Vectorization

The only thing I know about engraving is that the vector artwork needs to be created in black and white line-art, and depending on the size of the actual engraving, real small detail should be avoided. There is actually a lot of small detail on the image below and I was sure the engraver was going to reject it but the plaque must have been large enough to hold all the detail.  Some challenges may arise when changing a multi-color image to black and white LINEART (not black and white grayscale ). Elements in the graphic will no longer be defined by different color or shades of gray, they have to be black or white only and you will have to decide which elements are black and which elements are white. Using outlines instead of fills usually works to separate two objects of similar color. When images are on a color background, removing the background may make the overall feel of the image look different. After playing around with these ele...

Here is a recent photo to vector conversion. The project was to change a full color photograph into a simplified vector illustration to be printed using only 3 or 4 colors maximum. (not using the 4 color or full color process but rather 3 or 4 "spot" colors) The vector file was built with 3 colors: 1. tan, 2. black, 3. red. The gray is a percentage of the black color and can be printed using black ink and "halftone screens". For processes which do not use halftone screens this would be considered a 4 spot color vector illustration: 1. tan, 2. black, 3. red, and 4. gray. Before online printing exploded as a convenient and inexpensive venue for printing full color, many small printers only had capabilities for printing 1 or 2 color pieces and these were much cheaper than "full color" or "4-color-process" printing. Now most printers can pretty much print anything but there are a lot of processes that still require simplified illustrations w...

Here is a good example of an image that can be vectorized using automated software and it may be acceptable to many customers, yet on closer inspection there is still room for improvement, so for those people whom detail is essential, manual vectorization may be necessary.  The original raster image is fairly good quality, the pixel dimension is not too small and more importantly there is high contrast between the colors: See both automated vectorization results and manual vector conversion. At a glance both seem acceptable vector drawings: But a closeup of the auto-trace results shows some of the detail in the faces is gone. A person with elevated attention to detail will not find this vector conversion acceptable. Closeup of hand-drawn vector conversion. Note the little noses have a better resemblance to the original artwork: So taking a few more minutes (or paying a few more dollars) to manually redraw this simple vector image may be worthwhile. ...

To vectorize a raster (bitmap) image into vector format you can either do it by manually drawing node by node using vector drawing software or you can use automated tracing tools within the vector editors. In Adobe Illustrator - which is what I use - the auto-trace tool is called "Live Trace". Auto tracing is great and almost instant, just a couple of clicks and you are done, so you can save tons of time and money, but automated tracing doesn't work well with all images. It really depends on the original bitmap graphic; the quality, the contrast between colors, even the size.  I think the perfect candidates for automated vectorization or auto-tracing are images that are: Non-geometrical "free flowing" shapes - like the sample tree below Large, good quality originals that are black and white or high contrast colors with very clear distinction between each color. Photographs that do not need to be changed to simple line drawings  The imag...

If you need a graphic vectorized but you do not have an electronic file of the graphic, even if all you have is a photograph of an item with the artwork printed on, embroidered on, or otherwise visible on the photograph, we can try to reproduce it in vector format. See samples below. When photographing artwork that is on a 3 dimensional item like a coffee mug, a hat or even just a flat sign, the actual artwork will be somewhat distorted in the photograph so it is always better to reproduce a logo using an electronic file of the actual graphic such as a scan of a printed logo, but when this is not available we try to correct the vector file as much as possible. See sample below: More info  here . 

Do you spend countless hours trying to identify fonts? If you work in the graphic industry like sign-making, specialty printing, screen printing, engraving, etc., you probably have had to re-create a graphic in vector format so that you could use it with your machinery.  I vectorize all day long ( convert raster images into vector art ) and I used to spend countless hours trying to figure out which font was used on the original graphic so that I didn't have to manually and painstakingly redraw each letter out. I had customers wonder why a simple plain text graphic would be quoted higher than let's say an image of a tree with no text. It used to take me an hour to go through my font catalogs only to find out that I did not have the font or that perhaps it wasn't even a font but custom-made text instead. But that was before I discovered What the Font?!  What a great website! You simply upload your image with the font you are looking for and it will try to guess what it is...

I sometimes get requests to create a vector graphic that can be easily used by anyone without having to resort to special skills or software. You can use a vector eps in common programs like MS Word but to actually manipulate a vector file (e.g. change colors, change text, etc) you need to use vector editing software in order to maintain the vector data. Vector software is not commonly used in your average office. There are many vector editing programs including  free and open source  editors and free online (browser) vector editors you can use. Vector files can also be exported and saved as common formats like jpg, png, gif, and more , which can be used in common office applications. Jpgs, pngs and gifs are not vector.