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I'm considering buying Smart Designer X3 and would like to know if anyone can let me know if you have received any type of discount from them. I might also purchase one of their clip art collections. Smart Designer is a little pricey and the more I know, the more aggressive I can get in negotiation.
I would have to say YES, their pricing is negotiable. I can't recall right now what my discounts were, but when I purchased the program + 3 art volumes,
I saved a couple hundred dollars. And since then, they have pro-actively offered me discounts on other art volumes. BUT, if you are using Windows Vista, beware; I haven't been able to get SD to work properly since I loaded it on my new desktop with Vista. Its been very frustrating. When I was using my XP laptop, it worked fine, especially for vinyl cutting. But, when I bought a screen print set-up, I got a new computer and haven't been able to do things like "print flash base" and some other things.
They often will call you to let you sample new art packages. Lately they have had more new art packages than usual - so maybe they have hired some new artists.
I actually bought version 12, then very shortly after I got it they came out with X3 . . . and they sent it to me as a free upgrade. How nice was that - I couldn't believe it. They are always friendly and helpful. Great customer service and support.
Their templates are absolutely wonderful and always a life safer. I use them a lot, especially when the customer has no idea what they want. They are higher quality templates than I have found ontherwise.
I am pretty sure you can still use the templates in Corel even if you don't have the main Smart Designer program, but the main program has tons of other features that are faster & easy to use.
I also got a discounted deal because I bought it with some art packages from the ISS show.
Does this make the designing , color sepertions and editing much easier if you are only really using the coreldraw for silkscreening? I am new here and am getting ready to order all my equipment next week. I stumbled upon this today and I am totally new at everything!
I was going to order coreldraw 4x, I will be outsourcing my designs and mainly doing high end custom T's. IF this plug in is my ticket to making the job easier for just what I am doing (easier to understand and time saving) I think I really do need this plug in for my specific t shirt design needs.....can anyone help me make this decision????
I bought Smart designer, packaged with Corel at the January Long Beach show. I also bought two of their art packages. Go to their site and look at the videos---you'll get a good idea what Smart Desugner can do. I like SD and the company offers good support. It does do seps and a lot more.
TLE. I don't think they discount it. You might get a bit of a deal of you buy something in addition to Smart Designer from them, say one of the template packages. The program does do separations.
I think it's easier to negotiate with them at a trade show since they're under pressure to recoup the money they spent getting there and the booth price. I bought mine 2 weeks ago at a show and I won't disclose the amount I saved, but I will say if you ask them to help you out and show genuine interest in their software, (which in my opinion you should) you will probably get some sort savings. I obviously can't guarantee that, but it's worth the time to try. The program is soooo much more than just an easier way to manipulate designs. Check out the Feature List for smartDESIGNER X3.
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Smart designer is a really great program with alot of extra functions that make things easier such as drop shadows and circle text. Another really cool feature is their text effects such as the satin stitch that looks like stitched tackle twill that you see on letterman jackets. I myself have been using it for awhile now and it works great for doing sports teams, church functions and pretty much any type of business type graphic. It also looks like it has some pretty good prep tools for screen printing with seperations and color matching.
I liked it so much that when I got my new cutter recently, I also purchased their CoCut pro software for cutters, and I am still learning it, but it is a really cool program too.
They do special deals when purchasing more then just the program, such as adding art packs or things like the alien skins, which you might really like doing screen print, as they have a ton of special effects for graphics. Hope this helps some.
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
I called about smart designer yesterday (Sunday) and someone actually answered the call...I was a very surprised and pleased LOL.
My question was that I am new at the business and want to purchase what would benefit me most as a new designer learning the Coreldraw X4 program -start to finish for silkscreen designs (with an interest in SD also). I was told I should def get X4 and .....the new Smart Design X4 will be out in a month with TONS of new awseome features for silkscreen and embroidery. That it would truely benefit me to wait 1 month and purchase the new SD X4. Hopefully it will be around the same $$ as the SD X3......
He also recommended some great tutorial software that should aid in my learning.
I hope this helps anyone wondering wich program to get....
I just purchased sdx3....purchase it now... they are going to upgrade me for free. they are wonderful!!!! I just love the customer support. Jason is the guy I bought from. Yes they give you deals.
Can you use Smart designer without having Corel Draw? I have Adobe Ill.cs2. I really don't want to invest in another graphic program. Do you know if a used copy is available to purchase? THANKS!
You do need corel draw to use smart designer as they interact with each other. They kind of connect to gether and work as one program. You can use the templates with illustrator but you will not have alot of the editing functions that are integrated in smart designer and corel together. I dont know of any used ones for sale, in fact I have never seen a used copy for sale, which tells ya something haha
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Always do right; this will gratify some people and astonish the rest. ~~~Mark Twain BobbieLee
Looking to purchase Smart Designer X3 and Corel Draw. Do you feel that I will get my monies worth as I am not a "full time" graphic artist? I have Adobe Ill. CS2. So I really don't need Corel draw but I would love to have a program with built in templates for my spirit wear items that I design and sell to schools and such.
THANKS!!
Smart designer X3 pricing 
