Cannot seem to export a gradient file without some fairly drastic banding between colours. Very basic info, it's for a vehicle wrap, so relatively large and noticeable. The Gradient goes from Black, to Orange, to Red, to Yellow.The various 'tips and tricks' I've seen haven't really done anything, setting the fountain steps and or/locking them doesn't do anything but enhance the banding, and using a quick fix like the dithering solutions or adding blur, changing to 8 or 6bit etc. nothing does the trick. With that being said I'm not looking for a quick fix, is this just something that can't be done easily on CorelDraw? I.e. if you can't just use the gradient fill tool and export a clean image is there any point in using this software? Not looking to have a 6-step print process every time I need a gradient. If gradients are a constant thing should I be switching to Illustrator? (I ask because I see that they've purchased some specific code to improve their gradients compared to CorelDraw) Any valid info would be useful (no need for know-it-alls with bad attitudes who spend their time trolling these posts making people feel inadequate) just info.
What kinds of files are you exporting to use in the large format RIP application? Also what RIP application are you using? Generally speaking I would recommend exporting PDF files.Some of the banding problem may also lie in how your gradients are being built. What kind of "black" are you using? Is it just a 100% K black? Or are you using a "rich black" that relies on all four CMYK colors? If the black is only from black ink then that might be the source of your banding problems. A rich black that involves all four CMYK ink colors will be less likely to show banding issues.I tend to hop a lot of my artwork back and forth between the CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator environments to take advantage of the strengths both applications have. The two different RIP applications we use for our latex and flatbed printers are Adobe-certified and do very well when fed PDFs generated by Illustrator or InDesign.
It sounds like the original poster is looking to export CorelDRAW created content and place it in other applications and edit it. Good luck!
As far as output goes, I have no problems with fountain fills, transparency or complex fills in exported PDF if the RIP has the abilities. For fountain fills I simply used the default steps and, on some occasions, if it's really complex I use smooth.
Are you Distilling you Draw file with a PDF driver? If so, no live transparency is supported.
I never take any CorelDRAW files that are complicated into Illustrator, it never works. As long as it goes to a quality RIP I have zero issues.
What Corel would be smart to do is to create an AI compatible PDF export for AI editing for web sales, then CorelDRAW users could sell their artwork online.
Adobe doesn't have the issue because most buyers have Adobe CC, there are problems for Adobe users that haven't upgraded.
If I save PDF files directly out of CorelDRAW I don't do anything else with them other than print them. When moving CorelDRAW-generated artwork over into the Illustrator environment I only use Corel's AI export filter (usually CS6 format). That generates the least amount of issues out of all available export filters. But, yeah, plenty of issues do remain. I've seen the usual issues enough times to get good at fixing them pretty quickly.Rather than create a PDF export filter that behaves like Illustrator's "preserve Illustrator editing capability" option, Corel just needs to generate an Illustrator export filter that works properly. They just need to fix that. I wonder if they're even bothering to field test the performance of their Illustrator export filter. Some of the wacky things I see when opening Corel-exported AI files in Adobe Illustrator should be easy to fix, such as the line spacing of multi-line text objects. CDR should be able to export gradient fills with varying levels of transparency in AI format without converting the fill to a pixel-based image. I don't expect an AI export filter to cover everything. But all the common areas where CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator overlap in terms of features should be handled accurately.
I agree! What I'm seeing is almost no Illustrator users actually use the AI file format, by default they save as PDF. The worst thing is they automatically open all PDF files in Illustrator.
Corel and Adobe approach coding complex fills like fountain fills and blends as well as all transparency differently.
I don't understand why any CorelDRAW user who also has access to Adobe Illustrator would bother using Corel-exported PDF files as an exchange format. The exported PDF looks correct when viewed in Adobe Reader and prints correctly. But it turns into a mess when placed in Adobe Illustrator. It's not designed to be an edit-friendly PDF. The Corel AI-export filter, while not perfect, produces files with less issues when opened in Illustrator compared to a Corel-exported PDF. One might expect these users to at least try exporting in various file formats to see which one delivered the best results rather than just working on auto pilot.Corel's AI export filter has improved a little in recent years. Gradient fills that are 100% opaque do export more accurately, even if the gradient sweep has been moved off center of the object or even skewed or distorted. I think that's just a benefit of changes that happened starting with CorelDRAW X6. Objects transparent uniform fills will export correctly. But gradients with transparency will be rasterized. The text issues continue to be an annoying problem.
It's a marketing issue for Corel for sure, it's fine for creation for output but sucks if you want to sell your art on line.