You don't need Corel

[MarkJamesDesign]

I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago when I first started using the Designer software. Could have saved some folks some $$$. As a graphic artist who has been in the biz since before PCs were even used for graphics, I have had a lot of experience with all sorts of graphic design applications.

Corel is an awesome program and I have been using it since version 5 or 6, I forget which, but it is extreme overkill for what is needed for the CW. Corel is used by professional sign makers, graphic designers, illustrators, magazine and news ad layout artists, the list goes on. If you purchase or already have Corel, you are going to use only a speck of it's capabilities for the CW.

Having said that, I will tell you that I have used Ulead Photoimpact for about 8 years, since version 3.0 now at version 12 and it does everything I need for the CW. It can produce 3D shapes easier than Corel and has a much easier learning curve. I create V-carve text (centerline style) out of almost any font and can save everything as a UFO. file (Uleads layered vector format) and come back and edit at will. The price for version 12 is just $89.00 and I have included a link to the free trail page. It's worth a try, I promise. Even if you already have Corel, as I do, you will prefer this program. I use Corel occasionally when I need to seriously manipulate text by stretching or breaking apart letters because it's a little easier in Corel but that is about it.

I am not trying to slam Corel. I have it and it is a great program for what it was designed for. But it is overkill for the CW user in my opinion. Anyone who has questions about the Ulead software (which I will refer to as UPI in all further posts) feel free to ask. I will offer as much help as I can.

http://www.ulead.com/pi/trial.htm

Jim

[MarkJamesDesign]

I will be posting some pics of what can be done with the CW and UPI in just a few days. I've been involved in a lot of production and design work since I got this machine and really haven't had much time for showing off. I bought this machine for one reason and that was to add another dimension (no pun intended) to my sign and design biz. I am not quite where I want to be with this machine, but I ain't far. I'm taking it slow and trying not to let CarveWrightitus keep me from the other aspects of my biz. It's tuff sometimes to keep working on other things with my new little buddy sitting there giving me the come play with me look. Anyway, as soon as I have a chance I will post some pics. I am currently working on some Tiki bar and surfboard signs for a new beachfront restaurant. CW is involved.

Jim

[meat]

Well, I think it's more a "use whatever tool you're used to" thing, more than a 'one is better than the other' issue.

I've got both, and I use Corel for pretty much everything.

The one thing that I don't think has changed, though, is that PhotoImpact is a Windows-only tool (I don't have 12, but Ulead has been pretty much all-Windows, all the time as far as I know), while Corel works on both Mac and Windows.

Since I use a Mac for film editing, graphics, web design and just about everything else (except for software programming) the Ulead product doesn't work for me.

I do have Parallels as well as Bootcamp, but buying another version of Windows to run on a Mac is just askin' for trouble. And it costs more, too.

Corel, while it may have a different learning curve than PhotoImpact, is universal. Not a slam against Ulead, just a counterpoint to your posts.

Your pal,
Meat.

[jonweis]

Jim....
I ordered mine on the 12th and got this email on the 13th re: my order for Photo Impact 12.
************************************************** **************************
Dear Customer,

Thank you for placing an order with element 5.

Unfortunately, our distribution center does not have the product "Ulead PhotoImpact 12 (Full/Physical)" in stock and shipment will be delayed. We appreciate your understanding.

************************************************** **************************
Of course the 30 day demo is still available for the interim.

[MarkJamesDesign]

I think you can purchase and download right from their site if you don't mind not having the CD. I downloaded my ver. 11 with no problems and am going to get upgrade to 12 via download. I think once you download the trial, it is a full version that you simply activate with a code key upon purchase. Many of the extra elements such as masks, image library, stamps, shapes and others are available for free from their site as well.

[jonweis]

I emailed both Element 5 (the folks that handle their web orders) who referred me to Ulead's customer service as I thought one of them could simply send me the "unlock code" for my demo version in the interim. Haven't received a reply from Ulead c/s yet. Hopefully later today.

[Fireman Phil]

I just downloaded the trial version and cannot get it to work. I click on the icon and is says 'Limited users can not try this product. You can use normally after successful activation.' Any suggestions?

-Phil

[DDV]

I just downloaded the trial version and cannot get it to work. I click on the icon and is says 'Limited users can not try this product. You can use normally after successful activation.' Any suggestions?

-Phil

I had the same problem with a program that I downloaded. Took me a week to get a answer from their support. Right off they told me being the trial version is set at the time you download the program and to check the time and date set on my machine and make sure it is correct and if it was not correct I would have to download the program again. Sounded like a dumb fix to me. But the time and date was not correct. So I corrected it and downloaded the program again. It worked that time. Go figure!!
DDV

[sk8nmike]

OK I got the trial verizon of Photo impact Ver 12 last night and tried my hand at creating a simple sign, and simple it was 3d effects were easy to handle.

