BNP Laser - Faceplate design for Mac guys

[sliberty]

BNP accepts Corel Draw files and Adobe Illustrator files.

So what software are you Mac guys using to provide the artwork to BNP?

[xtian]

I use Illustrator, though I'm sending art to PanelCraft Inc. Great product, awesome service, inexpensive (less than $20 per plate!).

[martin manning]

I have created panels in PowerPoint and saved as .pdf, and that has worked fine for me with BNP. I used standard fonts, except for a little lightning bolt shape I drew. Check with them to see if they can still do that.

[sliberty]

Illustrator is pretty pricey for a twice a year need

I was using Corel Draw in a Virtual Machine, but that isn't working for me anymore, and I'd really like to use a Mac app. But need something on the cheaper side.

[fabiomayo]

Late reply, but perhaps useful:

Inkscape

Good software, freeware, Mac version available, saves .svg files which are supposedly imported by Illustrator. I'm not sure if it would fit BNP standards...

I gave up the expensive Corel for the free Inkscape and never looked back.

[sliberty]

Thanks. Unfortunately Jeanne is avoiding Inkscape SVGs as they were problematic for her.

I landed an old, outdated version of Illustrator, and will give that a whirl.

[Milkmansound]

Inkscape works for me

Export as EPS and make sure text is converted to paths and they'll work well for you

[JazzGuitarGimp]

I am not doing panel art, but I'm successfully running CorelDRAW X4 as a VMWare fusion v5, Windows XP virtual machine on a Mac Mini running OS X 10.8.5