CutContour, whats so difficult?

[Boudica]

I don't know how. Is there some sort of program that can do it for me?

I'll do it for you if you buy me The big salad.

 

[Notarealsignguy]

I'll do it for you if you buy me The big salad.

I pay in peanuts only.

 

[gnubler]

These are "graphic designers"

Rant Over

That's the problem right there, and there is no solution. The rant will never be over.

 

[myront]

It's not as straight forward as one would think. We use a slightly different approach whereby the cut contour line color is irrelevant just as long as it's there that's all that matters. Sending an eps file that is comprised of gradients is just asking for trouble. I can't stress enough that pdf is best way to go. If you can't work with that you should not call yourself a designer. But, for God's sake, ALWAYS convert fonts! And don't send a pdf and say it's already sized correctly only to find out you didn't include some sort of blank square, rectangle, circle, etc. background with it.
p.s. I hate crop/print marks - first thing I do is crop it to the requested size and if I need bleeds and/or crop marks I make them myself.

 

[electricfly]

I’ll change color stoke to CutContour in Pitstop when I can.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk

 

[Bobby H]

It's not as straight forward as one would think. We use a slightly different approach whereby the cut contour line color is irrelevant just as long as it's there that's all that matters.

I suppose the process can vary from one RIP/Cut application to another. Generally the approach using a spot color named "CutContour" appears to be the most common. In my own experiences I've never seen a client successfully set up such a thing in any artwork they provide. We usually have to build the cut lines ourselves. As I said before, it's hard enough just getting customers to provide actual vector-based artwork, much less artwork that is ready to send to a vinyl cutter, routing table or large format printer. Low res, low quality JPEGs are the most common offering, followed by AI, EPS or PDF container files holding the same JPEG.

Sending an eps file that is comprised of gradients is just asking for trouble. I can't stress enough that pdf is best way to go.

Some of that really depends on the application generating the EPS or PDF file, the quality/nature of the original artwork, and the choices the user makes with various settings when exporting a EPS or PDF file. The capabilities of the RIP opening and printing the file is another factor.

I do a lot of work in CorelDRAW and Adobe Illustrator. Generally I export any EPS and PDF files for print output using Adobe Illustrator, particularly any artwork that has modern gradient fills and/or transparency effects. I see less instances of banding in gradients using that approach. We use Onyx Thrive and RasterLink Pro to drive our printers; both have Adobe licensed RIP engines. I haven't seen any issues with them handling EPS files. However, PDF is a more modern format. I'll certainly use PDF for output if I use newer Illustrator-dependent effects such as free-form gradients or mix in raster-based elements from Photoshop.

But, for God's sake, ALWAYS convert fonts! And don't send a pdf and say it's already sized correctly only to find out you didn't include some sort of blank square, rectangle, circle, etc. background with it.
p.s. I hate crop/print marks - first thing I do is crop it to the requested size and if I need bleeds and/or crop marks I make them myself.

Live fonts are usually a road block in most vector-based file types. If the live fonts are embedded in a PDF the Flatten Transparency trick in Illustrator is a great safety net.

It's also pretty annoying getting client artwork where they use (or try to use) the page size to represent the sign face. I've seen the crop marks approach plenty of times too. It doesn't take long to draw a box the size of the page. But it is still extra steps to get artwork ready to output.

 

[Z SIGNS]

These are the problems you run into when you are a replicator instead of being a creator. If you want to make signs from other people junk you just have to deal with it. In a perfect world you would get files that are perfect and setup so all you have to do is hit the print button.

 

[Bobby H]

These are the problems you run into when you are a replicator instead of being a creator. If you want to make signs from other people junk you just have to deal with it. In a perfect world you would get files that are perfect and setup so all you have to do is hit the print button.

Having to work with client-provided art files is a fact of life for the vast majority of sign companies. Only in a perfect world can a sign company manage to create 100% of the artwork in signs they produce.