Now for the buts...I used the 3d round text of the signs, look great on Ulead, but when I imported it to Designer all of the letters were cupped on the top. Any help on fixing that? Another item was the light feature, left a dimple in all of the round objects I created.

Mike

[Aaron B]

Does this program do shades of gray for the depths so when imported the depths of the carving are correct.

I haven't looked at the program, I was just wondering how it worked.
Thanks

[sk8nmike]

Does this program do shades of gray for the depths so when imported the depths of the carving are correct.

I haven't looked at the program, I was just wondering how it worked.
Thanks

The color you use doesn't matter to Designer, you can use gold like Vector Arts does or Blue or Green. What you need to keep in mind is to use the same color and Darkest will produce the highest point and lightest will produce the lowest point.

Using shades of Gray does work best though, as Black is the darkest color you can use and White is the lightest.

[Aaron B]

Thanks for the help, I may have to download the demo and give it a try this weekend.

[MarkJamesDesign]

you don't need to make the object 3D. I am planning a more in depth explanation of this in a few days, but for now I'll give you the skinny. I use 2D setting with a radial gradient. Make the center 255,254,255 (just off-white) and the outside a light gray 176,176,176. In the materials dialogue use the settings shown in the image below. You can alter the height and angle of the letter or object by adjusting the width and/or the shade of gray. You can use this fill to create varying depths on shapes as well. Remeber that the 3D lighting creates shadows and depth effects to fool your eye while viewing a printed or screen image. The designer software only reads shades of gray. Once your design is ready, select the item or items you want to export and press F4 to open the image optimizer. Choose selected objects or all objects and click ok. Now you can save as a transparent PNG. I use use the true color PNG setting, but you could use the 256 grayscale as well. Make sure the transparency box is checked as shown in the second image below. Hope this helps to get you going in the right direction. Looks like I may have to put a tutorial together as soon as I get some time.

Jim

[MarkJamesDesign]

The white setting of 255,254,255 will cause the machine to carve a tiny bit off the top surface of the letter as it is not true coplaner with the surface of the wood. I do this because I carve a lot of PVC and I like to break the surface skin for priming and painting purposes. If you want the letters even with the top of the wood (coplaner) you should use pure white 255,255,255 for the center of the gradient. Also to create a centerline or v-carve type you will need to set the material width to around 35 to 50 depending on the font.

[MarkJamesDesign]

Iceman,
I don't think that celtic image will carve well. At least not come out the way it looks in the image. You have dark areas overlapping light areas. The dark areas are going to be recessed not overlapping. Even if you inverted it you will still have the same problem. This is just my opinion, I could be wrong. Anyone else want to make an assesment?

[Charles M]

Jim,

I imported it into Designer and didn't get the effect that I was expecting. But maybe it's just me.

[Charles M]

Oh, maybe it would work if the background was removed and saved with transparency.

[benluz]

Hello, it would be great if you guys that have some graphics experience could give a step by step example of bringing a jpeg into PI and converting to gray scale or other color for importing into designer.I know photo carving is a great application for the CW if more of us just knew how to manipulate an image.
Thanks,
Ben

[rjustice]

Iceman, and Jim...

I saved Icemans picture as a .bmp file on my desktop, then imported it into designer. I clicked raise a couple of times to remove the back ground. I think it does give the effect that he was going for, but i found something very interesting... If i have bit optimization on best, I get alot of peaks around the edges. I changed it down one setting to high, and the peaks went away. I then went back and imported it using only one click of raise to remove the background, and i could then use the best optimization setting and it looked good... it gives the weaving pattern that i believe that Iceman was going for... pretty cool stuff...

Ron

[VtBlues]

I agree. I don't think the effect of it carved will resemble the picture much. Won't have the same flow. Have been learning that what looks good to the eye probably won't carve that well. Takes a different vision to see things the way the machine does.

[VtBlues]

I am not backing any particular software to do your designs in but for those of you that are interested in Corel, its $400 price tag is not realistic. I just got Corel Draw X3 as a birthday present and my wife only paid 89.95 for it plus about 8 bucks priority shipping. Brand new, sealed in the box with all the original authentication. If you really want Corel, get their trial version download and look around (Ebay and such) and see what you can find.

[rjp736]

You can get the Student/Teacher edition for $99.00. It's the full version and has everything that the $400.00 one has except the manual.

