# Adobe Illustrator or Corel Draw?



## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

I just purchased my first cutter/plotter and It came with plug ins for Adobe Illustrator and Corel Draw. I have neither but I did down load Illustrator cs4 demo and I find it hard to use. I was wondering which program do most of you use? Should I use either one of these or do you have any others to recommend? Thanks


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

Most in the garment / apparel business seems to lean towards coreldraw. I work with illustrator and after not using coreldraw for 8 years find my self having to come back to it.

So get coreldraw, what type of cutting are you getting into?


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## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

Gioclone said:


> Most in the garment / apparel business seems to lean towards coreldraw. I work with illustrator and after not using coreldraw for 8 years find my self having to come back to it.
> 
> So get coreldraw, what type of cutting are you getting into?


Both signage and shirts.


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## revboyjames (Apr 14, 2007)

I think CorelDraw will be best for you. A majority of my customers who are cutting, use CorelDraw. It's easier to use over all. A lot easier too, if you ever have to weld or trim vector items together before cutting them.


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## joejcr (Apr 8, 2008)

I totally agree, Corel Draw is by far much easier to use and learn than Illustrator is. Plus it is a lot less expensive to boot. You can pick up the full Corel suite from e-bay for about $30.00 for an older version like v 12 which works great.

There is also the free programs like gimp (photo shop clone) and inkscape (mix of photo shop and corel), both are used by a lot of vinyl cutters and both are vector programs. You can make any designs using them then just import them into your cutter program.

I do prefer using corel over the free programs but there have been times that I could not do something with corel that was a snap in inkscape.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

i personally know illustrator and have been using it for over 10 years. each program has it's lovers and haters and there have been tons of those topics beaten into the ground on this forum already. my question to you is why didn't the cutter come with it's own stand alone cutting software? did they want you to purchase it separately? seems kinda shady to me.


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

Corel Draw Version X3 here. I have been a user since Version 6. It works very well with my plotter and laser engraver. I have no experience with AI but I do use Photoshop. Corel X3 will export to Photoshop and I find this useful for creating vector art for use as brushes and content for PS. Don't misunderstand though, Corel Draw does have a learning curve that is fairly steep but the price is considerably less than AI. Also there are lots of YouTube tutorials for Corel that can be very helpful to new users.


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## joejcr (Apr 8, 2008)

Which cutter did you purchase? Did you get it from the manufacturer/importer? Did you get it used? Most cutters I've ever looked at do come with their own program, it usually also includes the drivers for the cutter. I bought a US Cutter direct from them, it came with signblazer, very easy to use program for creating and cutting all in one, or you can import any eps file and convert it to their sbd file format with the software and do what ever you need to do.

You should go back to where you got the cutter from and find out if you were supposed to get any software with it, and if you were it did not come in the box.


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## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

joejcr said:


> Which cutter did you purchase? Did you get it from the manufacturer/importer? Did you get it used? Most cutters I've ever looked at do come with their own program, it usually also includes the drivers for the cutter. I bought a US Cutter direct from them, it came with signblazer, very easy to use program for creating and cutting all in one, or you can import any eps file and convert it to their sbd file format with the software and do what ever you need to do.
> 
> You should go back to where you got the cutter from and find out if you were supposed to get any software with it, and if you were it did not come in the box.


I got it new and it came with software. I purchased a Graphtec CE5000-60. It came with software but everywhere I have read its said to use either corel or adobe.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

what 'they're' saying is those are the programs most people on this forum choose to do they're designing in. if you are just going to do signage, simple one-two color shirt designs etc. you don't need to have a pricey graphics program. if your plans are to become a designer then by all means grab up either one of those programs.


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## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

miktoxic said:


> what 'they're' saying is those are the programs most people on this forum choose to do they're designing in. if you are just going to do signage, simple one-two color shirt designs etc. you don't need to have a pricey graphics program. if your plans are to become a designer then by all means grab up either one of those programs.


Oh, ok gotcha. I'm sorry, I'm a little slow today. I'm hoping to find some tutorials on coloring vectors and then separating the colors so I can layer vinyl. Can I don this in the software that came with my cutter? When I say I'm new at this I mean new LOL. I have been a photographer for 15 years and I pretty good with photoshop so after I read a few places that said Illustrator would be like photoshop I said this will be a cake walk. NOT!!! It has been a nightmare.


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## LB (Jul 25, 2009)

LouieM414 said:


> Oh, ok gotcha. I'm sorry, I'm a little slow today. I'm hoping to find some tutorials on coloring vectors and then separating the colors so I can layer vinyl. Can I don this in the software that came with my cutter? When I say I'm new at this I mean new LOL. I have been a photographer for 15 years and I pretty good with photoshop so after I read a few places that said Illustrator would be like photoshop I said this will be a cake walk. NOT!!! It has been a nightmare.


