I got a call from a customer the other day. This customer was still using CorelDRAW 7 and had been printing separations for screen printing to a printer even older. The printer was failing and the customer realized it was time to get things into the current century.

As far as a printer goes, the customer had a newer ink jet that would work but it was unable to output the halftones he needed. Buying a different printer that could output the halftones or a full-blown RIP would be quite expensive.

First, we had to get him updated to CorelDRAW X6. CorelDRAW 7 is more than fifteen years old and it was holding him back. Of course I also suggested he get a copy of CorelDRAW X6 Unleashed so he could learn how to get the most from CorelDRAW.

The rest of the solution was to get a copy of the SimpleSeps 3 add-on for CorelDRAW. Note that it will NOT work with CorelDRAW 7 (only X3, X4, X5 and X6) and thus it was part of the reason he needed to update. You’ll see one of the dialog boxes above from SimpleSeps 3 that allows you to choose a number of different options for the halftones it outputs even if you do not have a PostScript printer. I highly recommended you all visit the SimpleSeps 3 product page to learn more about what it does and watch the included movie that shows it in action.

While this customer will need to invest a bit to get his software and hardware modernized, the solution suggestion is much less expensive than a new PostScript printer or a full-blown RIP.