dirtydog50000
New Member
I'm relativly new to the sign business, I do shirts but I bought a versacam 540 and I have alot of other posabillities. My question is. Is there an advantage in using flexi or another sign software over using illustrator?
-
I want to thank all the members that have upgraded your accounts. I truly appreciate your support of the site monetarily. Supporting the site keeps this site up and running as a lot of work daily goes on behind the scenes. Click to Support Signs101 ...
flexi vs. illustrator?
- Thread starter dirtydog50000
- Start date
southpawP8NTR
New Member
welcome to signs 101 they all have their own advantages but flexi has it's own rip, and spell checker LOL
Craig Sjoquist
New Member
I only have corel X3
someday I'll get adobe
and maybe someday I'll get a sign software
Welcome to a outstanding forum and people
Happy New Year
someday I'll get adobe
and maybe someday I'll get a sign software
Welcome to a outstanding forum and people
Happy New Year
Carl Crabtree
New Member
If your serious about making signs you need Signlab or Flexi. Both are great programs. We use Signlab along with Coreldraw, Corel PhotoPaint and Photoshop. Some times it takes several programs to get the effects you need. Signlab & Flexi have limited bitmap editing tools, but for general signmaking and working with text & vectors are very productive. Photoshop & PhotoPaint will allow you to tweak your bitmap files.
Vinylman
New Member
Illustrator / Flexi discussion
DirtyDogg:
I have been a loyal user of Illustrator® since 1988. I have made some of the upgrades, leap frogging over some, {currently using CS2 suite}.
I also have FlexiSign® Pro7 something, CorelDraw, CorelPaint.
My current setup is CS2 Suite {all the Adobe products bundled together} running on a MacG4.
I can only speak from MY perspective, but that being said, you will get MANY opinions from this and other forums with regard to your original question.
There was a really heated discussion recently about the SCREWING many people who currently have been experiencing from SAI {FlexiSign}.
Lack of support, Dongle issues, pricey upgrades to repair faulty software issues, etc. etc.
I for one will NEVER do another upgrade on FlexI.
Having used illustrator for over 15 years, with the upgrades {made for ligitament {sp} reasons} I probably have less money invested over 16 years in Adobe® products than the one time shot I took buying Flexi®
WHAT WAS I THINKING??????:Oops:
:
Anyway, from my experience, unless someone spends the time and effort to be properly instructed in their software of choice, they will eventually settle down to using less than 15-20% of the total capabilities of ANY software.
We all have certain areas of graphic design or output that we enjoy. Or that makes us pools of money. Therefore we settle in on what and how to most quickly accomplish those tasks. Therein lies the situation of using perhaps 20% of the capabilities of ANY software program.
Are there BETTER? Faster? more economical/ expensive ways to accomplish these tasks?? Of course. But should you? Would you??
The REAL QUESTION is...
What do YOU want to accomplish with this or any software?
Do I need to spend $4295.00 to create reverse filet corners on {one sign a year} with only three clicks of a mouse as opposed to 10 clicks???
Is there a cheaper way to accomplish that task?
Do I have the Time/Money to pursue alternatives?
Just some things to consider when choosing ANY software.
Regards,
Bob C.
DirtyDogg:
I have been a loyal user of Illustrator® since 1988. I have made some of the upgrades, leap frogging over some, {currently using CS2 suite}.
I also have FlexiSign® Pro7 something, CorelDraw, CorelPaint.
My current setup is CS2 Suite {all the Adobe products bundled together} running on a MacG4.
I can only speak from MY perspective, but that being said, you will get MANY opinions from this and other forums with regard to your original question.
There was a really heated discussion recently about the SCREWING many people who currently have been experiencing from SAI {FlexiSign}.
Lack of support, Dongle issues, pricey upgrades to repair faulty software issues, etc. etc.
I for one will NEVER do another upgrade on FlexI.
Having used illustrator for over 15 years, with the upgrades {made for ligitament {sp} reasons} I probably have less money invested over 16 years in Adobe® products than the one time shot I took buying Flexi®
WHAT WAS I THINKING??????:Oops:
:Anyway, from my experience, unless someone spends the time and effort to be properly instructed in their software of choice, they will eventually settle down to using less than 15-20% of the total capabilities of ANY software.
We all have certain areas of graphic design or output that we enjoy. Or that makes us pools of money. Therefore we settle in on what and how to most quickly accomplish those tasks. Therein lies the situation of using perhaps 20% of the capabilities of ANY software program.
Are there BETTER? Faster? more economical/ expensive ways to accomplish these tasks?? Of course. But should you? Would you??
The REAL QUESTION is...
What do YOU want to accomplish with this or any software?
Do I need to spend $4295.00 to create reverse filet corners on {one sign a year} with only three clicks of a mouse as opposed to 10 clicks???
Is there a cheaper way to accomplish that task?
Do I have the Time/Money to pursue alternatives?
Just some things to consider when choosing ANY software.
Regards,
Bob C.
thewood
New Member
I use both programs daily. Illustrator doesn't have a RIP, though. But you can use Versaworks I assume. I do the majority of my vector editing/design in Flexi. We also cut vinyl and RIP/Print through Flexi. I use Illy mainly for file conversion, etc. If you already have Illustrator and a stand-alone RIP, then you don't need Flexi, per se.
dirtydog50000
New Member
Thanks for all the feed back, it looks like I can use Illustrator for the time being. Does flexi offer a trial?
high impact
New Member
Talk to a Flexi distributer and you can get a cd with a 30 day trial of 8.1 or 8.5.
GARY CULY
New Member
vynleman hasgood answers ....there is a lot of software to choose from out there .all have the capabilities of creating signs ..one way or another ...the latest greatest software isnt the total answer for making good signs ...it will always be the person running them ....there are many great signwriters out there that use old programs ..there is one VERY good signwriter that uses gerber graphics advantage to do his layout work in ..that program has to be 15 years old .hes become very accustom to it and can manufacture at a good speed ..so why switch .....
All good ,nice ,attractive or whatever you call it signs ,wraps ,displays all have one thing in common ...they have the RIGHT fonts ,RIGHT colors,RIGHTgraphics,spaced properly and adjusted to fit well in the area.....people dont become good signwriters overnight..it takes years and hundreds of signs to get there...no matter what programs they are developed in ....just read the posts from the men on here ,decide on one or two and get to know all the tools and use them everyday to become quicker.....it dont happen overnight..thats my .02
All good ,nice ,attractive or whatever you call it signs ,wraps ,displays all have one thing in common ...they have the RIGHT fonts ,RIGHT colors,RIGHTgraphics,spaced properly and adjusted to fit well in the area.....people dont become good signwriters overnight..it takes years and hundreds of signs to get there...no matter what programs they are developed in ....just read the posts from the men on here ,decide on one or two and get to know all the tools and use them everyday to become quicker.....it dont happen overnight..thats my .02