I am looking at Corel Draw X5 home and student edition to make waterslide decals on my inkjet printer.  I plan to make name and numeral decals and understand a vector based program is needed to for good resolution.  Any expert comment s would be appreciated.

Joe

Claudio...  Your graphics look awesome.  Can you tell me what printer you use? I have an HP Office jet. What decal paper do you use? 

Claudio...  Your graphics look awesome.  Can you tell me what printer you use? I have an HP Office jet. What decal paper do you use? 

Thanks Joe.
I use decal paper from Micro Mark http://www.micromark.com/Clear-Decal-Paper-for-Laser-Printers-Copiers-and-Micro-Dry-Printers-5-Sheets,8001.html and a laser printer (which is not mine).
I just take the decal paper to a copier shop so they print them for me (not a clue of what brand or model laser printer they use, but the quality of the printing is perfect).

Thanks Joe.
I use decal paper from Micro Mark http://www.micromark.com/Clear-Decal-Paper-for-Laser-Printers-Copiers-and-Micro-Dry-Printers-5-Sheets,8001.html and a laser printer (which is not mine).
I just take the decal paper to a copier shop so they print them for me (not a clue of what brand or model laser printer they use, but the quality of the printing is perfect).

Claudio... thanks you for the info..and yes, the quality is obviously perfect!

Joe

How do you get "white" on clear paper?

CB

The base color of the plane is white, the decal paper is clear.
Are there any printers capable to print white?

Claudo,

Kudos, Good work. I like your design. Removable wing? Is it a kit someplace or do you just offer plans?

What is X3 or X5 selling for these days. I use a sign program.

CB

Thanks. Yes, it has a removable wing, stab and fin for easy transport. No, no kit. This is my own design including the CAD work. I offer a set of printed plans (3 sheets) in 80 gram paper.
The paint scheme you see in the pic above will be the scheme of my second "77".
If you follow this links, you'll see the pics of the building process and the finished #1 model (prototype):
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=11233.0
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=11555.0
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=13258.0
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=13830.msg125134#msg125134
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=15137.0
http://stunthanger.com/smf/index.php?topic=16395.0
 

What is X3 or X5 selling for these days. I use a sign program.

CB

I don't know, but you can visit this link: http://www.corel.com/international.html
As the X3 is an older version of this program, I'm sure you can get it at a very low price or even for free somewhere else. And believe me: X3 has waaaay more features than you'll EVER need for graphic design.
Just do a Google search.

Yes there are printers that do white but they are very expensive and not really suitable for our appliactions Alps was the last company I heard that made then they used heat transfer  to make the print.

http://sonic.net/mnitepub/pccafe/reviews/alpsprinter/alpsprinter.html

Laser compatible water slide decal paper may work with these printers as laser printers use heat to fuse the toners, but you would have to get intouch with the company and find out

Ultimately, depending on what you wish to accomplish, it is talent and skill that determine the results not the software. If you want to create highly stylized test or other content then the first thing you should invest in is a waco or similar graphics tablet. For even experienced artists using a mouse to do much of this type of work is tedious at best.

If you are looking for something more modest then, the internet is overflowing with free fonts (Typefaces) clip arts and just about anything else that you can use. In that case just about any free ware photo editor or paint program would do. Even some already on your PC.

I just completed some excellent decals for my '52 Nobler.  I used Microsoft Word 2010 which came installed on my new Dell computer.  The options are endless and it took me two weeks to make up my mind on the final version.  I printed it on white decal paper purchased from Decalpaper.com.  I had to convert it to a PDF file because the print shop didn't have Word 2010 on their computers.  Printed on a laser printer and it looks great.  I'll send a picture if you want to see it.  I was going to wait until I finished the clear coating, but you can get the idea even without the gloss.

Paul

Peter,

I must say, shopping for free clip art or fonts can lead to a disaster. Virus are waiting in those areas. I never do it. I have a font disk, couple actually, and I can trace bitmaps for art or graphics.

