darcshadow

When saving as and EPS file, do you have the option to use any of the older EPS formats? If so, try that, SB doesn't work with the newer formats of EPS.

Stickers are what kids put on their toys. Decals are what guys put on their toys.

Someone posted awhile back about putting vinyl on the inside of windows and that it was not advised, something about the UV protective coating on the vinyl is not on the sticky side so you'll get fade much faster. Might not be an issue with black, but something to think about.

The art work is reasonably simple and shouldn't be too hard to manually trace. First step would be to take as straight on of a photo as possible in as high of resolution as possible. Then import into your vector program of choice, I use Inkscape. I then use the Bezier tool and draw a ruff outline of the shape in question over the top of the photo zooming in and out to get the nodes place as precicely on the photo as possible. Once the shape if completed I make it semi transparent and adjust the straight lines to make them curve and match the image. In Inkscape it's simply a matter of clicking the line and dragging it to where I want. If the curve doesn't match up exactly I add another node somewhere on the line and just adjust things till I get it the way I want. It's not a very complicated process, you just have to take your time and most of all have fun with it.

If you have a bad USB cable, no adapter is going to fix that, just get a new USB cable.

ha! I type too slow apparently. lol

Have you tried downloading a new driver for the adapter? Windows7 made some changes to USB stuff and a lot of older devices no longer work and newer devices need a new driver.

A windows8 based tablet might run SignBlazer. There are also some nice touch screen laptops that are not much bigger than a tablet and priced about the same.

You could also try using a font converter and convert the Opentype to Truetype.

Have you tried this cut at a smaller scale? If it cuts just fine small then it would not be a memory issue.

I have a NDAS drive I really like. It's an external drive that connects to your local network. You then load a small program onto your PC you can access the drive the same as if it was an internal drive. There's no limit to the number of computers you can have on your network that can access the drive either. Really handy if you have multiple computers.

My Dad asked if I could make my Grandma's farm into a decal he could use for a project. I gave it a shot and I am pretty pleased with the results so far. Started with this photo and got to this I'm planning on cutting it as a layered vinyl but another post on here got me thinking. Anyone on here interested in doing this as a print for me and if so what would you charge for four decals that are about 4.5" tall and 18" long.

How about just putting the image in what ever color you have it, and then a color palette box below showing the color choices.

Printing wasn't the initial plan and only occured to me after I got done with it. I also like the look of it as "art" vs photo and think it will work better for what my Dad has planned.

Thanks, I had fun playing around with it. Inkscape. Started our just making a silouette. It look ok but need something so I went in and added some outlines for edges and stuff. Once I had that done I though, what the hell, might aw well merge the outlines with the silouette and make individual objects that I could then color. I probably spent 40 to 50 hours tinkering with it.

First question would be is the image in a vector format. If not, you'll need to do that first then the node editing. Skim through the manual and just play around with it. It's not too difficult to pick up.

Bees are a nice touch, they're a little to happy though. ha!

Sorry, should of also mentioned there are a few additional things to get Inkscape and Ghostscript to work with each other. Here is one set of instructions, if they are not clear google it and you'll find several guides. http://www.ehow.com/how_5844063_open-_eps-files-inkscape.html

Here's a quick example using the Broadway font.

Inkscape (free) can open EPS files with the aid of the ghostscript(free) program. From there you should be able to save it off in an older EPS format that SignBlazer will open or you can do a select all, copy, and paste the image into SignBlazer.

Another option would be to create the wavy lines and then use what ever font you like as a mask over them.

If you have the pen attachment option, use it some time and draw something on paper and compair the sound. That'll show how much is from the cutter and how much is from the amplification of the vinyl. I was very surprised at the difference.

There are tons of photo management software out there. You could use one of those to organize and display your graphics. You'd most likely need to create a thumbnail of the vector as most of the programs are designed for photo formats.

With the MH-721 and SignBlazer, is controlling/adjusting the overcut an option? I don't recall seeing anyway of setting it if there is one.

I'm new this all as well but personally I'd be a bit concerned about how thick three layers would be. Since the red shadow is not one piece you could try placing them individually using a wet method in order to get them to fit snug right up against the black. Over time though I'm sure the vinyl will shrink slightly and may result in the gap you are trying to avoid.