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I need opinions about Flexi Sign and Adobe Illustrator...

earthvibe360

New Member
Can you tell me in your experience in the sign industry.. Can a sign shop function on just Flexi alone,
without Adobe Illustrator to interpret customer artwork?

what are your thoughts on this? pro's and con's?

thanks!
 

d fleming

Premium Subscriber
Usually if Signlab can't import it, Corel can. I have illy but I very rarely use it. I do use photoshop a bit from time to time. Out of the 4 programs I use illy the least.
 

synergy_jim

New Member
We use Illustrator / Photoshop combo along with Caldera as our Rip. Illustrator has a learning curve, but once you master it, it will do anything. Total Training and Lynda.com are your friends when it comes to all things adobe. Adobe also has their own tutorials if you subscribe to Creative Cloud.
 

Auburnpeanut

New Member
We use flexi and have for the past 9 years. While we have illustrator, I have only needed to use it a handful of times to be able to open a customers artwork. Generally if you have the customer/customers designer/whoever save it as an eps file as opposed to ai then it will open 99% of the time. You still have to double check everything as you always have to do when moving from one program to another or older version to newer version, etc.
 

Mike Paul

Super Active Member
Yes, you still need Illustrator and Photoshop if you prefer to work out of Flexi.
Strange things can happen when importing files and it's best to open them in each program
to check any hiccups...
 

GAC05

Quit buggin' me
Yes, you still need Illustrator and Photoshop if you prefer to work out of Flexi.
Strange things can happen when importing files and it's best to open them in each program
to check any hiccups...

+1

We use Flexi, Corel & Illustrator
You can get by without AI/PS but if you plan on working with other people's files you will save countless hours by gritting your teeth & joining the Adobe herd.
Last week I received the work files for a wrap on a little Scion 2dr.
Each panel was between 1.3 & 1.9 gigs in AI format.
Hundreds of elements nicely arranged on a single layer with no logical grouping & lots of creative use of nested masks......
Untangling this thing in Flexi would have caused the last of my working brain cells to fuse into a smoking grey blob.

wayne k
guam usa
 

phototec

New Member
Yes, you still need Illustrator and Photoshop if you prefer to work out of Flexi.
Strange things can happen when importing files and it's best to open them in each program
to check any hiccups...

+1

We use Flexi, Corel & Illustrator
You can get by without AI/PS but if you plan on working with other people's files you will save countless hours by gritting your teeth & joining the Adobe herd.
Last week I received the work files for a wrap on a little Scion 2dr.
Each panel was between 1.3 & 1.9 gigs in AI format.
Hundreds of elements nicely arranged on a single layer with no logical grouping & lots of creative use of nested masks......
Untangling this thing in Flexi would have caused the last of my working brain cells to fuse into a smoking grey blob.

wayne k
guam usa


:goodpost:(BOTH)


I would say if you are in your own little world (like on a desert island), you could get by with Flexi alone, but in the real world you need to have more than one tool in you tool bag. Remember that most people outside your sign shop do NOT use Flexi (RIP) software they use Illy, Corel and/or PS to create artwork, and it helps if you have these tools to be fully compatible with all your customers.

I have been using the Adobe products for a very long time, so I use these tools to create all my artwork, I use Flexi only as a RIP, I find it much easier and more productive to use Illy and PS for creating, I'm a layer person, I like to use way to many layers in my master files, I don't like to tie objects together, I like the freedom to turn layers off and on and move things around independently, etc.

30 years in the graphics field, I have never been given a Flexi file to work from.

Remember, a screw driver is a great tool to drive a screw, but if your customer gives you a nail, a hammer is the better tool for the job!


:thumb:
 

visual800

Active Member
Yes you could survive on flexi alone. illy is definitely a good tool to have to enhance the artwork as flexi is not as in-depth at art as illy is. I use both programs and they work great together.
 

Auburnpeanut

New Member
Yes you could survive on flexi alone. illy is definitely a good tool to have to enhance the artwork as flexi is not as in-depth at art as illy is. I use both programs and they work great together.

I agree as I said before, we use Flexi 99% of the time. While we do have illy, corel and photoshop;we use them only when needed generally just to double check files that we suspect might not have opened correctly. Or on the occasional design that has no logical groupings and 5 billion objects...
 

eahicks

Magna Cum Laude - School of Hard Knocks
Usually if Signlab can't import it, Corel can. I have illy but I very rarely use it. I do use photoshop a bit from time to time. Out of the 4 programs I use illy the least.


This didn't answer his question, at all.
 
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