cut line around a bitmap?

[Tony Rome]

Hey, just wondering if anyone has any tricks to making a cut line around a flattened .jpg?
In the past I have vectorized the picture and then created an outline around that and took the fill out and that worked OK, but now I have a picture with a lot of colors and text that is separate from the main logo that would need a cut line pulled in a little for a bleed so when I cut you don't see any white from the unprinted vinyl.
Any suggestions?

The pic is attached and the grey will not be printed it is just there so you can see the white text.
Thanks!

 

[tanneji]

on something like this i would drop it in photoshop and use the magic wand to select the grey area. go to the paths panel and click make new work path and click ok. then go to file, export, and then "paths to illustrator". drop them both into illustrator and you can use your work path (which will show up without any color or anything so you will have to find it to add your cut color etc) as a base to build your cutline from. good luck!

 

[Marlene]

I'd make a clipping path in Omega. not sure what you are running but see if there is something like that that you can use.

 

[HulkSmash]

Here it is with cutlines and all.

it's really easy to do it in flexi once you get the background removed, and saved as a PSD from photoshop.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Here it is with cutlines and all.

it's really easy to do it in flexi once you get the background removed, and saved as a PSD from photoshop.

You aren't a customer of mine so I will go out on a limb here and critique...

those lines don't follow the image very well. Personally I would have typeset the text and used that for the letters as the lines poorly follow in your pdf

I suppose if you are viewing from far away this may pass. Maybe I am a perfectionist but most of my customers would not accept this.

 

[HulkSmash]

You aren't a customer of mine so I will go out on a limb here and critique...

those lines don't follow the image very well. Personally I would have typeset the text and used that for the letters as the lines poorly follow in your pdf

I suppose if you are viewing from far away this may pass. Maybe I am a perfectionist but most of my customers would not accept this.

Nice eye roll.
all i did was remove the background roughly and do an outline cut insert.
It can easily be edited to how he wants, which is expected since it's his job.

It was more of a friendly gesture.

thanks though.

I suppose you assumed this was an output file.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Nice eye roll.
all i did was remove the background roughly and do an outline cut insert.
It can easily be edited to how he wants, which is expected since it's his job.

It was more of a friendly gesture.

thanks though.

I suppose you assumed this was an output file.

I was mostly saying this as it seemed like you saying it was an easy task. Believe me if there was a 1-2 clicks and ready to go, either I could be rich doing these all day long and charge a premium for it or customers wouldn't come to me for doing these types of jobs. The only way I know of following the edges exactly is to trace by hand and in the case of lettering, is to typeset the letters if you have the font. You would be spending a great deal of time cleaning up the letters in your pdf

I am just wondering if anyone else on here opened up that pdf and considered it acceptable

 

[Chuck Osborne]

I Think it is more important to have a great cut on vector
if you are cutting reg vinyl. I have cut a ton of logos and stuff
like this on digital prints using the method colorado used
and never had a problem with the customer.

 

[Tony Rome]

Well, didn't want to start a fight, lol...I think it was extremely nice for Colorado to actually attach that file, thank you.
I do need it to be pretty perfect, so I will edit in corel with node editor to get those lines pulled in a little so no white shows, but I have a huge head start now.
I do not have Flexi, I use Versaworks, not sure if VW has any option like that.
So, Doc, how would you recommend? I am thinking it should all be done start to finish in my vector program, you agree (I use Corel) I have AI though if I need it.
Thanks to all and especially to Colorado for going above and beyond!

 

[J Hill Designs]

yup typset and pen tool in your vector program of choice

 

[The Vector Doctor]

Yeah i was not trying to start a fight but rather curious by the reply. The response made me and possibly others reading this think it was easy and ready to go since it did not say otherwise. My customers have various degrees of expectations and abilities. Some would look at Colorado's file and be thrilled because they don't know any different and others would have been unhappy.

I find that it is much easier to redraw from scratch rather than clean up an existing autotraced vector. I am always looking for shortcuts to enable me to increase profits and allow for more work to get done in a day

Fonts show inaccuracies in autotracing more than anything because you have a baseline to compare to. Now if this was an autotrace of something organic like a tree or the skull here then it is less noticeable

 

[jfiscus]

Judging by the attached image, this artwork was originally created in a vector program... so your customer should know who created it for them & be able to give you their number to call to get the correct artwork. That's how I would handle it.

 

[HulkSmash]

wasn't trying to fight either.
you explain to someone how to do it, and send them an almost complete file,
and someone jumps on you telling you that it isn't perfect.

And yeah it is pretty easy to do. I know you just do vector fixes, and outlines, but I also work with hundreds of vector files weekly, and know what needs to be done. Me and vector art get a long real well...and spend lots of time together, and know how to work with each other..

As he stated, he now has a head start and somewhere to start with it. I never said it was a file ready to go.

 

[Terremoto]

Judging by the attached image, this artwork was originally created in a vector program... so your customer should know who created it for them & be able to give you their number to call to get the correct artwork. That's how I would handle it.

I agree totally. Why let the Department of Redundancy Department handle it when there's a good chance the original is out there somewhere.

That said, in the event of a hostile response or no response at all I would hand trace it. That's the only way I've found of achieving acceptable results.

... and in the case of lettering, is to typeset the letters if you have the font.

Good idea to check the font after it's been converted to a vector as not all fonts are created equal. Lots of fonts out there that require "adjusting" in order to get them to cup predictably and properly. I bought a copy of FontLab a couple of years ago just so I could clean up some fonts that I liked but that weren't constructed correctly as vectors to begin with or ones that haven't been kerned properly.

In any case if you can get a hold of the original vector then you're going to save yourself a ton of time.

Dan

 

[J Hill Designs]

Here it is with cutlines and all.

it's really easy to do it in flexi once you get the background removed, and saved as a PSD from photoshop.

confusing part that started these shennanigans emboldened

 

[Tony Rome]

Thanks everyone, it was actually created in PS, not in a vector program, otherwise I would never have needed to post, lol.
I love "graphic designers" who create logos purely in Photoshop...ugh!
Anyway, all done, used Colorado's file tweaked it and done.
Thanks!

 

[HulkSmash]

confusing part that started these shennanigans emboldened

It is there with cutlines, and background removed. Where's the shenanigans.

 

[HulkSmash]

Thanks everyone, it was actually created in PS, not in a vector program, otherwise I would never have needed to post, lol.
I love "graphic designers" who create logos purely in Photoshop...ugh!
Anyway, all done, used Colorado's file tweaked it and done.
Thanks!

Glad it worked tony

 

[Christian @ 2CT Media]

A fast way in photoshop is to make a layer flattened with no background, fill it with black, then import it into illustrator or corel and use the auto trace or powertrace functions to get an outline around the image. The you can contour that line to give you white or color bleed and cut.

 

[The Vector Doctor]

It is there with cutlines, and background removed. Where's the shenanigans.

I think he was kind of seeing my point. The "cut lines and all" made it sound like "here it is ready to go." Wrong assumption.

Had I known it would have turned into this I would not have posted and i was concerned it might. Everyone has their preferred way of dealing with vectors. When you spend most of your time tracing art to perfection you are always looking for the best solution. I still say that nothing beats tracing by hand and working from scratch rather than cleaning up a poor autotrace

Here is your lettering next to the same lettering when simply typeset.

This is not about me trying to get the OP's business but rather making sure that he was creating a high quality vector and learning from it. In the case of recreating art, I am not an impartial person but in this case I just felt the need to speak up

Peace my friends