Hand written student names inside '2014' template....

[DCSP John]

Hello Everyone..

I have a customer who wants a Class of 2014 print with the student's signatures inside of the 'knocked out' space
of the '2014' text... 

Not sure where to begin with this - A template created and sent to the customer seems to be the logical step..
Students sign, and then I scan hi res for printing?

Anyone done this before? Handwritten student names in a template?

Any feedback would be great.

V/r - John

[ole jobe]

The problem I have had with signing on a template is that the names will often run together. Can't do anything about that but it doesn't look good. Having them sign on  a blank paper and scanning then placing of numbers is time consuming, but looks much better. God Bless

[cleveprint]

thats exactly what we do. we have a cardboard box from old vellums that we reuse to send the template in as well. we also send along a fine point sharpie so that every signature is signed with the same pen and is hopefully dark.

[Frog]

I, like ole jobe, have always dealt with each signature separately, but have never done a huge class, just baseball teams.

This is usually with younger kids who have a habit of really coming up with a variety of sizes, and one kid can really mess up the entire design.

[whitewater]

we do this all the time.. Give them a template of each number 8.5x11..then i tell them to use one of those fine point black sharpies ave them sin inside. Then I scan hi resolution then throw it in vector  magic then take care of any greys that are there..then i can put it in illy and resize and whatever we need to do.. Works like a charm.!

Rob

[Gilligan]

Fine point or ULTRA fine point?

"Standard" sharpie is "fine point".

[Sbrem]

We send a template on paper, and give them a good black pen. And are given hard rules; no signing over the lines, and no writing over other names. We scan in at 300 ppi as a grayscale image (so we can make adjustments if necessary to a name that is light) and then convert to Bitmap mode; (I like to have the control that Photoshop gives me here; if the signatures are good, you can simply run a trace, but I don't like the way traces come out, so I don't) remove the border of the template so you can paste the names into the original vector template you made, or just import the whole thing, border and all, into Illustrator, at least that's how we do it. I imagine it's pretty much the same in Corel Draw.

Steve

[DCSP John]

Thanks for the insight-
Sounds simple enough.

John

[3Deep]

We just did this one for a school, and I had them sign there names on a blank sheet of typing paper in black ink...scan and placed each name no problem.

Darryl

[royster13]

We just did this one for a school, and I had them sign there names on a blank sheet of typing paper in black ink...scan and placed each name no problem.

Darryl

Nice work!

[whitewater]

Fine point or ULTRA fine point?

"Standard" sharpie is "fine point".

ok..."ULTRA"

you know what i am talking about..LOL

[Squeegie]

We have done it a few ways but the kids seem to go with something like this.

[Frog]

We have done it a few ways but the kids seem to go with something like this.

The question would be if you gave them the template and they filled it, or did individually place the names?

[Ryan]

I've always printed out the actual film to the size that its going to be and have them sign the film with certain stipulations, like don't right outside the number etc. and just burn the film after I get it back

[chubsetc]

I have done both the single names signed on a blank paper and given the template.  The template is the easiest and least time consuming for us, but the individually placed names can look really good if you take the time, but it can take a loooooong time if there are a lot of names.