Software options

[Vinyl.leah]

Hi! I am in transition from mostly tint and wraps in our shop to getting a flatbed printer and doing more signage than ever. What softwares are people using that they would recommend? My goal is to be able to lock in my pricing for things like yard signs for example. We also sell decals, T shirts etc…

 

[myront]

Age old loaded question. Most will need several software programs as many clients have there own design to provide but it will be either ai, eps, or pdf.
CorelDRAW/Photopaint (my choice)
Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop
Both require extensive learning. Corel I find to be easier to learn by doing. Illustrator can do all that and then some but good luck trying to find a quick answer. You can't just poke around and "get it" like corel.
Might even get by with Inkscape(free) but....

 

[rjssigns]

For basic knock it out signage I use Flexi. For more elaborate layouts you're going to need Illustrator/Photoshop or something like Affinity Designer or Photo. I'm doing more with Affinity now.

 

[Vinyl.leah]

Age old loaded question. Most will need several software programs as many clients have there own design to provide but it will be either ai, eps, or pdf.
CorelDRAW/Photopaint (my choice)
Adobe Illustrator/Photoshop
Both require extensive learning. Corel I find to be easier to learn by doing. Illustrator can do all that and then some but good luck trying to find a quick answer. You can't just poke around and "get it" like corel.
Might even get by with Inkscape(free) but....

I mean like for managing transactions, accounting, sending quotes? What do you use?

 

[rjssigns]

I mean like for managing transactions, accounting, sending quotes? What do you use?

You needed to state that in your initial post. Anyway, the software you need depends on your organizational structure. How many users? Business volume? WIP stores tracking? Job ticket generation? Cut lists? Sign offs for WIP and that's just a small part of things you may need to or want to manage. You can really go down a rabbit hole.

 

[myront]

I mean like for managing transactions, accounting, sending quotes? What do you use?

Oops. For that I cannot recommend any as the software we use is over 30 years old and our sales staff, as well as our accountant, hate it. A couple of years ago we looked into and actually purchased Cyrious for sign pricing and tracking production. We were talking about moving to Quickbooks for our accountant too but both "fizzled out". And here we are with accountant looking to retire in 6 months. Good luck finding someone to fill those shoes. Oh and our head off-site installer is leaving us for a better paying position that's not sign related.

dorry, veering off topic.

 

[Stacey K]

There's quite a few threads on here about sign software and like RJsigns said, it really depends how large you are. I'm one person and I use Wave accounting (free) and I tried several estimating programs and went back to my spreadsheet and my laminated price sheets. You can check out "Estimate Sign Software" to get a start. There's lot more out there but it seems to be a popular one among smaller shops.

EstiMate: Sign Pricing & Sign Business Management Software

 

[White Haus]

I mean like for managing transactions, accounting, sending quotes? What do you use?

Quickbooks Desktop. We tried switching to Online but it's a joke.

We are in the process of evaluating PrintLogic and will be switching our estimating, invoicing and production management to that platform.

Out of the box, it's mostly geared towards Litho/paper printers but they can customize anything for you and are working on a ton of new features for Large Format work.

Their training, support and willingness to customize to fit our needs has been outstanding.

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