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For the work I do, Illustrator with Cadtools works for me, I do have Corel, and know it well, but to me Illustrator is more intuative. Better typographic tools, outline/stroke tools are better, I use them a lot when drafting my designs, especially dashed lines. Cadtools is way more usefull than Corels's Cad tools, though I admit, Illustrator has none, and at 200 bucks, it is a lot of money for that extra feature. I also design for print, and my drawings end up in AutoCad, it works on all those seamlessly. I had a hard time finding a Corel ouput place, so to me it never made sense, I never use clip-art, and never have to do any extrude effects, so Corels use, for me at least, is limited to opening soeonee elses files, but now that Illustrator opens Corel files, I question upgrading to Corel 11. I am a believer that these are tools, and each one has it's use, Corel is a good design program, and for the sake oof many sign people who rely on it, never goes out of business, but at the level of design I do, and the amounts of documentation I develop, Illustrator works better.
Rick
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1540 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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On my Mac, Corel is a memory hog (much worse than Illustrator) and buggy as hell. It crashes faster than a drunk sky diver. With Corel, if I'm going to have any luck at all with it, it has to be the only program running. With Illustrator I'm usually running Flexi, AI, Quickbooks, and sometimes Typestyler all at once. (you PC only guys would drool over the Mac only Typestyler if you saw it)
I'm running Illustrator 9 and have had very few problems. And my Mac is a pre G3!
Careful jumping to a G5. They run system 10 only! I'm going for the dual G4 with system 9 & 10 so I can run a few older programs.
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Dave The G5 does run OS9 while OSX runs as the main system software, I have Illustrator 9 on my G5 with no problem, I don't know about flexi, since the G5 is my work computer, not my home freelance computer.
Rick
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1540 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Rick, that's good to know. Maybe they meant they are not shipping it with sys 9. The ones I saw for early orders only had 10 on them, and since I don't have 9 I could be in a pickle.
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Yeah, my typestyler memories posted above were from my old Mac days. (surprise Bill, Don, etc., much as I love bashing you mac fans when someone brings it up... I was Mac only for 6 years)
& Good old days they were too... if certain software had not taken me captive & lobotomized my better judgement, I probably still would be, but alas... I've went past the point of no return I'm afraid... oh no, thats what they mean by the dark side $#!+ this feels wierd... I'm going back into denial now.
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i like the Adobe stuff better than Corel's. we have one designer who loathes working in illustrator, but many of our supplied files come in the *.ai or *.eps format, so he may choose which program to use.
i agree with Fred on the Corel export as *ai(eps) not handling compounded paths correctly. freehand also does this. when working with plotters that see all the vector paths, it's an extra step to cleanup, but if you deal with it often, you know to look for it.
-------------------- Scott Pagan Admark Graphic Systems Admark Motorsports Graphics 9700 Metromont Ind Blvd Charlotte, NC 28269 www.admarkgraphics.com Posts: 325 | From: Charlotte, NC | Registered: Nov 2001
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Doug my son, even if you are now captured by the dark side, you still realize the errors of your ways. All is not lost.May the power of Panther and the great G5 bring you back to the path of peace and enlightenment.
Dave, I've almost forgotten Typestyler. I bought it along with Illustrator 3 with my first Mac CI. I even have a copy of Typestyler V3 on the shelf that I don't even have installed on my G4. I wonder how it runs in Classic?
Corel? Well, I do alot of Edge stuff from a few local sign shops who use it on thier PC's. They do an excellent job with it. I open their files in Illustrator and print them out with MacImprint. I have no problem with Corel. . . on someone elses computer.
Rick, are you saying that the G5's will run Classic also? One of my main reasons for holding back is my RIP runs in Classic only for the time being although it's suppose to be X native in early 04.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1358 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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You are right about Corel and exporting to .eps, but I have been exporting to .AI for many years without any trouble, does the same thing as an .EPS, everyone else can open with no problems. The fact that you have to jump thru hoops to get illustrator to do something as simple as knock out the insides of letters puts my vote to Corel.
I have been using Illustrator, mainly for offset printing work, to learn the program and be fluent in several programs, but I don't have the time or the patience to have to figure out stupid stuff like why the insides of my letters are missing. Same is true for Freehand, I have it, but it is so screwy just to get it to perform a simple task.
-------------------- Michael Clanton Clanton Graphics/ Blackberry 19 Studio 1933 Blackberry Conway AR 72034 501-505-6794 clantongraphics@yahoo.com Posts: 1737 | From: Conway Arkansas | Registered: Oct 2001
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The time spent learning how to use your software is time well spent. The time wasted making the same errors or doing something in an inefficient manner is much more costly...in my opinion.
But I have the type of personality which requires me to figure it out no matter what....or else I'll be frustrated and can't quit thinking about the problem.
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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Bill, the G5 does not run classic like the new G4s, it runs on OSX, but if you open an OS9 program, a window opens starting OS9 within OSX, so you are basically running OSX and 9 at the same time. I have my Illustrator 8,9, Quark, Pagemaker, Freehand, Fontographer, Golive and Live Motion on OS9 and they work fine, the only thing I don't know is if a dongle protected software will run on it.
