Get advice to help you create your t-shirt graphics. Discuss t-shirt design software, special effect techniques, or other topics related to creating a t-shirt design on your computer. If you'd rather hire a graphic designer to do the work for you, please post in our Referrals and Recommendations section here.
Recently, I begin playing around with both Corel and Photoshop. I have no training on either and I have to say they are pretty hard to use.
Most of these online screenprinters allow you to design your own shirts. I am great at that. Are there any programs out there that are similar to those ecommerce software programs. If not, there should be.
Corel and photoshop are not ecommerce programs...they are specific for what you need..Corel is a vector based graphic program w/ a basic photo manipulate program. Photoshop is a professional photo enchancement program. A companion to is Illustrator..all of these are meant for professional use and they are not all that easy but there are a lot of free tutorial for Corel.
There are free similar programs such as inkscape (same type as Corel and Illustrator) and Gimp (same as photoshop)
There are some beginner programs but you will not get anything close to professional capability in tweaking or bitmap tracing or vectorization...
If you are truly serious about this business..Get the tools, invest the time to learn and it will pay off. However if you do not have a feel for graphic arts, sometimes it is best to outsource that part.
as an addition..go to www.xara.com They have a new version of XaraXtreme...less than $100 and it is very fast and relatively straightforward...and there are a ton on movies on how to use. It, as well as Corel, has a 30 day trial period...check'em out
i'm not sure exactly what type of designs you're doing but one thing that helps while at the beginning stages of learning photoshop/illustrator etc is to do the drawings on paper, scan them, open in the photoshop/illustrator and then trace. This way you have something to follow.
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One really inexpensive but excellent way to learn many of these programs is to go to Lynda.com. They have hundreds (thousands?) of tutorials that will teach you most everything you need to know for dozens of specific applications. You buy a subscription and then have access to some of the best tutorials by the best teachers in the business like Deke McLelland.
I believe a subscription can be as inexpensive as $25 per month. If you get a years subscription, you also have the 'follow along' files available to you as a free download. I've taught graphic design at the university level and as a freelancer and always suggest this option. Most everyone who has tried it (including myself) has found it to be invaluable. You can learn a lot in a month and you always have the option of going back and reviewing a lesson if you forget how to do something. And if six months later you need it again, you can buy another $25 worth for another month.
So basically noob like me on graphic design, what do you guys recommend to start with. Adobe CS4 Extended/Corel X4/Illustrator? I just want to copy image from other shirt/ logo/ font?? modify it a lil bit? thanks? my goal is for the transfer paper? thanks!
I'm muuuch better in photoshop than I am in Corel but for copying an image.. I think i'd go with corel because of the quick trace feature, which seems to be a bit more reliable than photoshops.. but as far as tweaking a photo.. go with photoshop.
Ive sat down with photoshop elements and almost screamed because of how limited it was.
They are both expensive programs.. but depending on exactly what you're trying to do you'll probably be able to get away with just one.
I use Photoshop mainly but have Illustrator and Corel...
Corel is the least expensive and easiest to learn in my opinion (please let's not make this an argument lol)
Illustrator is amazing and very powerful though...
as well as Photoshop(extended version is mainly the 3d capability,which isn't very robust...compared to 3d modelling programs)
and Corel is powerful also...
I just think Corel is the easiest to pick up quickly... and it's the least expensive...
All 3 programs have a learning curve and you will need to dedicate some time to getting proficient with them... they all have 30 day trial versions so check them all out... good luck
Corel is the least expensive and easiest to learn in my opinion (please let's not make this an argument lol)
I might just be biased to Photoshop.. I used it for 5 years before I touched Corel lol Which, like I said before.. i'm not very good at. It does what I need it to, but I know it is capable of so much more.. I bought the book on it, sat there in awe and havent opened it since.. lol Maybe tomorrow
I am a huge photoshop addict and i love the program... when i started messing with corel it just seemed like less of a learning curve... It might be the fact that i have been using photoshop for 8 years or so...?
Try them all and see which one you go to when you start your computer... they are all very capable...
Hi, I know this is not quite the correct place to post this, but I was battling to post a new message and kept getting told that my message was too short.
If you dont mind me asking my question here.
I have been trying to open a PDF in Corel and keep getting an error message "There was an error while communicationg to the host application". I have opened/imported all other 15 file and they were fine. Can anyone help. Thanks
Gemais
Graphic Design Software 
