I Need Lots of Help Trying to Vectorize

[bethj95 0]

I am working so hard but on some things I just can not get it any help would be great

Thanks

Beth

[dgreenh 9]

I am going to assume that you will be using these for your own personal use and not for resale...BUT.... 

(Lecture ON)

If you are going to sell them, then crusing ebay and ripping off other people's designs is most likely a copyright infringement.  The ebay seller could have done the same thing and isn't the copyright holder either but we don't know that and it still wouldn't make it right.  If it was my design I would not be happy finding it on a forum unless I posted it.  It isn't wrong to look at other people's designs to get ideas and then create your own simular design.  Copying the picture from an ebay auction and asking for a trace so you can cut it and sell it really isn't cool.  It could possibly get this forum in big trouble as well.  I know it happens all the time but that doesn't make it right.    There are some ebay store owners on this forum, I hope these designs don't belong to them.  So, if you are going to rip off designs then you really need to keep all the work "in house" and not broadcast it on a public forum.  Will you get sued?  I seriously doubt it.  Could you get sued... absolutely.

(Lecture OFF)

As far as vectorizing these images.  It isn't hard... save the image, open it in inkscape (a free program) and select trace path then save it as an eps file.  The ebay seller was really nice (or really dumb) to post such a clean image in their auction with no watermark of any kind.  No additional clean up was necessary on the attached traces.

Vinyl and sign work is an art.  You need some artistic talent and know how to use a graphics program (or 2 or 3) to be successful. Or you need to buy copyright free clipart collections and you will still probably need to have some artistic talent and know how to use a graphics program.  Cutting the vinyl is the easy part.

Sorry for the lecture, I just don't want this forum to get in trouble.  It has been a lot of help to me and I enjoy helping others when I can.

cheermom.eps

football mom.eps

footballdad.eps

cheermom.eps

football mom.eps

footballdad.eps

[bethj95 0]

no problem everyone needs a good lecture every now and then I got the pictures from a friends mom who asked if I could help there team out to raise money for a injuryed player so I am not exactly sure where they came from .....but don't worry I will not be seeing these myself on ebay etc........... but that kind of stuff is always good to hear as far as the cheer and skateboard those are for my car for my son and daughter

Thanks

[dgreenh 9]

Soccer mom and skateboarder mom are straight from ebay too. 

These are excellent images to learn how to vectorize with.  Clean, simple design shouldn't give you any problems or need any additional clean up.  Try to vectorize them for yourself with Inkscape... here is how I do it...

If you don't have Inkscape you can get it here...http://downloads.sourceforge.net/inkscape/Inkscape-0.45.1-1.win32.exe

Launch Inkscape

Open the picture you want to trace (FILE > OPEN then find your picture)

When the picture is open in Inkscape, Click on the picture once to select it

Select PATH > Trace Bitmap from the top menu bar

When the Trace Bitmap window opens click on UPDATE to make sure you have selected the image.  You should see your image in the window. 

With these images you can just use the default settings.  Click OK

The picture in the window will get funky looking but that is fine. Close the Trace Bitmap window

Now you are back to the main Inkscape screen

Your traced image is directly on top of the jpg image so...

Click away from the graphic to de-select the jpg image

Click on the image again and drag it to the side.  This is your traced image

Now click on the other (jpg) image and hit delete.

You should just have your traced image on the screen now.

Select FILE > SAVE from the top menu bar

Type in the name you want to save it as

Change the file type (drop down box near the bottom) to EPS

Then click SAVE

Now you have a vectorized file in EPS format that you should be able to open in the cutting program of your choice.

Give it a try, with the step by step instructions you should be successful on your first try.  It was harder to type out the directions than it is to actually do the work but ... Give someone a fish... Teach someone to fish....

[mark-s 1,126]

Good info dgreenh, hopefully  people on the forum will learn from this.

I do mine different, using other software. but the out come is the same.

mark-s

                      :USA:

[dgreenh 9]

Thank you!, I hope it helps inspire someone learn or at least try something new.  Tracing isn't that hard with a good image.  If the graphic doesn't trace with the instructions above then it is probably going to be hard to get a clean image from and beyond the skill level of most inexperienced people.  Some graphics I have to massage with 3 different programs to get a clean trace and sometimes that doesn't even work.

I'm not an Inkscape user either although Inkscape does a really quality job of tracing most images.  I chose Inkscape for my example because it is available to everyone for free so there is no excuse for not trying it.  There a a lot of people in here that have no vector graphics software at all and programs like AI and Corel are not cheap and overwhelming to learn.  Like I said, cutting the vinyl is the easy part.

[tnunnery73 0]

Thank you for the info on vectoring!~  I am very new at this and did a search and found this.

Thanks....Now on my way to create my own designs!~

[kyle 1]

thanks for the tutorial, i just done my first one and here is the result

gloomis.eps

gloomis.eps