[rjustice]

Got mine on Ebay $106 with priority shipping... full version with bonus disks, and registered just fine...

Ron

[zeke]

I took your recommendation, downloaded and installed PhotoImpact, saved an image as the UFO file type. Now how do I get that in Designer? I'd like to close the loop on this journey and import the UFO file into Designer, but didn't see those instructions in your recommendation.

Wow, after posting this from another thread somewhere, all kinds of postings appeared out of nowhere, must have found the initial thread elsewhere. Still need to know how to import the UFO file type though....

Regards,
Zeke

[mtylerfl]

I took your recommendation, downloaded and installed PhotoImpact, saved an image as the UFO file type. Now how do I get that in Designer? I'd like to close the loop on this journey and import the UFO file into Designer, but didn't see those instructions in your recommendation.

Wow, after posting this from another thread somewhere, all kinds of postings appeared out of nowhere, must have found the initial thread elsewhere. Still need to know how to import the UFO file type though....

Regards,
Zeke

Hello Zeke,

You cannot import the proprietary .ufo file format into Designer (or any other program as far as I know).

The ufo format is for use exclusively in Ulead PhotoImpact as you edit and modify your graphic. It supports layers, and keeps your graphic elements totally editable, which is very handy while your graphic tweaking is "in progress". It's a good idea to save a version in the ufo format for recall later, if needed.

After you have finished working on your ufo version of your graphic, then you use "Save As" to save your graphic to a standard file format that other programs (like Designer) can use (jpg, png, bmp, tif, etc., etc.).

Hope this helps.

[MarkJamesDesign]

I find PNG works best. As mt stated the UFO format is proprietary to the Ulead app. It is exactly what he said it is. You need to save as another file format. Come to think of it.....he said that too. I think I'm becoming a parrot.

Jim

[zeke]

Reading the post below, I read it as though Photoimpact could produce 3D images for the CW.

Trying to determine if I misinterpreted the message or can Photoimpact create 3D images that can be imported into designer where it maintains it's 3D shape to give it depth????

"I will tell you that I have used Ulead Photoimpact for about 8 years, since version 3.0 now at version 12 and it does everything I need for the CW. It can produce 3D shapes easier than Corel and has a much easier learning curve."

Reference note below......
I should have posted this a couple of weeks ago when I first started using the Designer software. Could have saved some folks some $$$. As a graphic artist who has been in the biz since before PCs were even used for graphics, I have had a lot of experience with all sorts of graphic design applications.

Corel is an awesome program and I have been using it since version 5 or 6, I forget which, but it is extreme overkill for what is needed for the CW. Corel is used by professional sign makers, graphic designers, illustrators, magazine and news ad layout artists, the list goes on. If you purchase or already have Corel, you are going to use only a speck of it's capabilities for the CW.

Having said that, I will tell you that I have used Ulead Photoimpact for about 8 years, since version 3.0 now at version 12 and it does everything I need for the CW. It can produce 3D shapes easier than Corel and has a much easier learning curve. I create V-carve text (centerline style) out of almost any font and can save everything as a UFO. file (Uleads layered vector format) and come back and edit at will. The price for version 12 is just $89.00 and I have included a link to the free trail page. It's worth a try, I promise. Even if you already have Corel, as I do, you will prefer this program. I use Corel occasionally when I need to seriously manipulate text by stretching or breaking apart letters because it's a little easier in Corel but that is about it.

I am not trying to slam Corel. I have it and it is a great program for what it was designed for. But it is overkill for the CW user in my opinion. Anyone who has questions about the Ulead software (which I will refer to as UPI in all further posts) feel free to ask. I will offer as much help as I can.

http://www.ulead.com/pi/trial.htm

Jim

[Jon Jantz]

The funny part about this whole thread is, the subject says: "You don't need Corel" which is not quite correct. The reason being, Corel owns and produces Ulead PhotoImpact as well as Coreldraw.

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1166553961523

That being said, I do like Photoimpact and some of the things it can do, but I'd give it up if something threatened me with a gun....

However, I'd take 3 bullets before giving up Coreldraw X3.

I have used Coreldraw for lots of years and do a LOT more with it than just
designing Carvewright patterns, so I'm a little biased.

On a sidenote....................

Maybe we should have a little contest here sometime. Have one of the users secretly pick out a logo and email it to about 4 or 5 of us... each of us using the software we're most comfortable with. We could then make the logo into a carveable pattern and upload it back to the forum as quickly as possible, and see who could get it done the fastest.

Then everyone could vote on the quality, style and accuracy of the reproduction.

I think it would be fun!!! I imagine different programs would probably excel at different types of logos.