Louie, your cutter software may separate it by color. I have some software called Vinyl Master Pro that I use to cut from but I do my designs in Corel. When I import a file with fills in it, VMP will make a cut file for each color if I desire. Just check it out and see.


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

Well don't be discouraged, you are a master of one craft now you just need to think in black and white 

what do you have? Exacly?


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## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

Gioclone said:


> Well don't be discouraged, you are a master of one craft now you just need to think in black and white
> 
> what do you have? Exacly?


My cutter came with "Cutting Master 2 and Robo Master Pro" and plugins for both corel and adobe. I have downloaded both demos of Illustrator and Corel Draw. I have not installed the cutter yet because I won't have any vinyl til this Friday. I guess i won't know what I have til everything is installed.


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## AithinDesign (Aug 12, 2009)

Hi Louie, I've been designing in AI for over ten year. So if you planning to design anything over 227.55" (like a large vehicle) go with Corel! Plus it is cheaper ;o)... and some say it's easier to learn. Also there's Flexi 8 which has options of both worlds (Corel & AI), and supports most every cutter. Good Luck, Chris


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

One thing to think about is the fact that your cutter cant print full color, it cant. It can only think in line drawing format or vector graphics.

Option 1:
So you could use photoshop to create your graphics(dont shoot me guys) and then bring them in to cutter master 2. It works but it is crude.

Option 2:
You could user cutter master 2 and start slow with it. You can create some pretty nifty stuff there. You will probably run in to limitations there as it is NOT a full blown vector editor.

Option 3:
Use a vector editor and then output to the plugin/driver directly from the vector editor. This is where Illustrator or CorelDraw come in, there is even a free Vector Editor INK SCAPE at inkscape.org. 

You could use InkScape and then output to a format cutter master 2 can read and save a bundle. 

Why buy a full blown Vector Editor?
Simply putting it, you want to do a little more than just make letters and simple signage. You want to take a photograph or a bitmapped logo and convert it to vectors so that you can output to your cutter to make something amazing. This can be done in inkscape but the pluggins would require you to have to save the file, then open in cutter master 2 and then plot.

Because sometimes you need to control flow, turning radius and other stuff, it would be much easier to do so inside the vector editor, and output to the plotter driver.

Since vector graphics are mathematical equations rather than bitmap(unless you convert it) you will never have the issue of pixilation like in bitmaps. You can make ONE logo for your clients and then output it to a shirt and then to a banner or mural, you can do this from anything but it is more manageable through Vector Editors than cutter master 2. By the way, you can give(if you want to) your client the AI or CDR file for peace of mind.

So simply putting it, "you dont want the Vector editors", you will probably need them. 

Please get coreldraw, you can get some nifty plugins for the garment tshirt, rhinestone industry that you may love.

I work with illustrator, but now that we are jumping in to the apparel, promotional industry, I am having to work with coreldraw more and I dont mind it.

If you need ANY help PM me or post here. I and others will try to help with your transition.

If budget is an issue, use InkScape and call it a day.


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

> Simply putting it, you want to do a little more than just make letters and simple signage. You want to take a photograph or a bitmapped logo and convert it to vectors so that you can output to your cutter to make something amazing.


dude, how do you know what he wants?



> Please get coreldraw, you can get some nifty plugins for the garment tshirt, rhinestone industry that you may love.



wow, are you kidding me? are you a salesperson for corel?


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

miktoxic said:


> Gioclone said:
> 
> 
> > Simply putting it, you want to do a little more than just make letters and simple signage. You want to take a photograph or a bitmapped logo and convert it to vectors so that you can output to your cutter to make something amazing.[/QUOTE
> ...


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## miktoxic (Feb 21, 2008)

i'm not disputing corel is a good program etc. but that's why these "which program" or "mac vs. pc" posts are cheesy. use the search function and you'll find hundreds of these posts. AND everyone has their own preferences and by the time these posts get shelved we've heard just about all of them. BTW the salesperson thing was a joke if you didn't already figure it out.


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

Sorry didn't get the joke bit, had just woken up. LOL


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## LouieM414 (Jul 8, 2009)

It's all good. I appreciate everyones input. I need all the help I can. Sometimes I think I have got in way over my head.


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## Gioclone (Jul 9, 2009)

Dont worry about asking, please ask away.


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## knucklehead (Jul 18, 2008)

I agree, Corel is the way to go. And don't try to cheap out with the version of Corel you get. The CuttingMaster that came with the Graphtec, doesn't play nicely with the EDU/OEM versions. You need a full "RETAIL" boxed set of X-3, not just a so called "FULL" version they sell on flea-bay.


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