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Corel X3 Quality?!?
i regularly get asked for business cards and leaflets and of course duly oblige for the extra money and turnover.
I use trade suppliers from various sources and i use Corel X3 and photoshop as my main graphic programs.
When the design is solely photoshop i send .pdf files and the job comes back cock on. When i use Corel and send files as .pdf or .jpeg the jobs always come back with lesser quality print.
On closer inspection the text and graphics seem to be pixelated, only very slightly but the quality is apparent on a close inspection.
Has anyone else noticed this and is there any fix? -
14 Replies
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Are you using vectors, or bitmaps in Corel?
as I would use bitmaps in photoshop and vectors in corel, reason being thats what they are both designed for.
Photoshop may be using 300 dpi as default where corel uses 72 dpi.
(if Im not mistaken) -
quote Steve Underhill:Are you using vectors, or bitmaps in Corel?
as I would use bitmaps in photoshop and vectors in corel, reason being thats what they are both designed for.
Photoshop may be using 300 dpi as default where corel uses 72 dpi.
(if Im not mistaken)Found that a pain in the ar$e with Corel, as 72dpi is default and its the same in Corel Paint!!! Also hate the fact that I have to set line thickness at 0.001 at the start of every session as I cut direct from it too……….
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Some printers convert the files to jpegs or tiffs. If i’m doing a business card I convert it to a tiff @ 300dpi and print it out first to check the quality is ok before I send the file off. Photshop files do work better though I think than Corel.
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I get that! I get a default 0.2mm line in X4, drives me nuts when I do weeding boxxes and forget to do a hairline, at least yours is one step from a hairline.
Ok who knows the check box to make hairline default like I have in X3 -
There is no reason why Corel should not produce equal or better results than anything else. If you are publishing to pdf from Corel ensure your settings are correct, if stuff is 72dpi its because you’ve got it set for screen or print rather than press. Make sure your colour manager is set correctly for a more accurate rgb to cmyk display and conversion of bitmaps.
Default hairline – from a blank page – choose oultline tool and hairline – a box will appear to say this will be the default for Graphic and or text etc. If you want other default settings ie snap options, page size or what ever from a blank page make your changes – click tools tab and then select ‘save settings as default’
Draw’s default for rendering drop shadows and bitmap effects is 300dpi which is correct for litho work but can be altered from tools – options – workspace – general – this does not effect vector shapes.
I send stuff to printers all the time and Corel products are more than capable of producing the artwork required, I think if people were to explore Photopaint more they would also find it does everything they would require and especially as it comes with the Corel Suite.
Alan D -
I export the files as 300dpi jpegs generally, colour is CMYK.
Since getting X3 i’ve saved as .pdf files with max quality settings and tried it this way. I always get a lesser quality job than i do when i start from scratch in photoshop.
I’ve also tried converting the text to curves before exporting, this didn’t work. (I thought that corel must do something to a font that inhibits from exporting correctly).
Still none the wiser. -
If I was sending out artwork to be printed as business cards there would be no way I’d use jpeg. I would convert all text to curves and send as a high res pdf. Never had any problems with the results – could it be the printer you use isn’t up to the job.
John
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All our printing is done with PDF from CorelX3 SP2. Has been now for 10 years with the Corels but there is a few quirks you have to learn from PDF filter, like fountain fades, rendering rgb/cmyk parts together & large powerclips.
Our JV3 is run this way
Our litho printing is all PDF, converted to curves.A good rule of thumb is to open the PDF file in acrobat reader and look at it, if it looks crap then dont send it.
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quote :A good rule of thumb is to open the PDF file in acrobat reader and look at it, if it looks crap then dont send it.
Couldn’t have said it better myself :lol1: :lol1: :lol1:
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Don’t see any problems.
Been outputing to Litho since Draw 3, Only thing I hate is when you output to PDF with text to curves ‘i’ & ‘L’s look thicker on screen but output fine.
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Thats just it, it looks good.
The printers that i use for the business cards are top drawer, i have no issues with them at all.
Could the problem be a PC to MAC issue? They are MAC based and check the files first, would this alter the file in anyway at all.Let me stress it is only the text, on really close inspection (i mean up close) it looks slightly pixelated when produced in X3, when done in photoshop there is no problem. This tells me that Corel doesn’t produce the same goods as Adobe.
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but text is vectors, it can never be pixels unless you have converted to a bitmap then made a PDF. Tim’s comments on the i l is all too true, when a converted curves in preview allows a bit shaky. Acrobat cannot use text smoothing as its no longer text lol.
Show us, attach a PDF to the post
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If text is vector your end it must be something that’s happening printer end. Different printers have different workflows but there is still the PC/MAC – Adobe/Corel devide. I don’t doubt some printers who are MAC orientated and are not familiar with Corel will take an easy way out and convert the lot to a bitmap. I send stuff to Aubergine print to name one but many as a cdr file and everything come back perfect as do jobs sent as pdf (from Acrobat) to my local printshop who run neither Corel or MAC.
Please upload the file so we can see. I repeat Corel is perfectly capable of producing top notch artwork for virtually any form of output.
Is it possible you are using rgb black and not 100%K for your problem text?
Alan D -
Not sure how to upload it, can i do it in this forum or will i have to upload elsewhere?
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