Scanning artwork question?

[smullen]

Not exactly sure where to put this... (Admins/Mods, feel free to move it, if its better somewhere else)

I got a call today from a guy with a small record lable who wants me to make him several logos for his vehicles...

He has the ""Artwork"" or image on paper, so I'll need scan them in and as an .ai or .eps or as a bitmap type and convert them to an .ai or .eps

I have never done this before... (Scanned something for cutting)

My questions on this are

1st. I have Corel Draw and Adobe Illistrator both, Would one of these be a preferable format (.ai or .eps) over the other or does it really matter?

I myself have not develeped a preference except that I am a little more familiar with Adobe products...

2nd. When I scan this image, what Resolution should I scan it it? It has been awhile since I scanned anything and last time I did it was pics for a webpage...

 

[Rick]

Are you going to cut it? or print and cut it ?

How big is the original image?

Do you have a tracing program (Streamline,Trace)?

Do you have an image editing program?

 

[smullen]

Are you going to cut it? or print and cut it ?

How big is the original image?

Do you have a tracing program (Streamline,Trace)?

Do you have an image editing program?

I will be cutting it on white vinyl, maybe a few others...


I have not seen it yet, he is supposed to have it to me by mid-week, but from what I hear its about the size of a mouse pad... From his description, its a line art cityscape with his company name across it.

I have Corel Trace, that came with Corel Draw 12, an older version of Adobe P.S., a newer version of Adobe Illustrator and Vinyl Express LXI Master...

I was thinking I could open one of those and hit aquire, then pull it in like that... But, I could be (probabbly am) way off...

 

[geb]

You should be able to use acquire in Corel Trace to bring in your image. After you acquire image, go to image on top, then mode, this will allow you to make the image black and white, grayscale, or colors. I usually try to convert images to black and white before I scan them, and change the colors back when vectorized, seemed easier. Go to trace right next to it, and select the trace you want to do. Play around with outline and advanced outline to get the desired effect. From here you usually save it as an ai or eps, and now you can go back to corel, bring in your image and clean it up, or edit nodes as it's also called.

Depending on your skills at node editing, it may be easier to find the font for your text
than to clean up the font, as some serifs or ornamental fonts can be pretty involved.

George

 

[geb]

I forgot to mention there is a slider bar below the file, image, trace at top, that goes from 1 - 100. You can slide this left to right to adjust the trace. I have found the trace looks best when set at 100.

George

 

[PCD]

i've enver done this and it seems complicated. is it? do u need extra software besides vinyl express master or master plus to do this? i have alot to learn.

 

[geb]

I don't know anything about vinyl express. I do have signlab, and for me to scan I had to have a certain module to do this. A module in signlab allows you to do different things, such as scanning, shadowing, etc. Each has a certain cost value. I started with a basic package that I could afford, then with more money and the need to scan a few jobs, I purchased more modules to get that done. Maybe vinyl express has something similar, don't know.

Its a good idea to have corel or adobe for designing and everything else they offer. Rick has mentioned before what if your dongle goes on your software, with corel and a cut program like co-cut or signtools or others, you could get on without that software that requires a dongle, and the price is a good value compared to more expensive sign software.

Scanning or tracing isn't that bad after you got used to it.

George

 

[PCD]

i've seen the term dongle before. what is that?:

 

[geb]

Dongle is a security key that goes with the program that plugs in the back of your computer.

George

 

[smullen]

i've seen the term dongle before. what is that?:

A dongle is used for software protection from Privacy..

A lot of software all you need is the serial number and you can install it on hundreds of machines, even thought it is illegeal to do so...

Now with some of Scanvec's software Someone could host a copy of on their server for everyone on the net do download, however, with out the dongle, the software will not run..

It will check for it and fail, giving you a message stating that the dongle is not in place or not recognised...

Most dongles attach to one of you Parralel ports or a USB ports.

Also if you lose it or it goes bad, be prepared for a headache trying to get it replaced... Its seems just as cheap to go rebuy the software or a different package this time not requiring a dongle....

 

[smullen]

There are Dongles for other reasons though... Mostly just a nicname for an adapter or removable connector...

I used to have a laptop with several PCMCIA (or PC Card) prephierals such as:

a modem, it had a dongle that my RJ-11 Phone cable plugged into, then into the wall,
a NIC (Network interface Card) it had a dongle that my RJ-45 cable plugged into, then into a hub or switch,
a SCSCI card for my scanner it had a dongle that connected between my Scanner and my Laptops PC card...

 

[smullen]

Dongle is a security key that goes with the program that plugs in the back of your computer.

George

beat me to it... I took too long typing that....

 

[PCD]

gotcha'. thanks