2

I was totally new to graphic design and the best I could do was resize images in MS Paint or use Word 2010. Than I discovered Adobe Illustartor as I needed to make a logo and Letter Head. After breaking my head against my monitor (does not hurt any more) and learning it for 2 weeks, I became sufficiently good enough (if I can be excused to say that) and designed the logo and letterhead. Now it has to go to print.

The problem is that all the commercial printers and the people who use them, HERE use CorelDRAW and not only that but also older versions from 9 to 15. They refuse to take Adobe Illustrator files or even CorelDRAW files above version 12 such as v15 or X5. They refuse to work with PDF files also. No Word 2010 files either. Simply and Only CorelDRAW files of version 9 to 12.

The Adobe Illustrator CS5 does not have options of saving the files in ".cdr" format. And when I import or open the ".ai" file in CorelDRAW X5, many things happen. Color changes of text as well as objects. Some objects do not get displayed. Alignment and positioning gets changed, and many others.

I have taken some steps after reading on the net to make it easier for CorelDRAW X5 to import the ".ai" files. And also tried many things. These include, but are not limited to..

  1. Uncheck/disable the "compression" when saving the file in AI-CS5.
  2. Uncheck/disable the "Embed ICC Prile" when saving in AI-CS5.
  3. Convert all text to outlines.
  4. Saving in "SVG", "PDF" all different versions.
  5. Saving in older AI-CS5 Legacy versions.
  6. Exporting the file from AI-CS5 in different file formats.
  7. Importing the file from CD-X5.
  8. Working in RGB Color Mode.

... And many more.

Please note that I can not be expected to fresh learn CD-X5 and abandon AI-CS5 and design from the begining, if that is a "sole" answer. Also my design is simple enough. Attached are 2 pics. One of the logo and the other of the letterhead. Just 3 rounded rectangles filled with 2 color gradients and vectors of animals with styles applied to those animals and with text at the bottom. (can't post images, need 10+ rep for that)

The Logo http://oi44.tinypic.com/ieqs0m.jpg logo

The LetterHead http://oi41.tinypic.com/1zzj03s.jpg letterhead

Please further note (yes! I know, you have heard that many times) that although I was successful in designing (the asthetic beauty of the design is another matter), I am still new to designing. So Color Theroy or Font theroy have not made past me. And I wonder what's the point of having a standard of "SVG" If these so called "Vector Editing Applications" can not handle the files uniformly?

I guess my question is how to either

  1. Export/Save/Save As/Place the file from AI-CS5 to CD-X5
  2. Import/Open/Open As/Place the file in CS-X5 from AI-CS5

Without changes being made to it. My objective to to hand over a print ready file to the printing guys.

Thanks in Advance.

Improve this question
10
  • 1
    A) Find better printers. B) What about simply saving as PDF. They do accept PDFs don't they?
    – Scott
    Mar 19, 2012 at 20:08
  • 1
    Wow. Never have I come across a print provder which demands only old CorelDraw files. They may as well state "We don't want your business" Honestly, there are online printers galore which will accept PDFs and do fabulous jobs printing them.
    – Scott
    Mar 19, 2012 at 20:30
  • 1
    I can't really say. I'm not a Corel user and never have been. In 25+ years in the business I have never found a print provider which demands ONLY Corel files.
    – Scott
    Mar 19, 2012 at 20:59
  • 1
    @Scott, I have encountered this (albeit with signwriters not printers). Additionally, I assume Jawad is in Pakistan, where the print industry may differ from your experience.
    – e100
    Mar 20, 2012 at 13:06
  • 1
    @e100 : Got it working by Saving the file in Adobe Illustartor CS5 as PDF Version 4 and opening the same in CorelDRAW Graphic Suite X6. Pixel Perfect (Not that I can use this term for Vector) file with no messups. Although I have no idea why it works. Thanks all for your help.
    – Jawad
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:15

3 Answers 3

Reset to default
4

The problems you describe have been issues with Corel for years. I've run into it working with small specialty engraving shops that have equipment that only understands Corel files so they have to import to Corel.

Your best vector option at this point is to export an RGB version as an EPS (not .AI) in AI8 format. If that can import correctly into X5, you'll be okay, but I have to warn you that I've seen problems even from those legacy formats. Otherwise, you're left with exporting a high resolution TIFF for import into Corel, or learning Corel.

Not the best news, I'm afraid, but those are your best options.

Improve this answer
2
  • I'd be tempted to render TIFFs sooner, and maybe ask the printer if they can use those. I've done this (usually separating CMYK too) where for whatever reason PDFs have had issues.
    – e100
    Mar 20, 2012 at 13:13
  • Got it working by Saving the file in Adobe Illustartor CS5 as PDF Version 4 and opening the same in CorelDRAW Graphic Suite X6. Pixel Perfect (Not that I can use this term for Vector) file with no messups. Although I have no idea why it works. Thanks all for your help.
    – Jawad
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:06
2

While I still advocate going local whenever you can when it comes to printing--as it's nice to have a good relationship with one--it's also rather trivial to send your jobs out to print nearly anywhere on the planet now with the internet. I'd spend a bit of time online and find a printer that can handle your files.

Adobe, alas, is the standard in this industry and any printer not supporting standard Adobe product files is likely not a printer you want to deal with for a whole number of reasons.

If you have no other choice but to go with local printers, that leaves you with two options:

  1. In AI, do a SAVE AS and save it back to the oldest format you can for an AI file. It's rare for competing software to be able to open native Adobe files that are current or even one or 2 versions back.

  2. Barring that, learn Corel Draw. I know you don't like that answer, but you may be surprised with it not being as difficult as you think. By learning AI, you've learned 80% of the concepts that nearly every vector based drawing tool uses.

Improve this answer
2
  • Thanks for your attempt to help me. Before I go ahead and start learning CD-X5 I would like to try out all other options. Let me try and exhaust all other possibilities and turn to learning CS-X5 as a last resort. Thanks again.
    – Jawad
    Mar 19, 2012 at 22:37
  • Got it working by Saving the file in Adobe Illustartor CS5 as PDF Version 4 and opening the same in CorelDRAW Graphic Suite X6. Pixel Perfect (Not that I can use this term for Vector) file with no messups. Although I have no idea why it works. Thanks all for your help.
    – Jawad
    Mar 23, 2012 at 18:06
0

Have you tried Arts & Letters? For years I used A&L, and the eps files it made were so simple, both Corel and Adobe could open the eps directly, and the color was the true color I designed.

Although I have switched to Adobe, because I had to work on Newsletters and PDF files, I may however re-install A&L; and A&L is a true Vector program.

Website is: https://www.arts-letters.com/

nailbreak

Improve this answer

Your Answer

By clicking “Post Your Answer”, you agree to our terms of service and acknowledge that you have read and understand our privacy policy and code of conduct.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.