Michael, I don't think hitting command 8 is jumping through hoops when punching hole (compound) in a letter, though I agree that the new "expand" button sucks and I had commented to Adobe on it, a very slight inconvenience. I admit that V10 is the buggiest Adobe porgram I have ever used, I didn't not get the beta of Illustrator CS so I don't know if they fixed the bugs, but we are getting it at work very soon. Also when it comes to programs, I know a lot of them, most very well, but then I only design, I used Mac Draw first, but then went into Corel for quite a while, mastered it really well, then when I started working in shops that used Illustrator, I found Illustrator very easy to use, there was a guy who was an Illustrator master at one shop he was a big help.Though there is one program I cannot get the hang of, AutoCad, it hurts my brain every time I use it, I bought 3 books and took a class, I think the program doesn't like me, so I understand not "getting" a program without someone showing you. And of course the older I get the harder it is
Rick
-------------------- Rick Chavez Hemet, CA Posts: 1540 | From: Hemet,CA U.S.A. | Registered: Jun 2001
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Just a note on the compounded path that acts like it's not. Which, by the way, often happens on Corel files exported to Illustrator.
The problem with let's say a "B" that only has one knock out showing is the path direction is wrong on the non open "hole". Look at the attributes palett. Select the non open area with the "arrow +" key. There are two little boxes with arrows pointing opposite directions. One of them is grey. Click on the other which will chang the direction the path is drawn. Bingo, open.
If for some reason that doesn't work it's usually because there are actually two shapes on top of each other. This sometimes happens with merges.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1358 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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You just made me smile.... I just tested your theory and sure enough...when I purposely converted the letter "B" into outlines and then changed the path direction of one of the "holes, and then combined them>>>>>> only one hole showed as it should have with the other one remaining black.
I changed the path back and "voila"....it instantly became a hole again.
How did you discover this? Is this something that was in the manual that I didn't read?
The alternative to this, is selecting the entire "B" (holes and all) and clicking on the "exclude overlapping shape areas" in the Pathfinder pallette and then clicking on the "expand" button to enact it....but that is one extra click.
We should get our own Illustrator forum going here...some of the moderators on the Adobe site are really rude to these types of simple (in their minds) questions.
Have a great day...and by the way...my wife and I were in T City in August for our anniversary. Nice town!
There must be a lot of sign work there...being a touristy area and all.
Thanks again for your input.
Oh,nobody has answered my question though...what's a MAC? Is that like a Kenworth semi or something? (hehehe...sorry couldn't resist)
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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Corel crashing can be greatly reduced by changing the default "undo" settings. The default setting is 99 levels of "UNDO". Reduce that to about 25 and suddenly you will have a stable corel draw.
The "undo" will use up memory and sudddenly you get a page fault.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5278 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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Gees Dave, There you go getting practical again. I wonder how many lost production hours the "other" guys and gals have spent the last couple of months fixing their workstations after all the MS worms came crawling out.
Ya just gotta sit back and smile sometimes.....
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1358 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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Hmmmm...I'd give Dell a call on that. That seems awefully strange to me. I haven't experienced a crash on any XP systems I have.
I have a Gateway 2.4 ghz, 2-200gig hd's, 1 gig RDram,128 mb vid, etc on this (my main) computer.
I have a Dell 4500 933mhz, 512 mb ram, 2-75gig hd's, etc .
And two computers I built myself with AMD 1.6 ghz, 512 mb ram, & 80 gig hd's.
All but one of the last two have XP on them...and I haven't had a single crash yet.
The Windows 98SE machine has been very reliable too.
So I'm not sure why you'd have a problem...but yeah, I'd definately give Dell a call.
The only problem with Dell now is that they have contracted their tech support out to India in an effort to save money. So, hopefully, you'll get someone you can understand.
Gateway...on the other hand still uses US techs..one of the reasons I bought from them last time.
One thing that can screw up a work computer is having a bunch of video games installed. They seem to have a propensity for causing problems. So, if you're into games you might consider dumping them off your Dell if it's used as a work computer.
In all honesty, I believe Mac's to be a very good computer. It's easier now to share files, etc between the two platforms.
It used to be that Adobe was geared towards Mac's...but that's obviously no longer the case. So, with the power, programs, and vast choices in hardware at a much more reasonable price...I've decided to stick with PC's. And I remain very compatible with most people to avoid issues.
I wouldn't hesitate at all to use a Mac though if the opportunity presented itself. If I could just figure out where that other mouse button went though?! Hehehe.
-------------------- Todd Gill Outside The Lines Potterville, MI Posts: 7792 | From: Potterville, MI | Registered: Dec 2001
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![[Frown]](frown.gif)
![[Applause]](graemlins/clap.gif)
I just tested your theory and sure enough...when I purposely converted the letter "B" into outlines and then changed the path direction of one of the "holes, and then combined them>>>>>> only one hole showed as it should have with the other one remaining black.
![[Smile]](smile.gif)
![[Wink]](wink.gif)
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