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what do you hate about your software?

garisimo

New Member
Flexi:

  • Doesn't rasterize worth d*ck
do you mean vectorize? I always found their raster to vector to be pretty good...

Illustrator:

  • It seems like it never saves my color swatches.
You probably need to edit the preference documents (always a pia to find)

  • I wish it had more vector tools like flexi.
You could try Xtreme path -- not free, but powerful (and should be built into Illustrator)


  • Default Black always looks kinda gray.
You might have the color setting such that std black (100% k) has a grey look, whereas rich black (mix of cmyk) looks more correct -- it's in the preferences.

Cheers!
 

Techman

New Member
having to purchase plugins to do basic operations alreayd available in other packages..
Plugins as mentioned above such as Xtreme paths
 

HaroldDesign

New Member
It's not much of an issue, but I can't stand it when Illy moves the toolbars in a manner that makes it difficult to get to the document bar.
 

ForgeInc

New Member
yup

I just clicked "edit contents" and moved the stuff around. It's pretty much identical to Corel. "Release" removes the mask.

yes, no need to release mask to edit contents. You can also double click the mask to enter isolation mode and edit, or use hollow pointer tool to select masked object and edit that way. CS5 dramatically changed mask behavior, not sold it's for the better but i've adjusted to it....
 

ForgeInc

New Member
a GREAT plug in for illustrator

i couldn't work without it, and this crowd especially should appreciate the Hot Door Cad Tools plug-in for illustrator. it gives basic cad measurement, drawing, and scaling abilities to illustrator. Nothing better for designing your POP or huge displays/graphics on letter size artboard to a scale you specify, then you can just pull your actual measurements with a simple click and drag. Great tool and well worth it....
 

signmeup

New Member
I don't like the puny artboard in Illustrator. I'm not smart enough/too lasy to work in scale but fortunately, with Corel, I don't have to.
 

signmeup

New Member
One issue that irks me in Illustrator is the use oddball names for stuff. WTF is an "artboard" anyway? Do they mean page? And "place"? Just call it import like every other piece of software on the planet. Stupid stuff that serves no purpose.

One of the best help files I ever saw for Illustrator was in Corel 12. It was a Corel to Illustrator dictionary. I looked in Corel X4 but it no longer seems to be there. Shame.
 

TyrantDesigner

Art! Hot and fresh.
Flexi:

  • Doesn't rasterize worth d*ck
do you mean vectorize? I always found their raster to vector to be pretty good...

he means the opposite ... exporting out to a jpg or tiff from a vector file always makes your graphics jaggy and horrid looking ... can even wash out colors. ... really even unusable for even the web. Flexi just wasn't made to render to a raster file accurately. ... which is probably why a RIP is almost always needed when printing with flexi (most large format printers have some form of post script so it can bypass the need for a rip ... but postscript only helps ... doesn't fix limitations) ... incidentally that is also why graphics are always jaggy on the screen as well.

Did you see the thing about the "envelope tool" I wrote? That may help you out with your arc situation.:wink:

Yeah, didn't play with it until now ... now you are just making me almost never need illustrator except to open client photos and to render out custom strokes and illustrations that use a bunch of custom strokes. something corel can do ... but not as well as illustrator ... especially when i can still use the pressure sensitivity of my tablet on the strokes in illustrator.
 

GypsyGraphics

New Member
Gypsy, Couldn't you Make a box or shape with said color, and then do a "select same" fill color?

"select same color" is a feature of Illustrator but not InDesign, for good reasons (which i totally understand).
i wouldn't mind going into in detail... but i'm thinking it would only interest InDesign users.

simply put, InDesign needs to have a way to show instances of a color used... changing it is no problemo
but finding it amidst many pages and linked or embedded files, to then address the native file... grrrrrrrrr. :frustrated:
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
"select same color" is a feature of Illustrator but not InDesign, for good reasons (which i totally understand).
i wouldn't mind going into in detail... but i'm thinking it would only interest InDesign users.

simply put, InDesign needs to have a way to show instances of a color used... changing it is no problemo
but finding it amidst many pages and linked or embedded files, to then address the native file... grrrrrrrrr. :frustrated:


I hear you on that one. Now I'm not the InDesign lover that you appear to be, but I do feel your pain.
 

