quick question for the flexi pro's

[Dubs Chops]

a customer sent me his logo in an eps format. but when i load it it shows up as a big X on my screen the size of the logo? what is my problem? the guy is a graphic designer so i figured he knew what he was doing when converting it. Maybe not though, Any thoughts?

 

[Fred Weiss]

Converting it from what?

The two main issues are

• Is it an Illustrator EPS that is all vectors, or something else that is just a bitmap with an EPS extension or mixed bitmaps and vectors?
• Is it an Illustrator EPS that is all vectors, but which is saved in too high a version for your version of Flexi to be able to import correctly?

There are a couple of tricks to help you figure out what you're dealing with. Start by opening the EPS file up in a word processor such as MS Word or WordPad. You will have to set the file type when opening to "All Documents" for it to be seen. Once opened, read the header. After a few hexidecimal symbols it changes to plain English as shown below. If it doesn't have a plain English header it isn't an EPS type that Flexi is expecting. If it is then you can read what version it is saved as. 3.0 or 3.2 is ideal but you should be okay up to and including version 8. If higher, then you may need to have your source resave as a lower version so you can read it.

%!PS-Adobe-3.0 EPSF-3.0
%%Creator: Adobe Illustrator(TM) 3.2
%%AI8_CreatorVersion: 8
%%For: (Fred Weiss) (Allied Computer Graphics, Inc.)
%%Title: (acg00004_Cockatoo.eps)
%%CreationDate: (1/15/2006) (1:05 AM)
%%BoundingBox: 128 105 631 485

Second tip ... look at the file size. If it's all vectors then the file size will be fairly low, like in the KB range to a little over 1 MB. If it has bitmaps in it then it will often be in the many MB range.

If you want to send me the file I can provide you with a more accurate assessment.

 

[Dubs Chops]

i got it but thanks fred. it was saved as white lines and i had a white background, i just had to add color to the block, the other one that had an x i dont know about but i got one to work so i will worry about the other later.

 

[iSign]

instead of "worrying about the other one later"...

...can I suggest you show your appreciation for the reply to your inquiry by following through with the suggestions, looking at the header in wordpad (or equivilent), and posting the results, along with the file size...

then we all stand to learn more about these issues... right here in this thread... instead of putting it off.

just a thought.

 

[Creative_Lance]

One more thing, if he did send you a bitmap image then you should check for this. see the picture!

 

[thewood]

Great responses Fred and Creative Lance. I hope you're soaking this all in Dub.

 

[DARLAK]

isign crackin the wip...

gotta luv it!

 

[Dubs Chops]

isign i do plan on following it up but it was late last night and i was just trying to get a sample done for him so i could go to bed before my newborn woke back up. i will let you know when i get off work today and back home where i do my vinyl work. and again thanks for the replies!

 

[iSign]

Here's an example of the impression many of us seasoned vets have about the way things can get around here.

I'm not singling out you, but your reply sounded like once you figured out you pasted white vectors in a program, and couldn't see them...
then you were going to bail on learning anything & to me... this is the kind of response that will make folks who just donated 15 minutes of their life to a stranger, decide to never do it again. I know I've felt that way before, & I don't want to see that happen.

Glad to hear you plan to look into what Fred has taken time to show you. That was not evident from your earlier reply. I understand it was late, but it was just about as late when Fred decided to type out that information.

I started on this site about two years ago and since then… I’ve noticed quite a decline of experienced knowledge being given here. In fact, it looks as if many of the big guys here don’t even log in anymore. I’ve talked on the phone to some and PM-ed back and forth with others and the general consensus seems to be what Tommy has said. For the old timers… it gets old real fast when a newbie a day asks the same question over and over. At the same time it gets downright mean to come down on these newbie people from the old timers. It’s an on-going battle. Eventually…. everything stagnates and the answers stop coming in…. the newbies stop coming for answers [to lousy questions] and the Merchant Members have no one to buy their wares. It then becomes a very small community and all lose in the end.

 

[Dubs Chops]

fred this is what it said. And it is 750kb

PS-Adobe-3.1 EPSF-3.0

 

[grafxxx]

the other thing is that when i get ai files sent to me and there is just a box right click and click unmask.

 

[Fred Weiss]

fred this is what it said. And it is 2.02 mb

What is "what it said?" What did the header say?

 

[Dubs Chops]

i got it as an eps file does that matter grafxx there is no unmask option when i right click.

 

[Dubs Chops]

figure it out,

okay when I open the white logo that was giving me the x. I noticed there was an extra tab in design central that said postscript, so I clicked it and there was a button that said parse. So I clicked it and the x went away and I had just i white box again. so then i added color to the box and walla!

thanks for the help guys. hope this helps someone in the future.