posted
I have a customer who sent a layout done in Photoshop. It looks great but I need vector. I don't think it is something that would scan very well at all.
Any Ideas??
-------------------- Amy Brown Life Skills 101 Private Address Posts: 3502 | From: Lake Helen, FL, USA | Registered: Feb 2001
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posted
Amy, If you don't think any of the vectorizing apps (Streamline, Vantage Scan etc) would make much of a job of it, the only alternative I can think of (assuming the layout is not too complicated) would be to copy and paste the bitmap to a dedicated layer in CorelDraw, lock the layer and on another layer manualy trace. Probably quicker to use circles and rectangles as starting shapes, convert to curves and distort and add points as required. If you have the same fonts they used just type over and place and kern to fit; convert to curves for more flexibility. Don't forget to dump the bitmap when finished. I'm sorry if I'm stating the obvious, maybe someone will have a better idea.
Best of luck, Arthur
-------------------- Arthur Vanson Bucks Signs Chesham, Buckinghamshire, England arthur@buckssigns.co.uk -------------------- Posts: 805 | From: Chesham, Bucks, England | Registered: Mar 2002
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Arthur has the right answer. That Streamline is pretty cool. CorelTRACE could do it too. But the best is to remake the thing in proper vector using the clients art only as a pattern.
The other issue is if your price was based on getting usable art from the client, they need to be told that a bitmap image doesn't save you any time other than being a good reference. Maybe you'll get lucky and they can get a vector version of it from it's originator for you. I get asked to do that all the time - to send eps this or tiff that to various vendors for my clients.
SONGPAINTER Original Sign Music by Sign People NOW AVAILABLE on CD and the proceeds go to Letterville's favorite charity! Click Here for Sound Clips! Posts: 1974 | From: Orleans, MA, Cape Cod, USA | Registered: Nov 1998
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posted
Amy, ditto whats already been said. If you dont want to trace it manually, get them to supply a vector. That's the only way if a vectorizing program like Streamline wont do it. It's usually faster tracing by hand than cleaning up an "autotraced" vector anyway.
If you have photoshop, now is the time to learn how to use the vector paths within photoshop. It's really trick, works just like Illustrator or CorelDRAW. There's a pen tool that draws bezier vectors and you can trace the bitmap with them just like other vector programs. Then when you are done, just select all the paths then click on Export in Photoshop's File menu.. select the "Export Paths to Illustrator" option and it makes those vector paths into a seperate AI file.
Or you could do it with CorelDRAW, Illustrator, Freehand or any other vector program.
-------------------- "If I share all my wisdom I won't have any left for myself."
Mike Pipes stickerpimp.com Lake Havasu, AZ mike@stickerpimp.com Posts: 8746 | From: Lake Havasu, AZ USA | Registered: Jun 2000
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But, I'd add that using the Magic-wand tool is the best for making a selection, from which to create your path. Holding the shift-key adds to the selection, and adjusting the sensitivity of the Magic-wand can get good results quickly.
Regards,
Jim
[ June 20, 2002, 01:50 AM: Message edited by: Jim Doggett ]
-------------------- Jim Doggett General Manager, USA Yellotools, Ltd www.yellotools.com Posts: 500 | From: Sherman, TX USA | Registered: Mar 2000
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I have had good success with some multi-color image files in Photoshop where the magic wand selection tool does a fairly good job helping me isolate all elements of a certain color, copy to a new page, fill black, then vectorize in Adobe Streamline. Do this for each color seperately, then re-assemble in Illustrator for any node editing.
Also for short runs & one-off cuts, remember you can always "node-edit" with an xacto probably faster then any other method (trace, digitize, vectorize)
posted
I too use Streamline almost exclusively but... If you can mak a sleletiion path in PhotoShop using the magic wand or any other tool. Than go to your paths menu and select save work path. Than under file, coose export paths to Illustrator. So far, they've come out pretty good.
-------------------- Bill Modzel Mod-Zel screen Printing Traverse city, MI modzel@sbcglobal.net Posts: 1358 | From: Traverse City, MI | Registered: Nov 1998
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