Bookworm

what is vectorizing and can I do it myself?

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Vectorizing images is something I hear about all the time but don't really know anything about. I understand some image formats (.pdf, .ai) are "vectors" and others (.jpeg, .gif) are not. I use the GIMP image manipulator, can I create cuttable designs myself in this program? I was reading and saw that just because something is in a vector format doesn't necessarily mean it's cuttable, what are the things I need to watch out for?

Thanks!

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first, no, you can make vectors in gimp. download inkscape, its free.

a raster image is just an image. it is made up of pixels. if you zoom in enough , you will eventually see the individual pixels. you CAN save a raster image as a .eps file, which is normally reserved for vector images. .pdf's aswell can contain either raster or vector images.

a vector image is not made up of pixels. it is made of of a set of points (nodes) connected to each other. teh program will see these nodes and not pixels. basically a node is a definite point with a certain operation tied to it. a node might be a corner. it might tell the program that the image is a line between this node and that node, or ot could be a curve, telling the progran to arc so many degrees from this node to that node. the relationship between the nodes is constant, so if an image were drawn with them, you could enlarge it indefinitely, because your not depending on set pixels, but the mathematical connection between 2 points, which is very finite.

hope that made sense.

now to answer your question, yes, you can make them yourself. there are programs (inkscape, signblazer, illustrator, corel draw) that will let you design and draw directly in vector format. conversely, you can still create all of your images in gimp, if thats what your comfortable with, and convert them into vectors with programs like inkscape. i may be a little extra work that way in as much as making sure all of the nodes are right where you want them after the conversion, but it may be easier if your having trouble designing from a vector based format.

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^^^^^^^^^^^ Good post. Great advice for a newbie. :thumbsup: :thumbsup:

Ben

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