Justin (Inactive)
New Member
Hello everybody. I'm new here and have a few questions I hope you can help me answer.
First, a little history so you know who I am and my experience. I ran the sign shop for a family (mine) owned business for about 4 years. Our equipment consisted of a 24" Ioline Studio8 plotter run by Scanvec software. In the time I used this equipment, it ran flawlessly and I produced lot's of great jobs with it, from 4' x 8' site signs to small stickers and everything in between. This ended in 1999 when the business closed. We did offset printing as well and that was the direction I went in at the time.
Fast forward to today. I now have my own offset printing business and the desire to make signs has never left me, so I want to get back into it. I have been studying this forum for a few days, and also looking at new equipment. My how times have changed. There seems to be lots more options out there these days.
Now to the questions. I am looking at the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] 24 inch Graphtec CE5000-60, to get back into the business. This particular plotter has the option of coming with signmaking software, LXi. My question is, there seem to be several levels of this product, from apprentice to master. The cost difference is $600, which is substantial. Is there that much difference and would I regret getting the lower level? I also have CorelDraw and use it daily, so I know this can do a lot of things for me.
Any other advice you might have would be appreciated. I am trying to keep this as simple and cheap as possible while still getting equipment that will last and be as problem free as possible.
Thank you.
Justin
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First, a little history so you know who I am and my experience. I ran the sign shop for a family (mine) owned business for about 4 years. Our equipment consisted of a 24" Ioline Studio8 plotter run by Scanvec software. In the time I used this equipment, it ran flawlessly and I produced lot's of great jobs with it, from 4' x 8' site signs to small stickers and everything in between. This ended in 1999 when the business closed. We did offset printing as well and that was the direction I went in at the time.
Fast forward to today. I now have my own offset printing business and the desire to make signs has never left me, so I want to get back into it. I have been studying this forum for a few days, and also looking at new equipment. My how times have changed. There seems to be lots more options out there these days.
Now to the questions. I am looking at the [FONT=Arial, Helvetica] 24 inch Graphtec CE5000-60, to get back into the business. This particular plotter has the option of coming with signmaking software, LXi. My question is, there seem to be several levels of this product, from apprentice to master. The cost difference is $600, which is substantial. Is there that much difference and would I regret getting the lower level? I also have CorelDraw and use it daily, so I know this can do a lot of things for me.
Any other advice you might have would be appreciated. I am trying to keep this as simple and cheap as possible while still getting equipment that will last and be as problem free as possible.
Thank you.
Justin
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