eps question

[laserman70]

Just purchased a cutter for my business. I will be doing my own trucks and other small things. I use photoshop cs3 alot, does it need to be saved as EPS, dcs1 eps or dcs2 eps. Thanks for the help, love the forum its very imformative.

 

[weaselboogie]

I think you may need a vector program to be used on a cutter, like Illustrator, Corel, Flexi.

 

[thewood]

What software are you using to plot with? Photoshop is a raster-based program. And, although you can output vector paths from Photoshop, you will most likely want to use a vector-based program like Illustrator, Corel or even the software that came with your plotter. What plotter do you have? Did it come with software?

 

[weaselboogie]

Speaking of... how do you output a vector based linework from photoshop? I thought you could do SOMETHING like this, but I never had a need to do it.

 

[MobileImpact]

Yeah, what they said! Raster/Vector are two different animals!

 

[Fred Weiss]

Speaking of... how do you output a vector based linework from photoshop? I thought you could do SOMETHING like this, but I never had a need to do it.

There is a command named Export Paths to Illustrator.

 

[Fred Weiss]

Just purchased a cutter for my business. I will be doing my own trucks and other small things. I use photoshop cs3 alot, does it need to be saved as EPS, dcs1 eps or dcs2 eps. Thanks for the help, love the forum its very imformative.

You need to research the difference between vectors and raster images. Photoshop is primarily a raster image editing application. It has a very limited capability to also work with vectors and is not well suited for the creation of the vectors that you will need for controlling a plotter. You will be much happier with the capabilities of the numerous applications which are vector drawing and editing applications such as Adobe Illustrator, CorelDRAW, and all of the dedicated sign making programs.

The confusion you are experiencing is not uncommon because the EPS file format is not a guarantee that there are vectors in it.

 

[laserman70]

found a free prgram on the net that will change bmp to vector yahoo thanks for the help

 

[Sparky]

You can also create paths in PhotoShop and save as an EPS - that will translate into a file with a cutting path down the road.

You don't need a vector based program, but the time saved in getting rasters to print like a vector will easily pay for the program.

 

[bob]

found a free prgram on the net that will change bmp to vector yahoo thanks for the help

There is no such thing.

It's impossible to change raster data, as found in a bmp file, to vector data. The information required to do so does not exist. It may never have existed, as in an image constructed originally as a bitmap or it may have once existed, as in a vector image converted to a bitmap. No matter how the bitmap came into being, any information about any existence it might have had as to its characteristics as a vector image is irretrievably lost.

The absolute best that any algorithm can do is make a good guess. Some algorithms are better than others but it's still a guess. Creating a vector image from a bitmap is a judgement job. It cannot be done via algorithm. An algorithm often can give you a start in the right direction but it requires a human to tidy things up.

 

[B Snyder]

bob-
made this is the program?

http://vectormagic.stanford.edu/

 

[Ken]

VectorMagic from Stanford has some capabilities, but still requires tweaking. I checked it out only once.
I think our friend here should let us know what the plotter make is..it prob had software bundled with it.
Ken

 

[Rodi]

Laserman 70, try your free program, it might work… but in all likely hood, it is doomed man, it is doomed. You are for asking advice and then you say you found a program that does, well, who knows what it does. You don't because you just found it, and I think you want to plot some vinyl, right? Well Corel or Illustrator are good for designing and either plugins or a bridge program will get the plots out for you.
Photoshop does what it does with excellence, but it does not do what Illustrator or Corel, or Flexi or any other vector program can do.

 

[wildhock]

found a free prgram on the net that will change bmp to vector yahoo thanks for the help

Vectormagic will but you need to have awesome color transitions for the quality to come out good enoungh to cut.

 

[signage]

See if vectormagic translates the raster image into smooth lines! It more than likely is going to end up being jagged and not smooth curves. Here we go looking for the magic button again.

 

[Jackpine]

Your profile says you have Flexi, use it to cut vinyl.

 

[laserman70]

Thanks for the help, the program off the net i downloaded does work for what i am putting on my vehicles and in the office for my business. The logo is very basic that i made from photoshop. The rest is letters and numbers.
We do computer work, sell software and do warranty work for HP on printers. We replace vehicles often due to the miles we put on them. So I figured, why not do it ourselves, we arent going into business to do signs. I just thought making signs for our office and vehicles would be more cost effective. As the owner I am always looking at the bottom line. Once again thank you for the help and have a happy new year.

 

[Techman]

So I figured, why not do it ourselves, we arent going into business to do signs

Nonsense,
You are doing signs. And you are not doing it efficiently. All the time you wasted trying to figure out how to make a sticker for your truck cost you money. You could hire a real sign man to make your decals and save yourself a lot of time and wasted energy learning how to do it yourself. Spend your time concentrating on growing your bizz and let a real sign man handle your stickers.

All the money you spent on your machine will use up all the savings your are trying to attempt to save doing it al yourself.

This is false economy and is not logical..

 

[ghetto_cowboy]

might not save money the first set he does, but i would think in the long run he would, well depending on the size of his fleet

 

[weaselboogie]

So I figured, why not do it ourselves, we arent going into business to do signs. I just thought making signs for our office and vehicles would be more cost effective. .

Thats funny. Thats how I think too. I've wasted so much time and money trying to do something myself that I would've been better off hiring someone to do it.

Do you have an eye for this? Or does this look like something that is easy to do? Is this a 'good enough' attitude? If you're going to half-ass a design and install to convey your company, don't you think thats what your customer will see, too? If you're just about the bottom line, then you've found it.