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Question Does Anyone Use A Stylus To Design Signs In Corel?

Larry3408

New Member
Does anyone use a stylus to design signs in Corel x7? I would like to know if there is any advantage to a stylus when all I am working with is geometric shapes pretty much. Right now I use a rollerball mouse and it works fine but am in the process of updating and wondering if a tablet would really improve my productivity or not?
 

shoresigns

New Member
I don't think it would be any faster than a mouse for drawing geometric shapes. A stylus is better suited for drawing freehand shapes, i.e. for art and illustrations.

I'd highly recommend investing in a really good mouse though. Gaming mice are great for graphic design. I don't use the extra buttons or anything, but when you're moving them around quickly they're way more smooth and accurate.
 

The Vector Doctor

Chief Bezier Manipulator
I work with a pen tablet all day everyday.... I can draw/trace much faster than with a mouse. When I first tried a friend's tablet I hated it. I gave it a try again a year later after reading positive reviews and after feeling aches in my hands from using a mouse all day. After a few days I felt much more comfortable. I would never go back. If/when my tablet fails, I will have to either buy one locally or have it shipped overnight. I do not want to use a mouse ever again to draw.

If you think about how a mouse works, it really makes no sense to draw with one. It is much more natural to draw using basically the same tool as a real pen or pencil. It is simply a digital equivalent
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
I use a Wacom Intuos Pro graphics tablet with my setup at home. It takes some time to get used to working with a stylus, but it will definitely speed up tasks like digitizing vector artwork over scanned images. Certain drawing features in CorelDRAW and Illustrator work best using a stylus. I have a multiple monitor setup at work and graphics tablets can act a little weird with that.

I'd love to have a Wacom Cintiq or other kind of full fledged computer that allowed drawing directly on screen. But, wow, the prices are high.
 

Big Rice Field

Electrical/Architectural Sign Designer
I have been drawing in Corel with a thumb trackball for 15 years. I will invest in a wacom soon. If it does not work out for me I'll just sell it.....
 

ironchef

New Member
I got a surface book and upgraded to corel 2017. Works well but have some complaints. The right click button doesn't bring up the right click menu that comes up using a mouse. Other than that, works great.

Sent from my SM-G950U using Tapatalk
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
I'd love to have a Wacom Cintiq or other kind of full fledged computer that allowed drawing directly on screen. But, wow, the prices are high.

I love the Cintiq line. Pictured is the 27" one, but I also run a 21", 12" and their 1st gen 13" tablet for travel use.

It very much, in my mind, bridges the gap between traditional and digital. Now granted, I'm more of a pencil sketcher and not a painter or air brusher, so I'm sure my expectations may be less due to that.

When I can't do the Cintiq way, I use Wacom's Inkling to sketch on paper (boy I sound like a walking advertisement for Wacom).

Now, I must say, I don't use DRAW, I have it, due to their partnership with Wilcom, but I actually don't have it installed and in use on any of my VMs, I use Ai and on occasion Inkscape and Zara, but it should all be the same as far as that goes.
 

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Johnny Best

Active Member
Been using a Wacom for many years, they are great and fast for rendering. Also use the trackpad on a laptop also but the Wacom is so much nicer to draw with.
 

Jean Shimp

New Member
I have a 12" Wacom Cintiq. I like it a lot - it took a long time to get used to it. Funny thing is a still prefer a pencil and paper to start out a design with. The motion of pencil on paper seems to feel better than the stylus on the screen. There is very little "drag" when drawing with a hard tip stylus on a hard surface. The beauty of the tablet is that you get an instant vector file once you refine your drawing.
 

Bobby H

Arial Sucks.
I started using a large 12.9" iPad Pro (512GB WiFi only 2017 model) for certain hand-drawn tasks. I'm not an Apple fan, but after comparing the stylus performance between the Wacom Cintiq, Microsoft Surface Pro/Surface Pro Studio the Apple Pencil in conjunction with the iPad Pro won out handily for on-screen drawing. The Surface Studio is a beautiful, elegant PC with an awesome looking monitor. But that made the laggy performance of the stylus that much more disappointing. The Apple Pencil has no lag to it at all.

The Apple Pencil has its own downsides. The thing costs $99, which seems expensive. It is battery powered, although the battery life is pretty good. Just be very careful not to lose the little female to female Lightning connector needed for charging it. IIRC Apple still isn't selling replacement tips and connectors yet (although some 3rd party after market products are available). Still, the Apple Pencil works great -even through a tempered glass screen protector.

I knew there was a decent number of drawing/painting applications available for the iPad. I was surprised at their inexpensive price (less than $10 for most of them; some even free). Obviously none are a replacement for CorelDRAW and Illustrator. But the iPad can dramatically speed up certain types of hand lettering and hand-drawn digital graphics tasks.
 
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