morepoman 0 Posted April 25, 2017 I am having problems trying to take a picture and make it look good enough to cut out. How do I need to do this. I have a badge that I downloaded and when I send it to the cutter it looks terrible and won't cut. I am sure there is a simple solution I just don't get it. slmpdbadge (2).cdr Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
Sue2 918 Posted April 25, 2017 You have a low resolution jpg (Photo) file. You need a vector file (eps, svg) to cut. Your cutter follows outlines to cut. It cannot cut a jpg file. You have to trace the jpg file to make the outlines. Corel can make this "Vector file" ...select your jpg graphic and along then at the top there is a button for "Bitmaps" ope n and go down to "Outline trace" This is a skill you will have to learn if you want to do well in vinyl cutting. Check out youtube for some good instructions. Sue2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
dcbevins 340 Posted April 27, 2017 Sue is right about that low res image. It says it is a 39 dpi image opened here in Draw. You might get power trace to give you something to start with. But is going to need to be cleaned up, or just manually traced as opposed to power trace, which is essentially drawing it over by hand. It is not as hard as it sounds with some practice. Would help if you knew the font involved. Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
skarekrow 1,841 Posted April 27, 2017 Ancient Chinese Secret... SlmpdBadge_02b.svg SlmpdBadge_02b.eps 2 Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
PixelPusher 46 Posted July 15, 2017 One thing to keep in mind when using these trace tools is to keep your node count down as much as possible. Trace programs introduce a whole soup of extra nodes. Not only will the large amount of nodes increase file size, it will slow down your cut jobs too time wise. You will end up having to manually clean them up or else you can get stacked nodes over top of one another which can lead to unexpected double cuts. This is a factor when sending out artwork for CNC cutting of letters for example. Double cuts on a CNC will most likely destroy the substrate at that particular area and lead to an expensive re-cut. Trust me, I know this from experience...clean up your artwork after using any trace tools and use as little amount of nodes as possible for curves. Trace programs are a great starting point (and I like them), but go through your traced artwork very carefully afterwards... Share this post Link to post Share on other sites
