long printing times in coreldraw X3

[JonH27]

Hi dogbone

This might be a red herring, but... I recall that earlier CorelDRAW patches (v9 certainly) sometimes wouldn't install unless the system's timezone was temporarily reset (at least for users here on UK settings) - something to do with enabling the patches to find the correct date/time stamp on the files they were seeking out? Might this still be the case? I can't speak from experience as I'm still happily using 9 and have no experience of X3. Just a thought.

Jon

[dogbone23]

Some of their patches have required some pretty acrobatic installs. Seems like I used to have to install them from a network drive for some funky reason. Maybe in win95, don't remember now.

This is a fully legitimate version, it came from Provantage where I buy a lot of stuff.

Anyone want to tell me what version they are showing under the about menu after installing all the patches? That will let me know if my version is the latest or not.

I don't believe the color management is the problem, the eye dropper works just fine, it's the reporting of the color in the lower right corner that's wrong. It's not wrong on all colors, but a good many of them. And, enough so that it's unreliable. Object manager also shows the incorrect color.

Multiple up printing is also a problem. So far it won't work. It's sending something to the printer that causes the job to be canceled at the last minute. The work around I've been using is to either resave as a V12 and print from there, or impose in X3 and print to Distiller, then print from acrobat.

My printer is true postscript, from Adobe. Not some knock off emulation. I've had it for a couple of years and it works great, will do complicated full bleed tab size sheets without a bobble. Thought maybe it was something else, other than X3 since I've upgraded my workstation and reloaded all the drivers etc. But after some experimentation, it's X3.

I never buy corel software as soon as it hits the shelves. Actually I never buy new software period if at all possible. I've discovered that unless the new software actually does something more that you need done, it's not worth the hassle. Just to have the new version is not a good enough reason. Great new features are worthless unless you need them and use them. Some people do need them, some don't. With corel it's always wise to wait at least until the first patch comes out, preferably the second.

I used V9 way after V10, V11 and V12 came out. There was really just not enough new that I would use to justify the expense, and mainly the trouble of sorting through a new release.

I use this same methodology with new hardware purchases. Up until a couple of weeks ago my main workstation was a little over 3 years old. My god man, that's ancient! Yes it was. It still worked fine, I didn't have the latest and greatest software loaded so it was still plenty speedy, it worked just fine. My nest was well made and it worked.

Previously, I swapped out machines about every 13-18 months simply because technology marched on and speed was king. Somewhere along in there, technology didn't make huge jumps as it previously did. So a three year old machine worked nearly as well as a new machine, only I didn't have to go through the hassle of making my nest again. Being self employed, I can't just call the IT guy any ole time to come fix things. When I do he's me, and that means I'm one man down when it comes to production.

But all that being said, I have upgraded to a whole new system, built for speed and imaging. I was getting afraid of having such an old machine for my main workstation, even with all the data backed up, hardware does fail and I can't afford that. So I've a new machine with all the latest software. And I'm still trying to make my nest. It's almost there, if I could just get corel to cooperate.

[Aunt Betsy]

I have all the patches installed and my version of X3 says 13.0.0.739

[dogbone23]

hum, looks like my CD version was up to date without patches, that's a first in my book

thanks

[sallybode]

Then there are some adjustments you have to make to using X3 to allow you to print. You need to set up your scratch disks which keeps you running smoothly and to allocate 50 to 60% of your RAM to when you are using DRAW. If you are using pictures, you don't need anything over 300 dpi, and if you adjust them correctly, that solves a lof of issues. Nodes are another issue, if you are using clipart, you need to reduce the nodes considerably. There is a symbols palette, so anything which is reusable can go in there and just pull out a new instance when you need it. If you can use USB2 rather than parallel, your printing speeds will greatly increase. If you are still using and 4P or 5P, it is time to upgrade.

Myself, sometimes I will save as a .pdf if I am experiencing any slow down. Had one today, so I timed how things went to the platemaker vs. the speed of printing the same job from a .pdf. DRAW was still faster.

In making a .pdf, there are some elements which are unique to DRAW like conical gradients, Acrobat does not recognize them and if they are spot color, will render them CMYK, if converted to a grayscale and beefed up in contrast, then made in to a monotone (duotone with one spot color), they print fine and it solves the compatibility issue.

Some gradient fills don't like to reside in outlined text but do fine at curves. It is easy to spot where you have to make the tweaks.

If the device understands the level of postscript that DRAW sends out, then the printing times are not that bad. You can always try changing this to a lower level or printing graphics as bitmaps.

Print Preview can do many things, far more than any other programs. You can impose books, impose business cards, labels, postcards, and export an imposed book, even to .pdf if you have Acrobat Professional.

[dogbone23]

I don't think memory management is the issue. The file prints fine from V12, so it's either X3 or something about my new setup.

All my printers are connected via the network. I don't use HP printers. Currently I have Xante, Oki and epson for wide format.

I may try installing V12 on this machine and see if it has the same problem. That would tell me if it's something in X3 or a hardware issue.