steved13

Can SCALP# do this? or need another program

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First thing I am brand new so excuse my ignorance if I use the wrong terminology.

I have a logo, that is basically 3 colors, the main being yellow, so I can use a yellow backing, and need to cut the black and the blue.  where do I start to separate the colors from the image?  It is a png file and I can easily bring it into SCAL but I don't see anyway to lift the black boat, and lift the blue to cut them.  I did text with shadowing, and used the cut by color, nut I don't know how to tell the program what parts are the different colors.  I am thinking I have to convert it to a different file type or something?

tiboats logo.png

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I think I found an answer looking around.  I'm pretty sure I need to change it to a vector.  I downloaded inkscape, and I've had some luck, but I was able to remove the yellow, and I saved it as an SVG, but when I go to cut I can cut black and blue searately, but the black will cut the boat and all the blue area, while the blue only cuts the blue.  LOL I tried so many different things I can't even say for sure what I did, but at one point I was ably to move all of thetext and boat separately from the ywllow as all black, and then I think I filled in the area back to blue, but the black is still a layer underneath, which I am sure is why it wants to cut the way it does.  I can cut them both and waste the extra black, but I'd rather learn the right way.

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Most things don't auto trace all that good unless they are at a very high contrast. Fonts rarely trace good no matter what you do. To get better looking jobs you will want to learn to figure out the font and type out the letters new. I believe SCALP automatically converts typed text to outlines, meaning they should just cut after you type them. ( I can't remember if that's accurate. ) It takes some practice and every design program is a little different from the next. Inkscape is the best bargain bang for the buck but is a little clunky none the less. 

Your boat must be doubled up both in blue and in black. Try selecting the black and locking that layer then select again and see if you can grab something hiding below it. I forget the procedure to do that in Inkscape. I get spoiled with AI. 

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Thanks for the input.  I think I got it figured out.  So far it's pretty easy, but I won't know for sure until I get a chance to cut it and see what it looks like.  I imported the file into inkscape, and then saved it as an SVG file, then imported the SVG into SCALP3 and when I selected cut by color I got several layers of color, but the different things are separated properly (by the look anyway).  So I should be able to cut the boat in black and then the blue, and put it on a yellow substrate and have it right.  I; going to also cut the yellow and try my hand at 3 colors.

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14 hours ago, Wildgoose said:

Most things don't auto trace all that good unless they are at a very high contrast. Fonts rarely trace good no matter what you do. To get better looking jobs you will want to learn to figure out the font and type out the letters new. I believe SCALP automatically converts typed text to outlines, meaning they should just cut after you type them. ( I can't remember if that's accurate. ) It takes some practice and every design program is a little different from the next. Inkscape is the best bargain bang for the buck but is a little clunky none the less. 

Your boat must be doubled up both in blue and in black. Try selecting the black and locking that layer then select again and see if you can grab something hiding below it. I forget the procedure to do that in Inkscape. I get spoiled with AI. 

You are correct,it does  automatically converts typed text to outlines,...

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2 hours ago, steved13 said:

Thanks for the input.  I think I got it figured out.  So far it's pretty easy, but I won't know for sure until I get a chance to cut it and see what it looks like.  I imported the file into inkscape, and then saved it as an SVG file, then imported the SVG into SCALP3 and when I selected cut by color I got several layers of color, but the different things are separated properly (by the look anyway).  So I should be able to cut the boat in black and then the blue, and put it on a yellow substrate and have it right.  I; going to also cut the yellow and try my hand at 3 colors.

I have actually never used the Cut by color in scalps. I feel its much easier to have 1 page for the original design and then other pages with it broken apart as each layer.Thats just how i do it ,seems easier to me..

as for cutting the design, i would cut the boat out in the black. cut your yellow out and then your blue as needed and then layer.

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2 hours ago, steved13 said:

Thanks for the input.  I think I got it figured out.  So far it's pretty easy, but I won't know for sure until I get a chance to cut it and see what it looks like.  I imported the file into inkscape, and then saved it as an SVG file, then imported the SVG into SCALP3 and when I selected cut by color I got several layers of color, but the different things are separated properly (by the look anyway).  So I should be able to cut the boat in black and then the blue, and put it on a yellow substrate and have it right.  I; going to also cut the yellow and try my hand at 3 colors.

add registration marks at the top to help alight then when assembling.  most programs have the option but I like to just make a couple of stars and then copy and past over for each color layer.   if  flexi I use the function to cut each color separately a lot when doing multi color decals.  I  have around 1 tb of tiles and if I broke each down over the years into pages for each color it would be a lot more space

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8 minutes ago, Dakotagrafx said:

add registration marks at the top to help alight then when assembling.  most programs have the option but I like to just make a couple of stars and then copy and past over for each color layer.   if  flexi I use the function to cut each color separately a lot when doing multi color decals.  I  have around 1 tb of tiles and if I broke each down over the years into pages for each color it would be a lot more space

very true on the tiles.. For that i just hide what i need to and cut each one so on and so on, I guess im just strange or like do it this the hard way lol

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I prefer to have the file all in one place so it's all there in a year when they want another one and I can load it up and remember what was what. I also save all my work at full scale and rarely use the scaling feature to change the size of stuff when I cut for the same reason. Even a month later try to remember what size you cut something at if you did adjust it. Not gonna happen. My HTV work I mirror when I save it so I will have to flip it to read it, has saved me a few times. 

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