An outline problem in Flexi (or Corel)

[RG]

Another sign shop guy in town sends me lots of files to print. He designs everything with CorelDRAW X8. I open his files with CorelDRAW and export them as PDF files. Most of the files that he sends over with outlines open in my Flexi 11, like you see in the screen shot, with all the little unwanted triangles inside of the outline. My fix has been to select the font and put a Flexi outline around it, covering up the original outline. Is there a better way do do this? Am I doing something wrong in Flexi? Can something be done in CorelDRAW to keep outline files from opening up with all the unwanted triangles? Thanks.

 

[Zendavor Signs]

If you open it in Coreldraw, do you get the same weirdness? If not, I would think opening in CD and saving as a PDF would work. Tell your customer to save it as a PDF in the first place. Then WYSIWYG.

Sent from my SM-N910V using Tapatalk

 

[RG]

Thanks for your reply, Zendavor Signs. It looks fine when opened with Corel. When opened as a PDF the exported PDF also looks fine. The customer did save the file in the attached screenshot as a PDF and sent it to me as a PDF. I guess that WYSIWYG is good in theory, but not always good in practice. And, it's been like this for years, in earlier versions of Flexi and CorelDRAW. I was just hoping that someone else has seen this same weirdness and fixed it.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I thought Corel had long ago fixed this long ago. It has to do with the way Corel compounds shapes. The only solution I ever found was to release the compound in Corel and then do a Path Direction > Automatic in Flexi. Try it in PDF or EPS and you will not see the sectioned paths (triangles) when done.

 

[2ny]

You can do the following in Corel; Choose the objects with the outline pen, and then go "Arrange" > "Convert Outline To Object".
That will convert the outline pen to a closed object with fill, and this should fix the import to Flexi. (Flexi has the same function in "Convert Stroke To Outlines".)
You could also have the customer export the files as *.eps files.

Good luck
Tony K.

 

[myront]

Outlines are never a good idea in any program. In corel it's better to use contour instead.

 

[RG]

Thanks to all for your input. Looks like while the file is in Corel, "Convert Outline to Object" is the way I'll fix this problem. I didn't see how to "release the compound" in Corel. Outlines may not be a good idea, but they've been around for a while and I'll bet they are here to stay, at lease, until all signage is digital (led).

 

[myront]

..I didn't see how to "release the compound"

Not sure what that is but I bet Corel has an equivalent. "Break Apart" might be what you're referring to. In Corel ctrl+k is break apart.

 

[rob402]

You can do the following in Corel; Choose the objects with the outline pen, and then go "Arrange" > "Convert Outline To Object".

i do this constantly. the keyboard shortcut is: ctrl+shift+Q