. 
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