advice for buying new software please

[Gavin MacMillan]

I’m sure there are people better qualified than me to answer this but I find X3 really good. You can always have probs with customer files but it certainly helps us. Also it shouldn’t cost too much as you can upgrade and from what I understand flexi-sign is very expensive option?

G

[Robert Lambie]

from what i have heard, flexisign is a brilliant bit of software and well worth the money. however, i did have a mess around with a demo version "many years ago now" and i wasnt over keen on its ease of use in comparison to signlab 4.95 back then. we had bought signlab and were about to buy a second software and considered flexi but as i said, wasnt keen in having to learn it all again, so we opted for a second signlab. we now have 5 signlabs.
like signlab, flexi comes in modules so you dont have to buy the full package price if you are just wanting to open and save files. "i think" both softwares modules start about £150 to £200’ish
from what i have seen and hear, Corel X3 is a very good bit of software and for the money. Andrew uses it here and really likes some of the features, "but i have yet to have a go at using it".

[Neil Churchman]

Thanks for the feedback guys…..

Hey Robert, I know exactly what you mean about sticking with software that’s familiar to you, and just upgrade with it over the years (15 years with Gerber software for me)

I wonder how many sign makers stick to software because it’s familiar to them and hold back from changing to a better software because of the steep learning curve to get things running with it. 🙄

[Robert Lambie]

no probs mate… to be honest we didnt opt for signlab just because its what we knew… to be honest we were just getting to grips with signlab at the time as we had been using a Gerber 4B from spandex rigged to a MAC tablet and comp for digitising for many years. so that was all "old hat" and we wanted to move forward with the times so bought a roland cutter and signlab.
we also bought a Roland PC60 which had just appeared in the UK at the time… we needed a second software so started looking around again.
when we tried flexi at the time it only showed graphics in "wire frame" which i didnt like. things seemed a bit more long winded than producing in signlab, well for me it felt that way anyway. 😀 it was a while ago now but there was other reasons for my decision too… final one was cost, we needed the full package and "again from memory" the full flexi package was a fair bit more than signlab colour master for printing etc

[Alan Drury]

Yes X3 is certainly better at importing other file formats. All the major filters were updated ie eps – Ai – pdf.
Alan D

[Steve Underhill]

I use Corel X3 and cannnot see why signlab or flexi would be streets ahead of X3 except maybe some speed issues on tasks that those 2 are designed to do, as Corel is basically a vector drawing package and not specifically geared towards signage, that said Id be prepared to bet there’s nothing it cant do compared to those two it may just take a while longer to do certain stuff and is probably quicker on a lot of it too
Its all down to personal preference, IE some people prefer to spend £2000 instead of £300
Before anyone moans I’m not slating flexi or Corel I haven’t used either so cant comment, I just know Corel can cut anything from vinyl I choose to tell it to, so thats good enough for me :lol1:

[Alan Drury]

Just to add to Steves’s post, I use both Corel X3 and Signlab V7.1. All vinyl is done in house with digital print done by others from my files which have been set up in Corel. I could make my living using Corel alone but my workflow for vinyl does often include both. Primarily for vinyl I would use Signlab, node editing is better and the cutting interface is very good for step and repeat, welding has more features and I refer to the inlay weld which can overlap just the touching parts, shadow part is also way ahead of Corel’s. Corel’s text handling is much better, it has colour management and Pantone support. PowerTrace is now very accurate and can be compared with the best, Photopaint (included in the suit) will do everything the average signmaker will ever want. For those doing typesetting for printers Corel is absolutely miles ahead with impositionand separation included as part of the programme. For newbies compare Signlab/Flex @ £1200.00 odd against Corel suit @£300.00 odd and you have no choice really, that said for more advanced, cutting specific features then Signlab and co have the edge but obviosly you pay for it, Corel is steadily improving and the gap is getting closer vinyl wise.
Alan D