posted
I have a friend with a very small silk screenign shop in her basement who has been sending me things to vectorize for her. I am trying to find her an inexpensive program to buy that will do this for her. Anyone know of one?
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
724-927-6471
thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Bobbie, I'm not sure there's even an expensive program that does a good job of that. At least "good" in the way needed for a screen printer.
I've read here that there are one or two places that will vectorize for next to nothing, but don't know why you'd want to pass off work you're doing yourself now. Wouldn't make a lot of sense at all to throw work out the door.
posted
Corel does an "adequate" job in vectorizing in its "Trace Bitmap" option, which should come up automatically when you click on a bitmap and have the Property Bar checked to be on by default.
If you right mouse on the top menu bar a dialog will come up with the various toolboxes and menu bars available. Make sure Property Bar is on. I don't know if it is on by default in Corel but it's a very useful tool.
I put "adequate" in quotes because it depends on the quality of the bitmap and the settings you use... and how picky you are... or how late in the evening you've been working on it... or how frustrated you've gotten in trying to do it...
-------------------- David Harding A Sign of Excellence Carrollton, TX Posts: 5084 | From: Carrollton, TX, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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I use Imagaro Professional Z and I find it to be considerably better than Corel trace (12 through X6 anyways), not perfect but much better. Not too sure if it qualifies as "inexpensive" at $197 for the the non-professional version, but it does the same job as the professional ($287) version with some limitations related to font recognition and substitution. I think it is worth every penny I paid for it.
If you want you can send me a couple of sample jpg's and I will gladly run them through the trace for you to show you how well it works.
-------------------- Guy Hilliard Sawdust and Noise CNC Routing / Laser Cutting and Engraving Brampton, Ont. Canada Posts: 164 | From: Brampton. Ont. Canada | Registered: Dec 2001
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posted
take a look at Vector Magic. $7.99 a month for unlimited uploads. I recently started using them. The vectorization is almost instantaneous, but if needed you can have hand drawn. Worth taking a look at to see if your friend would be happy.
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Bobbie...Most "trace" programs will do an adequate job, as David H. said.
BUT, as Don says, why turn away work that you can do yourself?
Hand vectorizing is the best bet, but it takes time to do accurately. Don's mention of the online services is correct. They seem to do a good job and at very low prices. I guess those offshore labourers work pretty cheap?
-------------------- Dave Grundy retired in Chelem,Yucatan,Mexico/Hensall,Ontario,Canada 1-519-262-3651 Canada 011-52-1-999-102-2923 Mexico cell 1-226-785-8957 Canada/Mexico home
posted
corel does a good job on most...AS LONG AS YOU DO SIMPLE TRACES. myself, i will take a bitmap, reprint it as large on an 8.5 X 11 sheet and reprint it. then i take a sheet of tracing paper, lay & tape it over that. then i hand trace with a NEW sharpie, only the lines i want for cutting. now i take my hand drawn sheet into the scanner, into corel, then TRACE that one. you may need some cleanup, but you will get what you wanted. the only other program i use, it may not work past XP, is ADOBE STREAMLINE 4.0. it is an old program but does a great job. and the thing i like about it you edit the bitmap before you trace it, then if you took out a line or broke a line you can go back into it and redraw and fix it.
-------------------- joe pribish-A SIGN MINT 2811 longleaf Dr. pensacola, fl 32526 850-637-1519 BEWARE THE TRUTH.....YOU MAY NOT LIKE WHAT YOU FIND Posts: 11582 | From: pensacola, fl. usa | Registered: Nov 1998
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My mind wanders. And that's not a good thing, 'cause it's too small to be out there alone. Posts: 3129 | From: Tooele, UT | Registered: Mar 2005
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Vector Doctor is My Guy. He does all the work in Ohio, not overseas as Dave stated. I look at it like this: If your shop rate is $100/hr and you spend more than 4 minutes completly vecotrizing something that can be done for $7 bucks, you're not thinking staight. If a vector program is $150 bucks, you would have to do 21 jobs to just pay for the program, let alone the time learning to figure it out.
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I have an old Streamline file Works great and converts to an Illustrator file.
-------------------- Nikki Goral Image Advantage Signs 4050 Champeau Road New Franken, WI 54229 920-465-4500 "Finish every day and be done with it. Tomorrow is a new day."-Ralph Waldo Emerson Posts: 928 | From: New Franken, WI (East Green Bay) | Registered: Jun 2007
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posted
Either vectorizing programs have become wildly improved in the past couple years, or I'm just too darn picky.
Also, I sure wouldn't turn a paying customer on to a cut rate vectorizer, no matter how good they are. We've all got to eat and the price of food isn't going anywhere but up!
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Imagro Z makes Steamline look like a freeware app. Even so, I just had a jpg file sent to me that would have taken hours to get perfect and artworksource.com did it overnight for $15. Then my customer wanted fades in certain areas. They added the fades, again overnight at no extra charge. You could easily charge a customer $30 to $50 and not have to do a thing.
-------------------- Dave Sherby "Sandman" SherWood Sign & Graphic Design Crystal Falls, MI 49920 906-875-6201 sherwoodsign@sbcglobal.net Posts: 5396 | From: Crystal Falls, MI USA | Registered: Apr 1999
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posted
Wow!!! Thank you ALL! Don, I am considering your opinion, it does make sense, but right now I am really super busy, every minute seems to be counted. I might tell her about Vector Doctor & see what happens.
-------------------- The Word in Signs Bobbie Rochow Jamestown, PA 16134
724-927-6471
thewordinsigns@alltel.net Posts: 3485 | From: Jamestown, PA 16134 | Registered: Oct 2002
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posted
Bobbie, even if you are too busy. You can take the file send it to vector DR ... wait a bit send the vectorized result to your customer with a bill... you keep the customer happy and pay your bills
I have yet to find any program that will do an adequate job of a trace. All of the traced or converted files need touch up work when done.
It is much faster for me to redo it myself or even better to send it to vector doctor.
-------------------- Leaper of Tall buildings.. If you find my posts divisive or otherwise snarky please ignore them. If you do not know how then PM me about it and I will demonstrate. Posts: 5273 | From: Im a nowhere man | Registered: Jul 2001
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![[Smile]](smile.gif)
Works great and converts to an Illustrator file.
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