Industry Software Trends...

Just visit websites like publish.com or wide-formatimaging.com.

Regarding CorelDRAW, I've never considered it to be a dominant player in terms of large format digital printing for a variety of reasons.

For one thing, Corel's own color control engine leaves a lot to be desired. I'll build up a lot of graphics in Corel. But if they're going to be digitally printed I'll get the vector artwork over into Illustrator, Photoshop or InDesign.

Many sign shops with in house digital printing capabilities usually rely on RIP software built into sign making packages like Flexi or Gerber. Bigger outfits are using dedicated packages like Onyx Graphics' PosterShop Pro. The biggest players will have Sun SPARC driven 3M Scotchprint setups or other proprietary solutions.

Another thing keeping Corel out of the mix is the issue of computing platform. Many service bureaus and print houses offering large format printing work do their work on Mac-based systems. Corel has never had a good toe-hold in the Mac market. They've tried a couple times, most recently with version 11 (which shipped in a dual platform, single SKU box). But sales were dismal. Corel12 shipped PC only. Whenver CDR 13 arrives it will likely be PC only as well. Most Mac users are accustomed to working with Illustrator or Freehand, doing bitmap image editing in Photoshop and then composing the final image within QuarkXpress or Adobe InDesign.

 

Welcome to Signs101. Check DIMA, Digital Imaging Marketing Association. Should have a website. I believe they sell market survey info (they are tied to the Photo Marketing Association). PMA also might have the info you are looking for, but not free. Still, comprehensive data.