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My wife has a small t-shirt business that we have always used a printer in the past. We are now looking at buying our own equipment to do smaller orders. The first step will be getting the software to do our own design work. This will also speed up her larger orders if she has the artwork already done.
Is Corel the best software to get and where is the best place to buy?
Download Inkscape to start, if you have colour work Inkscape is fine.
Corel is probably best bought from the Corel store? I don't think there are great discount available. It has a photoeditor built-in and is the full suite - comparable to Photoshop & Illustrator combined, so is a pretty useful piece of software.
I use Corel and love it. I started on v8 and now use X3. The newest version is X4. You can download from Corel website or buy it in box. You may be able to find a new "outdated" copy of X3" that may be cheaper than X4.
Good Luck
Ken
__________________ 350tees.com Talk Is Cheap, Especially On Our Shirts
Depending on what equipment and software your purchasing for that equipment, you might be able to get Corel with it or from the dealer.
You can also get Corel directly from Corel. You might be able to get a discount if you or your wife (or a kid of yours if you got any, lol) are students.
I think you can still DL some trials and test it out for 30 days, but I can't remember.
Don't waste your money on the Student & Teacher Edition as it comes with Limited capabilities and it is not for commercial use. For instance if you are going to use the free t-shirt comp generator you will need VBA editor which is not included in the S&T Edition. Also you can download a free 30 day trial from Corel. I would try this first because Corel is not an easy program to master it has a steep learning curve. Try it out and if you like it then i would buy it from Corel. If you are low on funds and you find it cheaper online make sure it is the full verison. (ask them before you buy it) Do not let them sell you a OEM version because it can only be installed once and if your computer happen to crash like mine did then you will have to shell out funds for the software again.
Katrina is correct about the student/teacher version but the OEM version is also limited. If you go with Corel Draw, get a retail version. I got the student version, then bought Flexi starter 8.5 and still wound up getting a retail version of Corel Draw X3. Try looking at PRICEWATCH :: Price Comparison Tool - Find the lowest prices on computer parts, electronics and more before you buy and look throught the software vendors. My retail version cost just under $100. Corel does have a learning curve but there are a ton of free tutorials on the internet. Good luck.
Terry
I got a legal full version of Corel Draw X3 on Ebay for $70 shipped to my location. Others have also gotten the real deal on Ebay. Inkscape is also very good, I hear.
There are tutorials on Youtube for both programs. I decided to get Corel after trying Inkscape. I heard on the forum Corel was easier to learn, more newbie friendly, and there are just a ton of free tutorials out there.
Both are used on the forum, so there will always be folks here to ask help from. Good luck to you both.
I got a legal full version of Corel Draw X3 on Ebay for $70 shipped to my location. Others have also gotten the real deal on Ebay. Inkscape is also very good, I hear.
There are tutorials on Youtube for both programs. I decided to get Corel after trying Inkscape. I heard on the forum Corel was easier to learn, more newbie friendly, and there are just a ton of free tutorials out there.
I also got the full retail version of CorelDraw X3 on e-Bay for about $80 a year ago.
__________________ "It's not the shirt on your back, but what's on the back of your shirt!"
Boy DUH. I didn't even think to look on ebay for my corel. I sometimes think all those brain cells that died during my drinking days are my biggest problems. Let my scatter brained follys be a warning . Don't "Party Hearty" very often if at all. Good luck.
Terry
I also got a full version on ebay for just under $100. So I thought.
After downloading the comp gen from here and trying to run it I found I couldn't get it to load.
After doing some research I found that it was indeed a full version (which is what I purchased) not a student or educational. So I thought everything would work. Not.
About the only thing I could find out was there was some copies sent out in just a jewel case (no books) that did not have this capability.
If you go the ebay rout make sure it actually is the full version.
I actually got mine from an online computer store for around $75.00. Everything worked great until late last year. Mine will not even open anymore. I am constantly getting "error 1604" whatever that is. No one seems to have a real solution for this error. I reached out to Corel but since I did not get it from them they could not offer much help other than upgrading to X4. This is why I suggested getting it from Corel because at least if something goes wrong they can help. They actually would not offer any help other than for me to upgrade to X4.
Do not let them sell you a OEM version because it can only be installed once and if your computer happen to crash like mine did then you will have to shell out funds for the software again.
Katrina
Sorry to hear of this trouble and the one in your above post, Katrina.
You got me thinking... if someone had an external hard drive set up, and their computer crashed, would that save them from having to re-buy the software?
I think that if the software is installed on the external HDD then you should be safe. I had most of my programs on my external except Corel and when I got the new HD for my PC all I had to do was install the programs that were on that HD. I plugged in the external and once the new computer recognized it all was well. Infact my Cutter software, and photoshop is on the external drive and they were not affected at all.
Where to buy Corel 
