Converting Logo Help

[Tim Baude]

Hi all,
Let me start by saying this site is the best. I have learned so much from so many. Attached is a logo that I need to engrave. It will be engraved on a wood plaque. My problem is that it is a JPEG. I am not quite sure how to make it into something I can engrave. How do I convert this to a usable...preferably gray scale or black and white and able to work with. I need to have done by Wednesday, Thursday at the latest as it is for a July 4th competition. Any help will be greatly appreciated.

[Phyllis Williams]

Would this work for you? Sorry it's not vector. no time to redraw

[Steve Clarkson]

Heeeeyyyyy.......how did you do that? That's not grey scale....

[Tim Baude]

That should work....I'm with Steve....how did you do that?

[Tim Baude]

Where are my manners....THANK YOU!!! Once again, the Creek comes through.

[Phyllis Williams]

Lets see if i can explain this...:p
1st i grayscaled.
then i went to effect - adjust - contrast enhancement.
then you just play until you reach your results...sorry i'm not very good at explaining...i did this in corel x3 ;)

[Peter Meacham]

Tim

Here is a vector of the item in version 12.

Pete

[Garrett Nors]

Here's my go at it....took it into photoshop, desaturated, brightness/contrasted two times, pulled into illustrator, live traced it, and done.

I know I can do this in corel but I have been working with adobe products for quite some time and I'm just quicker at it this way :D

[Dave Garcia]

Tim

Here is a vector of the item in version 12.

Pete

Pete,

Am just starting out with this sort of stuff so any help, very basic, you can provide is greatly appreciated.

Question. When you say that you made a "vector" file of this item, what did you mean by that? Is a "vector" file what's required to use with your engravers driver?

Question. I presume that because of the of the file suffix, that you were using Corel Draw. Do you, or anyone else on this forum, know if this can be done using Adobe products such as Photo Shop Elements 6?

Question. Since this was a jpg file to begin with, and most flat bed scanners scan in either jpg, tiff, or bitmap, can this be done with any logo?

Again, just beginning so thanks in advance for any and all the help.

Dave Garcia :)
The Wood Block, Ltd

[Garrett Nors]

Question. When you say that you made a "vector" file of this item, what did you mean by that? Is a "vector" file what's required to use with your engravers driver?

There are two types of files, raster images (bitmaps, jpegs, etc) that are based on pixels and cannot be scaled much without distortion and blurring, and vector images, which are math-based objects. Since vector images are math based instead of pixel based, they can be scaled indefinitely and are generally used with lasers because of clarity.

Vector images can be used to cut and outline material, raster images cannot.

Vectors are not required but are heavily usable in our industry.



Question. I presume that because of the of the file suffix, that you were using Corel Draw. Do you, or anyone else on this forum, know if this can be done using Adobe products such as Photo Shop Elements 6?

You can do this process with Adobe products (I did with my attempt in fact) but photoshop is not ideal for vectoring images. You can use the pen tool to create vector masks but it's not ideal for our usage. I use photoshop to brighten/contrast the image to make it a black and white image, then I bring it into adobe Illustrator (which is used as a substitute by a few people for CorelDRAW) to vectorize the image.



Question. Since this was a jpg file to begin with, and most flat bed scanners scan in either jpg, tiff, or bitmap, can this be done with any logo?


It can be done with any logo, however the more complex and the more color the logo has, the harder it becomes to vector. We primarily vector images to keep them black and white, or mabye a few shades of gray. When you get a lot of color in a logo it's hard to interpret that onto a substrate with the laser, since obviously the laser does not print in color :p

Also when getting scanned work try to get a large image, smaller images are more grainy and pixelated when blown up and it's hard for the program to do it's job. Even when you manually vector an image, it's just plain easier with a larger starting image.

[Joseph Tovar]

I've never used this place before but their ad came through my email today.