I specialize in custom work so drawing from scratch isn't an issue.

I know nothing about Corel Draw which Claudo works in? I have a great sign program and AI, and I cannot produce plans like that.

I'm sure I have more to learn.

CB

Funny, I've never once had a problem with a downloaded font. Obviously I only download from trusted commercial sites. If you can't find something that works for you from a site like http://www.1001fonts.com or similar site then you do need to create your own. I do all my graphics in 2 applications, either in my 3D modeling app or Adobe Photoshop. Most often it is a combination of both. Often times I will download a font set that is close to what I want to achieve then use it in my 3D application to turn the font into a 3D mesh object. From there I can modify the geometry of the mesh to get where I need it to be.

Once that is done the Text or design can be placed into any perspective on the fly, I can maipulate the graphics as I could any other 3D CGI model, lighting the object from any angle to have shadowing and highlights fall in any direction. I can apply any number of special optical effects to it and morph the design from anything to anything.

But I am drifting off topic.

Software is only a tool, and there is No Best program. All of the professional graphics packages out there are excellent. The real difference is that they focus certain tools to fit accepted industry work piplines. Some do raster graphics better, some focus more on vector graphics, some are mainly for Web Graphics. Almost all professional packages have toolsets for all three.

At the professional level however I do not know of any artists that rely only on one software package, their work almost always use multiple software packages to get the final result. So to answer the question There is no one best graphics software, and even the most powerful professional package will not produce quality graphics if the user is not proficient in the software or is not artisticly inclined.

I am certain that Avaiojet did not just one day start knocking out the quality graphics he does, there is talent, experience, and some formal training behind his work.

So this is the basis for my previous post. Most people I know think that the software is some magic wand that does all this great stuff for you. These people go out and sometimes spend significant amounts of money to get the latest and greatest professional graphics pckages only to discover that to figure out just how to draw a box with rounded corners on the screen takes an evening of reading the manual.

I've been using my 3D software since 1997 and I still have not tried, implemented or applied every tool and feature the software provides. The list of configurable parameters just for the CGI lighting engine is staggering.

I am not by any means suggestiong that you forgo using the impressive talents of fine graphic artists out there, quite the contrary in most cases for the best results that's exactly where you should go, the amount of time and grief you save by not trying to do it yourself is more than worth it. However in many cases you can easily get quality and satisfactory results doing it yourself, and for those times the internet is your friend with a treasure trove of resources available, free of charge.

Below is a example of graphics created using my 3D modeling and rendering software. Combining 2D, 3D modeling, CGI, and special visual and lighting effects.

NOTE: The Eagle Logo is property of the US Government, the image is property of DasNet corp. and unauthorized use and distribution is prohibited.

A quick look from inside the software.

Claudio,
Beautiful work!

Like you I use Corel for both CAD and graphics. I am also cutting vinyl and also make water slide decals. There are some advantages with Corel, particularly with ribs, formers and tracing various shapes.

 Ribs are much easier than some of the rib programs. Basically you plug in the root and tip ribs, tell it how many ribs are in between and voila you have them all. There some final steps, but it works very fast.

Claudio,
Beautiful work!

Like you I use Corel for both CAD and graphics. I am also cutting vinyl and also make water slide decals. There are some advantages with Corel, particularly with ribs, formers and tracing various shapes.

 Ribs are much easier than some of the rib programs. Basically you plug in the root and tip ribs, tell it how many ribs are in between and voila you have them all. There some final steps, but it works very fast.

Thanks Tom.
Indeed, Corel Draw is a very versatile sofware and a very intuitive one as well, besides its compatibility with any laser cutting machine.
Yeah, the tool for producing multiple ribs is fantastic! I use it all the time for my CAD work. There's nothing you can't do with that program.
In certain cases (as with the dice you see in the pic) I use 3dsMax from Autodesk, an unbelievable 3D animation software.