Illustrator vs. Gimp

[hansman]

Adobe products are so tightly integrated.
The ability to place and then edit Photoshop links directly from the links palette and be taken directly from Illy to Photoshop and back again, saves a ton of time.
Not to mention all the free 3rd party plug-ins and scripts available.............
Add to that the layering effects palette, every swatch book known to man and the eventual ability to save directly to true layered PDF or tiff etc., etc.
Seems like a true workflow to me!

 

[bob]

Pro tip: pros use Illustrator. It's the de facto standard because it's powerful and efficient...

No. It's a de facto standard because Apple and Adobe essentially give their products to schools.Young heads-full-of-nothing emerge from these institutions knowing only these products and are not in possession of a clue as to the existence of other just as powerful and efficient products. Moreover, your view of illustrator as some sort of standard implies a smugness up with which civilized beings should not put.

A professional, at anything, does not give undue reverence to its tools. A professional can perform with most anything.

 

[eahicks]

Yep...

I use Flexi more way more than Illustrator for vector design now....it's so much easier when editing shapes, etc. Then I export as EPS and import to Illustrator as needed.

Who's the "pro" you are referring to? Your view on Flexi is pretty far off base. I'll assume you don't have flexi, or you haven't been able to figure out all the features.

 

[MikePro]

a professional can work with anything, but if you expect him to work with a different tool-set than what he's been trained/experienced to handle... then expect there to be a bit more of a learning curve. ...either way, it's your dollar, and it's your decision where you think it's best to spend it: software or paid design time

 

[J Hill Designs]

download illustrator CS for free directly from adobe, and let him design his heart out. export to flexi for production

 

[shoresigns]

To clarify, since I seem to have cause a bit of controversy:

I learned Flexi first because it's what my predecessor used, then I taught myself Illustrator because it felt easier to use on the few occasions I tried it. It was also much better at handling the files customers would give us (obviously). I use keyboard shortcuts heavily so I can zip through mundane tasks and overall Flexi just felt clumsy, like it was designed for some ancient OS and then poorly ported to Windows. Images would not be anti-aliased when exporting to a JPEG and anything other than RGB colours would look awful and not even close to correct. Then, the damn USB dingle would crash the app all the time and we'd have to call up Flexi to help us reinstall it.

Maybe they've improved it - I don't know - but the Flexi I used two years ago was a P.O.S.

 

[Rick]

What type of sign/design work?

What's the problem, you can open his Illustrator files in Flexi
and play with his artwork, and you can export files to him.

I design more than just signs so Flexi would never be my first
choice for designing anything in. Not that it would happen, but
I hate sign software's proprietary extensions. Your key goes out
or the the software goes belly up (doubt this would happen to
Flexi but as I look at my old box, I'm sure quite a few of us
thought that about CASMate), your files are no longer supported.

Seems like a huge expense to expect a designer or you to buy 5k
worth of Flexi when it can be had for 50 bucks a month or $450.00
for the Suite.

Every sign shop I worked at used design software like Illustrator or
Corel for design, then used sign software like Flexi for production.

 

[round man]

one option to try is switching the workspace in flexi to adobe,...it should arrange the command menus in a similar fashion to illy,....the command is under the file menu under workspace,....

 

[TomHawk]

Not saying you should get Illustrator but the new subscription model from Adobe lets you spread out the cost of the software to monthly charges instead of dropping down a large payment to buy the software outright.

Adobe Illustrator subscription is $20 a month http://www.adobe.com/products/illustrator.html

The complete CS Suite is $50: And they have a promotion for current owners of CS3 or later where you can get a 40% discount on the subscription for the first year. http://www.adobe.com/products/discount-software-coupons.html

But requires a 1 year contract subsription, which if cancelled early you pay 50% of remaining contract or something along those lines.

 

[ColoPrinthead]

one option to try is switching the workspace in flexi to adobe,...it should arrange the command menus in a similar fashion to illy,....the command is under the file menu under workspace,....

I was unaware of this option, thanks!

