Company moving to Illustrator. Advice please.

[ruckstande]

Our company is making a big push to go from Corel to Illustrator. I've been a Corel user for years and am struggling to adapt. Can anyone who's dealt the a similar situation give any pointers on how to make it easier? My biggest issue is we currently make multipage Corel documents, sometimes over a hundred pages, and I can't figure out the easiest and cleanest way to do that in Illustrator. There are other issues but this is a big one. Thanks.

 

[Martin Denton]

To Make multiple pages in illustrator just create one the size you want then press alt and drag that art board to create another the same size and so forth or click on the artboard toolbar where you can then create a new artboard of the same size by pressing the icon to the left of the bin at the bottom. You can also organise them within this toolbar

 

[IDB Signs]

I haven't used Corel personally, so this is strictly from an Ai only perspective.

You can have multiple art boards in Illustrator, that's typically how we produce multi-page files. We do a lot of ADA sign packages for large facilities, so sometimes we have over 200 signs, each on their own art board, in one file for renderings. You can export them as multi-page PDFs, or individually. This allows us to copy a master however many times we need to and just change the content of the sign on each art board. Having your layers organized with the first master makes life so much easier once you have it copied 100+ times.

Hopefully this is what you were talking about and is of some help! Good luck!

 

[John Morton]

We use both here. I personally find Corel a much easier program to use. I'm a Mac guy but use Corel on the PC. I find that Corel a way better value then the Adobe suite of programs.

 

[ruckstande]

I haven't used Corel personally, so this is strictly from an Ai only perspective.

You can have multiple art boards in Illustrator, that's typically how we produce multi-page files. We do a lot of ADA sign packages for large facilities, so sometimes we have over 200 signs, each on their own art board, in one file for renderings. You can export them as multi-page PDFs, or individually. This allows us to copy a master however many times we need to and just change the content of the sign on each art board. Having your layers organized with the first master makes life so much easier once you have it copied 100+ times.

Hopefully this is what you were talking about and is of some help! Good luck!

Two questions, is this a solution to Corel's "Master Pages"? Maybe someone can answer.
Second and unrelated, what do you use for ADA copy? We use Workflow from Nova Polymers. I hate it.

To Make multiple pages in illustrator just create one the size you want then press alt and drag that art board to create another the same size and so forth or click on the artboard toolbar where you can then create a new artboard of the same size by pressing the icon to the left of the bin at the bottom. You can also organise them within this toolbar

Thanks. I'll mess with that.

 

[Reveal1]

You mentioned multiple 'documents' so maybe you should be using InDesign which is tailor made for managing multiple documents. The core command structure is virtually identical to Illustrator. We interchange between Illustrator and InDesign all the time as our business includes conventional print, publication and design along with our sign work.

 

[ruckstande]

We use both here. I personally find Corel a much easier program to use. I'm a Mac guy but use Corel on the PC. I find that Corel a way better value then the Adobe suite of programs.

I very much agree however Adobe handles client design intents better with regards to copy, gradients, and clipping masks. Corel is just way easier and dare I say precise. I don't think I've ever received an Illustrator file that's ever matched what the dimensions lines say.

 

[ruckstande]

You mentioned multiple 'documents' so maybe you should be using InDesign which is tailor made for managing multiple documents. The core command structure is virtually identical to Illustrator. We interchange between Illustrator and InDesign all the time as our business includes conventional print, publication and design along with our sign work.

I refer to documents interchangeably as jobs. Most job files have multiple pages. Some over 100+. pages.

 

[axelmk]

Good morning,
Try https://www.lynda.com/Illustrator-tutorials/Illustrator-CC-2019-Essential-Training/756294-2.html
They have great tutorials for all the Adobe CC and much more.
My employees have taken great advantage of this learning portal and the cost is not high for what you get.
Hope this helps.
Axel

 

[IDB Signs]

Two questions, is this a solution to Corel's "Master Pages"? Maybe someone can answer.
Second and unrelated, what do you use for ADA copy? We use Workflow from Nova Polymers. I hate it.


Thanks. I'll mess with that.

We have a Vision Engraver and use their Expert 9 Software. It looks and feel like SignLab, and it runs on a similar CADlink based platform. It doesn't do too awful much, we usually do all of our design work in Illustrator and then output to Vision, which also runs the engraver.

 

[yor]

I assume that your are working in the sign industry.. If yes, what is the reason to have hundreds items files ? for this kind of job InDesign will be clearly the better solution. Otherwise, as the sign company graphic designer + print/cut production, Illustrator is the best by far for both for me.

 

[ruckstande]

I assume that your are working in the sign industry.. If yes, what is the reason to have hundreds items files ? for this kind of job InDesign will be clearly the better solution. Otherwise, as the sign company graphic designer + print/cut production, Illustrator is the best by far for both for me.

For example we have a job for a hospitals interior signage. There are maybe 80 different sign types. Each one will have it's own page, plus pages for every message. There could be hundreds of signs per sign type all within one package(document).

 

[IDB Signs]

I assume that your are working in the sign industry.. If yes, what is the reason to have hundreds items files ? for this kind of job InDesign will be clearly the better solution. Otherwise, as the sign company graphic designer + print/cut production, Illustrator is the best by far for both for me.

As mentioned above, we do a great deal of ADA signage for healthcare facilities. These are often times orders with well over 200 signs with digitally printed elements. In order to provide the potential client with full color renderings, we use multiple artboards in one AI file to create the entire order, export to a multi-page PDF, and then have that to send to the client along with a quote.

 

[rjssigns]

You mentioned multiple 'documents' so maybe you should be using InDesign which is tailor made for managing multiple documents. The core command structure is virtually identical to Illustrator. We interchange between Illustrator and InDesign all the time as our business includes conventional print, publication and design along with our sign work.

This^^^

You can also use InDesign as a collection point when building a multi-page document. Build your artwork in Ai, Ps then paste into whatever page you want in Indesign.

 

[ruckstande]

This^^^

You can also use InDesign as a collection point when building a multi-page document. Build your artwork in Ai, Ps then paste into whatever page you want in Indesign.

I'd have to see this actually done. It's unfortunate that to do the same thing in CorelDraw using one program I will now need multiple programs.

 

[ruckstande]

As mentioned above, we do a great deal of ADA signage for healthcare facilities. These are often times orders with well over 200 signs with digitally printed elements. In order to provide the potential client with full color renderings, we use multiple artboards in one AI file to create the entire order, export to a multi-page PDF, and then have that to send to the client along with a quote.

How many artboards can you have? We print use 11x17 pages.

 

[yor]

In the 2017 Illustrator I think there was 100 artboards limitation, but in the 2018 one there are up to 1000, I can't confirm because I never use as many..

Another way is to have for ex. 10 artboards with 10 layers with 10 items on each of them.

 

[mattc5900]

I have to agree with using indesign.. Just like rjsigns said above create with whatever you like (illustrator ect) then simply import them into indesign. You can control multi pages very easily and make changes to mulit pages at one time ect... I can't imagine trying to deal with a couple 100 pages in illustrator.. I come a print/advert background and is the standard for the most part.. Holler is you need anything..

 

[yor]

With just the 10 artboards / 10 layers (10 items on each) AI file you can easely produce 10 print files, I don't see any valid issue there.

 

[IDB Signs]

We have had over 100 many times in one file. The InDesign route may be equally as viable, but I just work mainly in AI, so that's the way we've always done it. Just as long as your tiled artboards don't exceed the max working size in Ai, you should be good.