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I have found sellers on Ebay selling Coraldraw x4 for 200 bucks. I'm new to Ebay so I just don't want to get ripped off. They also sale CoralDraw x3 for the same price. What's the difference? Anyone know where I should buy from? I have a $250 budget. I also have windows vista.
Thanks!!!!!!
Take a look at www.freeserifsoftware.com which has a lot of the programs you need for about $10/commercial license, make sure to purchase it because if you just download the free version they do not allow for a commercial use, unless you're just planning on printing stuff for yourself. If you're just using it for t-shirt design you can't find a better software, in my opinion.
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I have GIMP, and it's great, but does anyone know what the advantages/disadvantages are to using a different program such as Inkscape? Are they basically the same thing, or is one preferred for making designs to be printed on shirts?
If you have and understand GIMP than you'll get most of the other open source software, check into www.blender.org, if you looking for the killer 3D modeling as well as animations, they recently released a brand new product with tons of increased functionality. However, a lot of those type of programs aren't needed for the t-shirt industry. I use them, as well as adobe and other purchased software, because t-shirts isn't the only market that I'm in...
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the difference between gimp and inkscape is like the difference between photoshop and illustrator...one is for photo manipulation...the other is a vector image program
If you want a student copy go academicsuperstore.com they are legit and I have bought stuff on there before. You do have to prove you are a student. I was also in my local community college and i saw a flyer for adobe for 200 bucks. If you are in college then go to your bookstore and talk to someone up there and they should be able to help you out. I am taking a graphic design class up there so i am going to pick that up.
There are versions of Corel X3 on amazon as well for 179.00. I am pretty sure it said full version.
Also www.digitalartsolutions.com will sell yu a brand new version of Corel X3 for 200.00.
The normal joe screenprinter won't ever need to upgrade, but if you like to stay current you ca always buy the year old version. Just that you'd always be a year behind.
I would stay away from Ebay completely for a purchase like this. Ten years ago you could get great deals but now most of the "deals" are pirated. If you do decide to take the risk, be absolutely sure that the seller has good feedback. I would only buy from someone with 40 or more pieces of feedback, and at least a 97% positive rating. Same thing on Amazon, unless you are actually buying it from Amazon.com. Their "marketplace" is not really any safer than Ebay.
Both sites give you some buyer protection, but you will probably have to wait a month or two to get your refund if it turns out to be pirated or unregisterable. Just too much of a hassle in my opinion.
My first and only experience buying Adobe Photoshop years ago on ebay turned out to be "a pirated" copy. The fellow skipped town with my and several other people's $$$. I got all but $25 of my money back from ebay but it as a lesson learned.
I now avoid buying "ANY" software from ebay.
I either buy on amazon.com or i look for OEM version of the software where you don't get the manuals just the cd. I don't care about registering the software i just want to use it and know it's legit.
But as for buying software of any kind people have suggested several things to you. I saw one person mention "Xara Extreme". Definitely take a look at it. That software is really great, very inexpensive compared to Corel, Illustrator, etc. and you can do about the same.
I was using corel and photoshop until i happened upon it. I now xara primarily for my t-shirt designing purposed because i can do vector as well as raster type graphics. They have a 30 day trial and loads of videos on their website to show you how to use it.
They also have a forum that is full of season users that are willing to help. I haven't had one incident where i have asked a question and within a hour had an answer.
So as the industry revolves around Corel and photoshop. How does this program fit in?
Can you use corel files with it?
Are you able to manipulate a template to change lettering and such.
I'm not a big graphics type of person so there questions maybe elementary.
Graphics program for $200 