 

[TammieH]

subliminal message to follow....




~~~~~~~ b~~~u~~y

I~~~~~~~L~~~~~~L~~~~~~~U~~~~~~~S~~~~~~~T~~~~~~R~~~~~~~A~~~~~~~T~~~~~~O~~~~~~~R

 

[TammieH]

I design more than just signs so Flexi would never be my first
choice for designing anything in. Not that it would happen, but
I hate sign software's proprietary extensions. Your key goes out
or the the software goes belly up (doubt this would happen to
Flexi but as I look at my old box, I'm sure quite a few of us
thought that about CASMate), your files are no longer supported.

Every sign shop I worked at used design software like Illustrator or
Corel for design, then used sign software like Flexi for production.

I agree completely,

We use an old version of Omega, I thought about asking the owner to upgrade, but why pay for the latest and greatest version of the same piece of garbage software...it runs the plotter fine, and I can do simple quick layouts,

but for real designing I will stick with Illustrator and Photoshop

 

[WildWestDesigns]

Last time I looked, you could not specify PMS colours in Inskcape.....Without that option, I can not see how anyone can say Inkscape is equivalent to Illustrator.....

I actually went looking and I found that there is a pantone palette for Inkscape that is based off this page here: http://prosocialtools.com/pantone-and-hexadecimal-color-chart/

Would that be a good enough? I know it's based of the closest web counterparts (yes that does have it's inherent risks), but that's the closest that I could find that was already done for Inkscape.

 

[bomaboat]

I'm new around here but I strongly disagree with the general sentiment. The most expensive part of an employee is his time. If he will be more productive and produce a higher quality of work with different software, then let him use that software. Go out of your way to enable him.

 

[visual800]

Sounds like someone is using the "student" version in their shop

Aint nothing wrong with that? cheaper and just as good, Ill stand up and say Ive done it several times

 

[Biker Scout]

Well, the Terms of Service dictate that you can't sell your works or make any money using those educational versions. Obviously, living in such a litigious society, you could be sued, or lumped into a group targeted for mass reparations. Remember MP3s and Napster? Teenagers on the hook for millions of dollars!

It's not like Adobe doesn't know who you are.

 

[visual800]

Well, the Terms of Service dictate that you can't sell your works or make any money using those educational versions. Obviously, living in such a litigious society, you could be sued, or lumped into a group targeted for mass reparations. Remember MP3s and Napster? Teenagers on the hook for millions of dollars!

It's not like Adobe doesn't know who you are.

I have bought educational versions of adobe on the web, I do not waste time going thru the terms of service, if they want me to know something put it in plain enlish in a big *** bold font on the package, who wastes time reading terms of service. The cds I bought came with nothing but cd and oem box that was all. I know damn good and well im not the only one on here that has bought an educational version, the price difference is shocking enuff to buy one

 

[OldPaint]

over the years i have had FULL, ACADEMIC, NFR, OEM installs on computers. WHAT I DO WITH THEM.........really has never been an issue with the manufacture of said program.
so those of you who are worried........weeeeelllll people like ya gota have somethin to worry about)))))

 

[SignManiac]

I'm shocked to read here that unless I conform and use only Adobe products, I can never become a professional designer/shop. I'm going to make an appointment to seek therapy. This will destroy me. I've wasted the last forty years of my life pretending to be a sign artist. Curse you Adobe.

 

[jfiscus]

In my experience, Illustrator is much more of a "design industry standard" than Flexi is; now if that is only because of Adobe pushing it in colleges, then I guess they chose correctly to do it that way.

I've worked in almost every aspect of the printing industry and one constant tool that I've always seen used is Illustrator.
In website design, we used Illustrator for vector work for SVGs, PDFs, Flash and logo design.
In offset/digital printing (paper/plastic printing) we used Illustrator for logo design and vector artwork. (and almost all other programs we used were Adobe)
In my first large-format/sign company, the owner had previously only used Flexi. When I started there, he bought Illustrator (and PS) as I was much faster with it (time = money, right), but I still used Flexi for output.
At the next company, we used only the Adobe Suite and Gerber products.
At this company I am at currently, we use only the Adobe Suite and Gerber products also.

When I think of Flexi, I think of the shop owner where we had Flexi and how he explained Flexi to me: It was for "idiots like him" (his words) who didn't know design to be able to print/cut right out of the box with their new printer.