Please Help!!!!

[Jamme]

My husband and I recently opened a business that includes vinyl lettering and so on. We have Flexi PRO 7.5, and a VinylMaster plotter. This is all very new to me and although the gentleman we bought it from taught me a little, I am still very confused. Can someone start me out on the basics, like how to make a sign for the front window of our business? I tried one and wasted about 10 ft of vinyl Im a quick learner, if someone can walk me through. We want the sign to be 3 ft wide and the letters to be 8 inches high. Any help is APPRECIATED!!!! Thanks in advance!!

Jenn & Jamme
Magyar Emergency Light Supply

 

[Gino]

Welcome from PA.......................................


There's a Governor Mifflin close to me.... are you anywhere near Reading ??

 

[Jamme]

No, we live near Pittsburgh

 

[Gino]

Okay.




You might want to go through some of the old threads and do a search for your particular software as to how it works, but if you want a step by step process, you might try reading some books on layout, basic drawing or design skills and composition.

Your question is very open ended and I'm not sure if you want help on design, layout or how to get your ideas into your software or how to get your printer/cutter to read your files or..... what ??

Usually what works best around here is for you to post up some of your ideas and others will critique them and try to help. No one wants to do your work for you, but will always help if your intentions are true and you're not looking for freebies or handouts.

You're only going to learn if you do things and learn from your mistakes. We've all been at the beginning and have all taken our crossroads and right & left turns and some even back up and try a new approach, but you get there much faster with our helping you, rather than giving you all the information up front.

 

[Jamme]

Thanks, What we are looking to do is 2 color "white and red" meaning white in the backround and red on top...does this Flexi 7.5 allow you to do that? I want a shadow.

I'm not looking for someone to do it for me, I have the machine and vinyl, I just do not want to waste the vinyl ..lol...lol

Any help would be GREAT!!

Jamme

 

[Replicator]

1. Cut the vinyl
2. Weed the vinyl
3. Mask the vinyl with Masking
4. Place the masked vinyl on your window with tape hinging the middle.
5. Fold one half over and peel away release liner (cut away release line)
6. Squeegee or roll masked vinyl onto window using angled strokes
7. Repeat steps 5 & 6 for the second half of the masked vinyl
8. Remove masking, leaving a beautiful vinyl window design

That last part only applies if your design is beautiful to begin with :ROFLMAO:

 

[strypguy]

Probably not the best suggestion but you can check out some videos on youtube. Right or wrong they may give you some insite into how others apply their vinyl.

John

 

[Jamme]

lol...I'm lost WEED the vinyl???:Oops:

I think what I need is the Basics of Flexi 7.5, I bought this off Ebay as a Package deal Plotter, Boot leg of Flaxi 7.5 and all the other small items. What I need is someone to reply with good info on this program and how it works....

I am new at this and any help would be great!!! Sorry for the confusion...I'm hoping to make this a business worth wild

Jamme

 

[CheapVehicleWrap]

Welcome from NJ! I thought from the title i was going to have to rush out on some remote highway and rescue you because you were buried in snow or something.

 

[RebeckaR]

Are you not sure how to apply the vinyl, or not sure how to make your program do what you want it to?
Yes, I believe your version of Flexi will make a drop shadow with an outline. It's a matter of rolling up your sleeves and experimenting with your software. Did you get a user manual with it?

Hate to break it to you, but wasting 10 feet of vinyl is just a drop in the bucket. Get ready to do that many many more times. It's all part of the learning.

 

[Jim Doggett]

SAi (Flexi folks) have a training DVD for $199. That's probably a good deal if you're new to the software.

I'm not sure if we sell it, but you can check with our sales folks ... if not ask them where you can get it. 800.699.5514 or sales@signwarehouse.com.

Best,

Jim

 

[Jamme]

LoL @ NJ, so sorry!! Im soo frustrated!! And if I happened to be buried in snow I wouldnt come to a sign forum HAHA!! I need help from the very first step. I type in my text and format it with my font. Its the sizing part that gets me. How do I specify the size of the actual letters? Somehow when I cut it I got a 102inch line with 4inch letters. NOT what I wanted. I need the line to be 3ft wide and 8 inch letters. And was wanting an outline but...yea I tried with no success. After that, I know how to cut and plot. So yea, I would basically like you to do it for me hahahahaha!!:iamwithstupid

 

[ABPGraphics]

see if some kind person in your area that knows the software would come in as a temp and train you - no matter what you do your in for a long haul

 

[Fred Weiss]

The first thing you will want to do is to make sure the window named Design Central is open in your workspace. It is context sensitive and will change and tell you the settings for whatever tool you are using.

As a point of reference, a typical high legibility letter will have a height to width ration of from .75 to .9. What that means is that if you want a strong line of copy that is 8" tall and 36" wide you can calculate how many letters will actually fit before you will end up forcing the line to a more compressed width ... usually spoiling the legibility in the process.

36 / (8 x .9) = 4 letters (rounded down)

So if your line of text came out to 102", I am guessing it has 11 or 12 letters and spaces. If you are willing to force the width of that line, you would enter 36" into the line width in design central and uncheck the "proportional" check box. That will force the letters to 35.29% of their original width which will almost certainly ruin their look. You're basically trying to fit 30 pounds of letters into a 10 pound bag.

Your better option is to set some guidelines for the height and width you plan to fill, forget about firm letter heights and create your layout within it.

 

[Fred Weiss]

You can order the FlexiSign Training DVD for $199.00 or you can enroll in Flexi Online Training for $20.00 per month. Here's a link to the site.

 

[thewood]

Does anyone else think this is a joke?

 

[Mosh]

•Don't know what weeding is? Did they show you anything. Search youtube for basic stuff. What you are asking is what some pay thousands to learn. If I were you I would hire someone that knows how to make signs and learn from them. Good thing you are using the old way of cut vinyl not doing the digital printing, you would really be lost.

Is this a joke????

 

[Fred Weiss]

Does anyone else think this is a joke?

Doesn't appear to be to me.

 

[Jamme]

Thanks to everyone for your help.:U Rock: Fred, i think I got it now, thanks so much. Might try the online training too, I appreciate all of your help, I'm SURE I will be back!!!!!

Jenn

 

[ABPGraphics]

+1 on hiring - With all the possible $ loss in not knowing how to do signs and screwing up loads of vinyl - an employee would save you $ in the long run