CorelDraw question??? Do I need the whole graphics suite?

[Michele Welch]

OK, I guess I'm just gonna break down and buy CorelDraw and leave Illustrator for other things. I seem to take 2 steps forward and 4 steps back when trying to do pictures for engraving on anything with Illustrator. From everything I've read, and believe me, my eyes are crossed from everything I've read, I've come to conclusion that I need CorelDraw to take some of the pain away. I'm just stuck now on should I buy just CorelDraw or do y'all see any need for buying the whole graphics suite. I bow to your expertise in this area!!!!

Thanks for the help y'all!

[Dan Hintz]

What issues are you having using Illustrator? They're both similar in operation (if not design), so problems you're having with Illustrator may translate into the same problems with Corel, but now you're in the money hole for both programs. You'll find more direct solutions here with Corel, but again, that may not be the best reason to change.

[Michele Welch]

Well, about the only real reason I would get it would be to get better results in doing pictures. I'm having a time getting the quality results I've seen elsewhere on many different mediums such as granite, glass, wood, etc with the output from Illustrator. I happened to be at a woodworking show a few weeks ago and there were several there with laser engraved items and not just 1 or 2, but ALL of them said my problems were starting with not using CorelDraw as my output software. So after thinking about it I figured my best bet was to ask y'all. I have always been an Adobe girl and know those programs inside and out, so I would have somewhat of a learning curve with Corel. Most video tutorials I find are for CorelDraw and the options they use don't necessarily translate to Illustrator? Any suggestions? Should I just dig deeper into Illustrator and use what I have? Any helpful tips to try???

Thanks for the help y'all! Off to watch the ice/snow fall! Can't wait for warmer weather. We were out in the boat on Saturday and today it's icing/snowing! Come on!!!

[David Somers]

Morning Michele!

A couple of thoughts.

1st....did you mean you were currently editing your photos in Photoshop for engraving? You said you were doing it in Illustrator? If you are using Illustrator you might consider using Photoshop instead, assuming you have it of course.

If you do have Photoshop you might turn to that and look up threads on this forum with the search "gold method."

There is one thread with that for a subject line at http://www.sawmillcreek.org/showthread.php?209201-Gold-method&highlight=gold+method
Look for Dan Hintz post number 3. It contains a summary of a method Rodney came up with in Photoshop for prepping photos, and also a link to a macro to accomplish the same thing. There are also a bunch of threads discussing the method. This method can be used in Corel Photopaint as well if you do end up going that route. But if you already own Photoshop you might try it there first.

If you are already comfortable with Illustrator I might try this first rather than spending money and going through the learning curve on Corel. Especially if it is just for this one purpose.

An alternative would be to look at some of the dedicated photo prepping software for engraving, like Photograv. There are discussions on the forum covering that as well to help you choose. But for the most part, the method detailed by Rodney is doing what the Photograv's do, and leave you with a lot more latitude in terms of what you do and how much you do it.

If you do want to go with Corel, be aware that Corel X6 is the current suite but X7 should be out fairly soon (by summer/fall if their product cycles stay the same) You may or may not want to wait if you can. If you buy X6 you might do a search on Amazon or Google and you can find the package for considerably less than buying it from Corel itself or a local store. Amazon will guarantee that purchase so if you somehow got a bootleg copy you can return it without question. I just got a copy for a friend at $230 plus $6 shipping for the full X6 Suite. Full Retail is $499.

A last thought is that you might want to do their subscription service. You basically lease the software month to month and get any upgrades and updates that come out. Worth checking out depending on how you feel about being on top of the release curve all the time. See the Coreldraw.com site for details on that.

Dave

[Dan Hintz]

I happened to be at a woodworking show a few weeks ago and there were several there with laser engraved items and not just 1 or 2, but ALL of them said my problems were starting with not using CorelDraw as my output software.

Sticking with my usual car analogy, this is akin to saying you're not able to get good groceries because you're driving them home in a Honda instead of a Toyota.

As David pointed out, Corel/Illustrator are often used as interchangeable terms when it comes to controlling the laser, but make sure you're using the proper sub-program. For raster work (i.e., pictures), Adobe's line of tools includes Photoshop, and for Corel it's Photo-Paint (or Painter, for those who wish to go all out). For vector work, it's Illustrator and CorelDraw, respectively. Personally, I use Paint.NET (free) for raster work, and until I really got into CorelDraw, it was Inkscape (free) for my vector work.

Once you're done editing in your raster program, you will typically drag it into the vector program for final layout and sending it to the laser. This is where some confusion may reside.

Although the steps I quoted in the link David gave are for Corel's toolset, they should be easy enough to replicate in Photoshop if you're a long-time user of Adobe tools. Also note those are just beginning steps. Many times they will get you "close enough", but some harder images will require further tweaking (the lasso tool comes in real handy at this point).

[Scott Shepherd]

Stop using Illustrator for photos and use Photoshop as David mentioned. Illustrator isn't the right tool for the job. You can certainly import the right image into Illustrator and go from there just fine, but if you're looking to create from scratch, that's the wrong place to be tinkering with it.

CorelDraw isn't the right place either, you'll need to use their version of Photoshop if you want to get the photos right.

What machine do you have?

[Mike Chance in Iowa]

Michele, which program are you using to edit your photos? Like the others have said, I don't want to encourage you to purchase any software just yet. Have you tried engraving any of the sample photos posted on this forum and achieved poor results too? It may be something to do with your engrave settings.

If it is strictly photo-editing that you are having the problem with, there are many free programs out there as well as the nicer ones with more features. While I have the photo editing program that came with CorelDraw, I do not use it. I find it cumbersome to use. I used to switch between using Adobe Photoshop and PaintShop Pro since they first came out and found they both had very similar capabilities. Most of the time I now use PaintShop Pro which has been owned by Corel for several years now.

[Mike Null]

If you're going to buy CorelDraw buy the suite otherwise you don"t get PhotoPaint (Corel's version of Photoshop). I use Corel and like it.

I agree with the others--don't buy anything new until you have a better understanding of how to use Illustrator and Photoshop with your laser.

[Michael Conley]

For engraving photos it does not much matter whether you use CorelDraw/PhotoPaint, Illustrator/Photoshop, or some other combination of vector and raster editing software. I used to use the CorelDraw suite, but when it came time to upgrade, I decided to go with the a subscription to the Adobe Creative Cloud, which includes most of Adobe's most popular applications.

I would not have switched to Illustrator and Photoshop if engraving photos had been my sole consideration. CorelDraw and PhotoPaint do a fine job for far less money than Illustrator and Photoshop. However, since you already have an Illustrator license, I suggest considering something like Photoshop Elements 12. I believe that Adobe offers a free trial for Elements and the application costs around $60 on Amazon.

If you master the basics of either PhotoPaint, Photoshop, or any other popular raster editing program, your results will be as good (or bad) as the photos that you are given to engrave.

[Michele Welch]

Well, I think part of my problem is that I've been using illustrator instead of Photoshop. I am going to go through the thread for the Gold Method and try that method and see what happens. I'm holding off on Corel for now. I've used the Adobe suite of products for more than 15 years so I really don't want to start new.

I appreciate your help and advice and I will let you know how it goes. Now to wait for my computer to come home from the hospital.

Thanks again y'all. Here's hoping the sun comes out tomorrow and warms things up.

[Jiten Patel]

Michele,

Illustrator is for vector graphics and fantastic for cutting designs. Photoshop is where you want to be if you want to play around with photos. Both work perfectly well once you know how to use them so no need to change to Corel.