Has anyone ever used this place? They convert your images to vector. The prices don't seam that bad on their examples... http://www.xposevector.com/

[Tim Baude]

Everyone here is so great and I hope I can someday help as I have been helped. I have never seen a group more willing to help each other as much as the people here on the creek.
Thanks again to everyone.
:D

[Phyllis Williams]

Joseph,
here is another site we use at work...very friendly, very fast, the prices start out at $13.00. we are always happy with their work. www.24hourartwork.com (http://www.24hourartwork.com)

[Joseph Tovar]

Thanks for the info Phyllis....I added the link to my favorites :-)

[Todd Suire]

I second Phyllis' advice on www.24hourartwork.com (http://www.24hourartwork.com). They've never let me down. They completed the last order I sent in only 2 hours when I asked for rush service.

[Dave Garcia]

Garrett,

Sincerely appreciate your kind help and very detailed explanations. This is by far and away the most detailed help I've received from any forum regarding graphic design.

If you don't mind, and additional questions come up during my learning process, would it be OK to ask for your help again?

I'm still a couple of months away from getting my laser engraver but am trying to learn the basics while I wait for the machine. Thankfully I'm not dependent on making money from this business expansion while learning. Comments?

Another question. Do you have some suggestions as to printed material (books, magazines etc) that I could get my hands on through Amazon, or the local book store, that could also help? There has to be something out there along these lines. I'm just not seeing it or am looking in the wrong place. I'm a hard worker and a fast learner. But sometimes I spin my wheels just trying to get to first base. Comments?

Thanks in advance.

Dave :)
The Wood Block, Ltd

[Garrett Nors]

Garrett,

Sincerely appreciate your kind help and very detailed explanations. This is by far and away the most detailed help I've received from any forum regarding graphic design.

No problem, I try to be as descriptive as possible, I know when I need help I am gracious when people take the time to really help me understand.



If you don't mind, and additional questions come up during my learning process, would it be OK to ask for your help again?

Absolutely! I love being involved in community organizations such as this site...I would be more than happy to help you in any way that I can.



I'm still a couple of months away from getting my laser engraver but am trying to learn the basics while I wait for the machine. Thankfully I'm not dependent on making money from this business expansion while learning. Comments?


:D I tried to get prepared for my laser but when it got here I was still blown away....



Another question. Do you have some suggestions as to printed material (books, magazines etc) that I could get my hands on through Amazon, or the local book store, that could also help? There has to be something out there along these lines. I'm just not seeing it or am looking in the wrong place. I'm a hard worker and a fast learner. But sometimes I spin my wheels just trying to get to first base. Comments?


David, Honestly I just grabbed my epilog book and started throwing stuff in the laser to test.

I find that you learn best in this industry when you ruin something :D

[Dave Garcia]

Garrett,

Thanks again! Totally understand about just getting in their and doing something even if you ruin it. I'm a Cal Poly alum and their philosophy is "learn by doing"; get into the "lab" first to see how it works and then do the class room book learning part.

Sincerely appreciate and thank you again for your current and future help and assistance.

Dave :)
The Wood Block, Ltd

[Matt A. Peterson]

I have used www.24hourartwork.com (http://www.24hourartwork.com) a handfull of times. They usually have the work done overnight, meaning if I send it to them at 3:00 pm, it's in my mailbox the next morning. They do a great job.

As for the question about vector to rastor images. It's my understanding that the term "line art" is more appropriate when refering to images that can be scaled to any size with zero loss (no fuzzy edges). Am I wrong in that assumption? I am new to the industry and new to this kind of design software (using Corel x3). When I hear the term vector, I immediately think "hairline" and know that it will be a cut lne, rather than an engraved line.

Thanks,

Matt






Joseph,
here is another site we use at work...very friendly, very fast, the prices start out at $13.00. we are always happy with their work. www.24hourartwork.com (http://www.24hourartwork.com)

[Garrett Nors]

I have used www.24hourartwork.com (http://www.24hourartwork.com) a handfull of times. They usually have the work done overnight, meaning if I send it to them at 3:00 pm, it's in my mailbox the next morning. They do a great job.

