vid
New Member
Sorry I'm late getting back to this thread
I'm not at the shop. But, it started as literally six squares on a 8.5" x 11" art board then saved as a PDF. It was to simply get 6 PMS colors into a specific sign program built in Flexi. Now it's got a couple pictograms on it of different items we frequently use. There might be eight swatches on it now. In reality, there's no reason to use it now as the sign program is done.
But that's how that PDF is used for other jobs. We just swap out the PMS colors to ones that we need for different customer sign programs. It's not a consistent enough workflow to call it efficient --- mainly because we don't know how to import type from AI into Flexi. However, for a number of sign programs, it has been how we've worked around the frustrations of selecting Pantone colors in Flexi. It seems to be just as fast doing that as scrolling palettes in Flexi.
By the way, thanks for the type about unformatted text --- but yeah, as you guess we're looking for a way to import a file with formatted text.
...and to answer the implied question, "what's the value of Flexi over any other design software?" IMHO, there's isn't much, if any. It seems like I'm going through infinitely more mouse clicks than I ever did or do in either Illustrator or CorelDraw to accomplish the same tasks. It's a miserable design tool by comparison.
However, as production software goes, it's pretty good. In our shop, it is the common software that drives a number of different pieces of equipment (i.e. printers, plotters...) or is the best bridge to the software that does drive the equipment.
Admittedly I've never taken the time to figure out how to do it in Flexi. It's just as efficient for us to to open an existing customer file, or the templated PDF and eyedrop the particular PMS color from the artwork.
Like Wayne, finding a Pantone color in Flexi is not an issue. It's navigating through the swatches that is the chore for me, too.
Best,
vid
I'm not at the shop. But, it started as literally six squares on a 8.5" x 11" art board then saved as a PDF. It was to simply get 6 PMS colors into a specific sign program built in Flexi. Now it's got a couple pictograms on it of different items we frequently use. There might be eight swatches on it now. In reality, there's no reason to use it now as the sign program is done.
But that's how that PDF is used for other jobs. We just swap out the PMS colors to ones that we need for different customer sign programs. It's not a consistent enough workflow to call it efficient --- mainly because we don't know how to import type from AI into Flexi. However, for a number of sign programs, it has been how we've worked around the frustrations of selecting Pantone colors in Flexi. It seems to be just as fast doing that as scrolling palettes in Flexi.
By the way, thanks for the type about unformatted text --- but yeah, as you guess we're looking for a way to import a file with formatted text.
...and to answer the implied question, "what's the value of Flexi over any other design software?" IMHO, there's isn't much, if any. It seems like I'm going through infinitely more mouse clicks than I ever did or do in either Illustrator or CorelDraw to accomplish the same tasks. It's a miserable design tool by comparison.
However, as production software goes, it's pretty good. In our shop, it is the common software that drives a number of different pieces of equipment (i.e. printers, plotters...) or is the best bridge to the software that does drive the equipment.
Admittedly I've never taken the time to figure out how to do it in Flexi. It's just as efficient for us to to open an existing customer file, or the templated PDF and eyedrop the particular PMS color from the artwork.
Like Wayne, finding a Pantone color in Flexi is not an issue. It's navigating through the swatches that is the chore for me, too.
Best,
vid