Again, I am not saying that I'm 100% convinced Coreldraw is the best thing out there, I am very open to ANY program that can help me make patterns. I've gotten probably 10 different programs I've been playing with in the last couple months. However, it is still by far my favorite at the moment.

[pkunk]

Do they have a Mac version?

[Bill]

I don't think so Paul here are the
System Requirements

Windows® 2000, Windows® XP Tablet PC, Windows® XP, Windows Vista™
256 MB of RAM, 200 MB of hard disk space
Pentium® III, 600MHz processor
1,024 × 768 or better monitor resolution
CD-ROMCorelDRAW (http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1150836020349)

[Jon Jantz]

Paul, that question was asked on another board (www.letterhead.com) I'm a member on which has a dedicated Corel Rep monitoring it...

He said they run CorelDraw on their Macs using Parallels (kind of a Virtual PC type thing that will let you run Windows on your Mac)..... if you use that, you could run Photoimpact, Coreldraw, or any other PC program you wanted.

Here's a link to the conversation.
http://www.letterhead.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/45989.html

[Bill]

Maybe we should have a little contest here sometime
Jon,
I have just the thing a picture of a coin for the North Dakota National Guard stationed in Afghanistan front and back ;)

[Sarge]

Paul, that question was asked on another board (www.letterhead.com) I'm a member on which has a dedicated Corel Rep monitoring it...

He said they run CorelDraw on their Macs using Parallels (kind of a Virtual PC type thing that will let you run Windows on your Mac)..... if you use that, you could run Photoimpact, Coreldraw, or any other PC program you wanted.

Here's a link to the conversation.
http://www.letterhead.com/ubb/ultimatebb.php/topic/1/45989.html

There are other Corel products for Macs. You're in luck!!!!!!!
Corel KPT Collection
Can I use KPT Collection on Mac OS® X?
Yes. KPT Collection ships with a set of filters for Mac OS® 8.6 to 9.x-compatible hosts and a set for Mac OS X-compatible hosts. Examples of Mac OS X-compatible hosts are Corel PHOTO-PAINT® 11 and Painter 8™. Examples of Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x-compatible hosts are Adobe Photoshop 4 to 6, Corel PHOTO-PAINT® 8 and Corel® Painter™ 6.1.

How does the product take advantage of Mac OS X?
KPT Collection makes the most of Mac OS X by running with applications optimized for this operating system, including Macintosh® versions of Corel PHOTO-PAINT 11 and Painter 8. Running in conjunction with these applications, KPT Collection offers benefits such as preemptive multitasking, automatic memory allocation and the stability that makes Mac OS X an advanced operating system.

Will it still run within Adobe® Photoshop® on Classic Mac versions?
Yes, it will run on Adobe Photoshop versions 5, 5.5, 6, and 7. KPT Collection will run on Mac OS 8.6 to 9.x and on Mac OS X. We've included a set of carbonized filters for those applications that can run natively on Mac OS X (such as Corel PHOTO-PAINT 11 and Painter 8), as well as a set of non-carbonized filters for those applications that cannot run natively on Mac OS X (Adobe Photoshop 4 to 6, Corel PHOTO-PAINT 8 and Corel Painter 6.1).

System requirements

Macintosh®:
Mac® OS 8.6 to 10.3
Power Macintosh® G3 or higher (180 MHz or higher)
Adobe® Photoshop® 5.0, 6.0 or 7.0
32 MB RAM or greater allocated to host (64 MB recommended)
128 MB RAM for Mac OS X
25 MB or greater available hard disk space
24-bit (800 x 600) color display (1024 x 768 for Mac OS X)
CD-ROM drive
Mouse or tablet

http://www.corel.com/servlet/Satellite/us/en/Product/1152105069424

[Jon Jantz]

Sarge, that product is a collection of effects and filters for use with Adobe Photoshop, which wouldn't be much use to someone without Photoshop.

You know, that is a really strange product for Corel to be offering! Kinda like going to the Chevy place to buy accessories for your F-150!

Maybe they work with Photopaint as well.

[Sarge]

Sarge, that product is a collection of effects and filters for use with Adobe Photoshop, which wouldn't be much use to someone without Photoshop.

Maybe they work with Photopaint as well.

"KPT Collection makes the most of Mac OS X by running with applications optimized for this operating system, including Macintosh® versions of Corel PHOTO-PAINT 11 and Painter 8.

[Jon Jantz]

Cool..... Didn't read far enough.... If they have Photopaint 11 that will run on Mac, wonder if they have a version of Coreldraw as high as 11 that would run on it. I'd still rather use Coreldraw 11 than Adobe Illustrator. (my opinion only)