As for the question about vector to rastor images. It's my understanding that the term "line art" is more appropriate when refering to images that can be scaled to any size with zero loss (no fuzzy edges). Am I wrong in that assumption? I am new to the industry and new to this kind of design software (using Corel x3). When I hear the term vector, I immediately think "hairline" and know that it will be a cut lne, rather than an engraved line.

Thanks,

Matt


Some terms are generalized or misconstrued but line art isn't always vector and can get fuzzy. If you go to google, and search for an image, and click the drop down list you can see that you can select line art as a type.

Vectored images are hairline but can also be conjoined and filled to create "line art." In corel, the line thickness can be changed but at the core it's still a hairline vector image.

In essence, you need vectoring for cutting, but you don't HAVE to use vectoring for cutting :D I use it every single day to convert fuzzy raster images into more crisp (and much more flexible) vector images...even if I don't cut something out with it.

I have attached an example of what I mean.

This image is completely 100% hairline. Really, you could even remove the outline all together if you wanted to in the image on the right.

The point is that you shouldn't get caught up on terminology...everyone has their way of explaining things even if it may or may not be wrong :D

[Matt A. Peterson]

Thanks Garret, that's helpful.

Matt

[Doug Griffith]

Generally speaking:

In the graphics art world, line art is black and white art with no gradations.

Vector art is composed of curves, lines, and fills described by a mathematical formula.

Bitmap art is composed of a fixed gridwork of varying pixels.

In the laser world, components of vector images that have a line weight set to hairline will cut. All others will raster engrave.

A bitmap image does not have the option to set a line weight to hairline and the entire image will raster engrave.

During output, the benefit of vector whether for print or laser is it's ability to scale to any size and utilize the hardware's highest resolution.

[Garrett Nors]

Generally speaking:

In the graphics art world, line art is black and white art with no gradations.

Vector art is composed of curves, lines, and fills described by a mathematical formula.

Bitmap art is compose of a fixed gridwork of varying pixels.

In the laser world, components of vector images that have a line weight set to hairline will cut. All others will raster engrave.

A bitmap image does not have the option to set a line weight to hairline and the entire image will raster engrave.

During output, the benefit of vector whether for print or laser is it's ability to scale to any size and utilize the hardware's highest resolution.

Very nicely put :D

[Doug Griffith]

Thanks.

It started to get confusing so I thought I'd clarify as succinctly as possible.

[Ian Wilson (AUST)]

Garrett,

Sincerely appreciate your kind help and very detailed explanations. This is by far and away the most detailed help I've received from any forum regarding graphic design.

If you don't mind, and additional questions come up during my learning process, would it be OK to ask for your help again?

I'm still a couple of months away from getting my laser engraver but am trying to learn the basics while I wait for the machine. Thankfully I'm not dependent on making money from this business expansion while learning. Comments?

Another question. Do you have some suggestions as to printed material (books, magazines etc) that I could get my hands on through Amazon, or the local book store, that could also help? There has to be something out there along these lines. I'm just not seeing it or am looking in the wrong place. I'm a hard worker and a fast learner. But sometimes I spin my wheels just trying to get to first base. Comments?

Thanks in advance.

Dave :)
The Wood Block, Ltd
Hi Dave,


I'm new at this too. Read through all the Posts/ Threads on this forum ( you can search for a particular subject) if you get stuch then you can ask the question and you'll get loads of FAN+TASTIC advise from very cool people Garret.

I also found Laser Uni ( web based schooling on all aspects of Laser Engraving) very helpful to get your head round the basics.......$99 for 3 months subscription from Laserbits.com

Good luck....its a great adventure.

Ian

[Dave Garcia]

Ian,

Thank you very much. I'll definitely check out the Laser University. Am also new to this forum and am still "learning" how to navigate it. I'm proof positive that "old dogs" can and will learn new tricks, IF they put there mind and a positive effort into it!

Dave :)
The Wood Block, Ltd