wwpro 1 Posted April 21, 2009 Hi there One of the main things that I'd be using my cutter (which I haven't bought yet) for will be t-shirts. We'll be doing some "conventional" ones but as Joe always remarks, having original designs sets you apart. Don't know if the question really belongs to this section, but chances are that if you're reading this you'll know more than I do I have my father-in-Law who is a genius when it comes to drawing. SO I was thinking if someone can point me in the right direction on how to go from paper to the vinyl. I was thinking scan and work it with Illustrator, I'm not really familiar with it but gonna start playing with it to see how far I can go with what I know. I will cut the drawings one color to start with, to keep it simple while learning. Thanks in advance for the help Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sarconastic 29 Posted April 21, 2009 You have the right idea. Scan the image in and then you have to vectorize it, to create the paths for the cutter to follow. There is a free program out there called Inkscape that does just about everything that Illustrator does for free. There are a ton of tutorials in here on how to use it with the cutters too. It's not too bad once you get the hang of it. I figured out the Inkscape in about ten minutes with help from this forum. I am still trying to figure out how to use Illustrator. Kevin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
midwaste 4 Posted April 21, 2009 Yep, you are on the right path. Try to scan it at a higher resolution to get better results with Inkscape and other tracing programs. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wwpro 1 Posted April 21, 2009 600dpi will do it ? What kind of paper would you try ? I've read here to avoid sheet with lines (i.e notepad) to make things easier. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
sarconastic 29 Posted April 21, 2009 The cleaner the image upon scanning the easier it is to vector it. But the program has a lot of adjustment to compensate for anything like likes. I think any paper will work, as long as you can get a clear image when you scan it. Keep in mind, when coming from a hand sketched design, that you should plan on having to do some Node editing to clean it up after your create your paths. 600 Dpi should be plenty for most stuff. If it's really fine work you might want to up it to 1200 if you can. Also doing the sketches with something a little beefier than a pencil will help a lot. Kevin Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
tlzimmerman 11 Posted April 22, 2009 Personally i found it EXTREMELY difficult using an auto trace function to get good results from hand drawn art. I have switched to entierly manually tracing it using inkscape. I have started a set of tutorials on how to do that in the vectorizing forum, its a sticky at the top. Here is the link http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,16381.0.html. Depending on what type of drawing it is you might want to learn how to use the stoke to path feature of inkscape. I am going to do my next tutorial on how to use it hopefully in the next couple weeks. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
wwpro 1 Posted April 22, 2009 Looking forward to see that new tutorial I've watched the other one already Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
23putts 0 Posted April 23, 2009 Have him draw them in black and white. Scanners work best when scanning a black drawing on white paper. Simplify the drawings, meaning, avoid fine lines. Between scanning and auto tracing all fine lines will be lost. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
