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Old 04-17-2007, 07:27 PM
Andrew Biggs Andrew Biggs is offline
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Join Date: Apr 2006
Location: Christchurch, New Zealand
Posts: 204
Default Re: vectoring a scan

Yip, Corel imports ai (Adobe Illustrator) files.

I think the biggest thing to keep in mind with all of this is the computer vectorising is only for a transfer to the metal. Not finished artwork in itself. The actual engraving is the finished artwork!!!

It's also useful for re-sizing, mirroring, repeating and a few other bits and pieces.

Corel, Illustrator, Freehand or whatever, are only tools to get you to a certain stage and carry out certain functions. If the transfer is slightly pixelated or jaggy it dosn't really matter. The most important part is that the scroll backbone provides an acurate line to follow. The more acurate that line is the better the chances are that you can follow it with a graver point.

Another thing to keep in mind is that quite often you have to make small alterations on the job (particulary around the borders) when cutting so putting a huge effort into the computer side of things isn't always productive.

This is my own personal opinion but I try to get my original pencil drawing as accurate as possible. Everything flows from that original drawing. Scan it a 600 dpi using Photoshop, Corel photo paint or whatever. Create a new layer and with a size 2-4 brush copy the outlines (basically a computerised tracing paper) as acuratley as possible. This is where a Wacom tablet is worth it's weight in gold. Get rid of the origanal scan and save the outlines as a black and white bitmap. Auto trace (Vectorise) with Corel Draw (or whatever you use) Resize to fit. Print/transfer and then engrave. I never try to play with the nodes at this stage as there is no point if the previouse steps have been acurate. From the scanning stage to finish it takes about 4-6 hours for a whole gun. Then another zillion hours to engrave.

Cheers
Andrew

Last edited by Andrew Biggs; 04-17-2007 at 07:34 PM.
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