-
which software would be suitable for long term use
sorry if this has been covered before.
I’m very slowly building my vehicle graphics business, and am currently using illustrator. The main reasons for using illustrator is that in my present full time job as a printer our design is all done using illustrator and this meant i could get help easily.illustrator is working very well with my graphitec cutter, but as i progress and i want to move in to wraps and all aspects of printed vinyl.
Is illustrator capable of covering all the bases for what i want to achieve?
One thing with illustrator that bothers me is that when i import a vehicle outline it is not to scale and you have to multiply the dimensions to get the right size. Do other software’s import to scale?
I want to really learn a software that i can stick with and master, not have to start all over when i expand.
So will i be ok continuing with illustrator or should I be looking at the likes of corel and or signlab? or any others?
any advice gratefully received
Steve
:police: Mod-Edit
* Please use "Descriptive Topic Titles" when posting.
* This posts Title has now been edited.Please take a moment to look over our Board Rules.
-
9 Replies
-
You can use illustrator for doing wrap design, you will need Photoshop aswell though.
Dedicated sign software like Flexisign will let you work at full size, but won’t have all the fancy effects you can do for print type stuff that you get in Illustrator.
You’re probably best sticking with what you know.
-
I use Illustrator and Photoshop for the creative part of the job then export these files at final 100% size into the rip on the press – so basically the rip is only printing the file and not doing any of the artwork production.
Even when I use Composer for cut only graphics I still do all the fiddly artwork as illustrator files and import into the rip.
I find that you can control all the elements of ‘how the job will look’ in Illustrator/Photoshop and let the rip well rip 😉
-
I agree with Phill…
Illustrator and photo shop for artwork/printing etc..even correl
I use Signlab for cutting tho as I don’t think anything comes close to its possibilities???
-
I’ve never found anything I couldn’t do with Illustrator, so why put yourself through the pain of learning something new?
Also, Illustrator will open most files that you are likely to be sent by clients.
-
We also use Adobe Illustrator. The new version CS4 is really good.
cheers
Andre
-
Thanks for the replies now i know I’m using the right software i will push on and try and master it 😮
-
quote Steve Pugsley:One thing with illustrator that bothers me is that when i import a vehicle outline it is not to scale and you have to multiply the dimensions to get the right size. Do other software’s import to scale?
Odds are the outline you’re importing was built to scale originally, and IL is just importing it at actual size from the original. Scaling the template to actual size is a pretty normal step to have to go through, I personally haven’t encountered any templates that were *built* at actual size.
What’s really annoying is when you run up against Illustrator’s 227.5" artboard limit.. if you have to do a wrap larger than that, you also have to *work* at scale, which can be a real pain, if somewhere along the line somebody forgets to keep track of it. Stay sharp.
Does CS4 still have that size limit BTW? We’re still on CS3 here…
-
Well the impact outlines are full size, as cdl files. As far as I know, drawn at full size in signlab, and then scaled down for illustrator.
Brian will comment if he reads this, and correct me if I am wrong.Peter
-
That’s my understanding Peter. Impact eps files are full size, and ai one are 1:20 scale.
Anybody working in Illustrator needs a copy of CADtools. https://www.hotdoor.com One of it’s many tricks is one that does all the scaling stuff for you. You don’t know that you are working to scale.
Log in to reply.