GypsyGraphics

New Member
I hear you on that one. Now I'm not the InDesign lover that you appear to be, but I do feel your pain.

i sometime have to catch myself, cuz i'll diss illy on the handling of copy.
it falls seriously short when your dealing with a lot of it.... but that's to be expected when you choose to use an illustration program for page layout.

i go months and months without ever closing InDesign, it's my livelihood.
so yep... i dig it, big time!
 

WildWestDesigns

Active Member
i sometime have to catch myself, cuz i'll diss illy on the handling of copy.
it falls seriously short when your dealing with a lot of it.... but that's to be expected when you choose to use an illustration program for page layout.

Yea, if you want it done right, you need a specialty program to do it. I know we all have damned "designs" that we get from Word or PPT, but those aren't design programs, although the average joe may not know that and you can't expect the same quality from them.

i go months and months without ever closing InDesign, it's my livelihood.
so yep... i dig it, big time!

I'm right there most of the time with Wings Modular and Illustrator. I'll have Ai on the Cintiq, Wings on the Hannspree big screen and Windows Media Player with The Whistler playing on the Samsung.

That'll go on for weeks, won't make it for months, but it will for weeks.
 

rjpjr

New Member
yes, no need to release mask to edit contents. You can also double click the mask to enter isolation mode and edit, or use hollow pointer tool to select masked object and edit that way. CS5 dramatically changed mask behavior, not sold it's for the better but i've adjusted to it....

DING DING DING...a wonderfully powerful yet woefully under utilized option.
Isolation Mode rocks!

We recently upgraded from Gerber Omega 6.2 to Omega 4.0.
I HATE {(CAN NOT STAND) as in want to break something} how long it takes to OPEN our old 6.2 files!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Some files are easiley double or triple the time!
*#&@@*% ridiculous!!!
We are now operating much less efficiently since we UPGRADED.
We were very happy with 6.2 but was forced to upgrade since we purchased new PC's loaded with Windows 7.
6.2 was incompatible with Windows 7.

Thanks for the giggle...I was amused at the positive thinking commentary contrasted with the sour looking avatar. :ROFLMAO:
 

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GypsyGraphics

New Member
Yea, if you want it done right, you need a specialty program to do it. I know we all have damned "designs" that we get from Word or PPT, but those aren't design programs, although the average joe may not know that and you can't expect the same quality from them.

at least when you get a file from someone who thinks Word or PPT, ya know what your dealing with.... a non-professional. it's the "so-called designer" who thinks they know what they're doing and provides a seemingly professional file... that drives me up the wall.

i don't mind the knuckle head who knows they're clueless... they waste much less of my time than the ones who don't want you to know they haven't got a clue.

oops... didn't mean to go off in a new direction of frustration.
hehe... wildwest made me do it :tongue:
 

signswi

New Member
One issue that irks me in Illustrator is the use oddball names for stuff. WTF is an "artboard" anyway? Do they mean page? And "place"? Just call it import like every other piece of software on the planet. Stupid stuff that serves no purpose.

Place is what it's called in all adobe products and is standard in the design industry -- import implies that the file is being embedded, whereas place implies that it is linked. Place makes a lot of sense and is a throwback term. Artboard is a throwback term from the pasteup days as well and also makes sense. "Page" wouldn't really work for Illustrator and there's a reason the two terms are used in different contexts.

I hate that Illustrator doesn't have a 64bit version out yet--tired of the small artboard / raster effects limits. Always banging against that. Also hate, but am used to, that the different teams at Adobe mean their various products will always have cross-product inconsistencies that should be avoided (see above complaints). Not really a NEW complaint and it gets better every CS version, but not as much as it should.

I also hate anyone that uses Corel or Flexi and doesn't use Illustrator but mostly because the former two export files so poorly. :popcorn:
 

signmeup

New Member
I also hate anyone that uses Corel or Flexi and doesn't use Illustrator but mostly because the former two export files so poorly. :popcorn:
Corel exports ai files just fine popcorn boy. How does ai do exporting cdr files? :wink:

For my edification... what is the difference between an artboard and a page. (let's see if we can keep this thread educational)
 
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