Vectorizing signatures

[tancehughes]

Does anyone have any experience scanning in and vectorizing hand written signatures? This is for a class shirt so the signatures are fairly small, but they are with a solid black pen. Do I need to have the sheet blown up larger or what? I've tried tracing in Vector Magic and Corel... any suggestions?

[sweetts]

Does anyone have any experience scanning in and vectorizing hand written signatures? This is for a class shirt so the signatures are fairly small, but they are with a solid black pen. Do I need to have the sheet blown up larger or what? I've tried tracing in Vector Magic and Corel... any suggestions?

I have done trace line art in Corel also helps if they sign with a black marker

Sent  from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)

[mk162]

why do you need to vectorize them?

[tancehughes]

Why wouldn't I need to vectorize them? I don't want my printer printing out little halftones all over the film that it picks up from the scanned in paper.

[Gilligan]

Threshold it.

It's either black or white... no halftones that way.

[mk162]

are you in corel?  convert them to a black and white lineart bitmap.  Problem solved

send me the scan and i'll do it for you...it will save you so much time

[Frog]

Increasing the contrast can remove some "debris" after the fact.

I've done a lot of these. I have also had to re-size individual signatures a lot.

[Sbrem]

yes, print as bitmap. I usually scan them as grayscale, use either Levels or Curves to make them solid black and white, then convert to Bitmap in Photoshop, and save as a tif. Then you can import, place or whatever they call it in CD and you should be fine. (that last part's a guess, I use Illy) No halftones...

Steve

If you did vectorize them, you'd have gazillions of vector points, making for a huge, bulky, slow moving file.

[3Deep]

I do signatures all the time for class shirts and this what I do, first all signatures must be on  plain white typing paper in black ink.  I then take then and scan them all in photoshop at a 600 dpi clean them up with the tools in photoshop and save as a tiff file, then I use my trace program to vector them, so later I can inlarge or decrease in Illy later and place them.  I,m thinking thats what you might want to do allso is place each name to get a better fit.

Darryl

[Sbrem]

Hey Darryl, try once without vectorizing, at the 600 ppi you scanned at, you'll be fine, and still have plenty of room for resizing. Also, if it's a bitmap tiff from Photoshop, you can color it from your swatch pallet. Not to mention that the scan will be truer than the vectors.

Steve

[tancehughes]

Thanks guys, I got it now.

My weak area is graphics, but hopefully will be hiring a graphic artist in January/February.

Appreciate the help!

[sweetts]

Yes thanks I am now going to do my next One as you guys suggest nice. That's why I love this place

Sent  from samsung gem(the worst smart phone ever)

[jason-23]

Thanks guys, I got it now.

My weak area is graphics, but hopefully will be hiring a graphic artist in January/February.

Appreciate the help!

Why hire one when there are a bunch of cheap vector whores for hire here.....wait I'm a whore?

[Inkworks]

are you in corel?  convert them to a black and white lineart bitmap.  Problem solved

send me the scan and i'll do it for you...it will save you so much time

Ditto, or convert to black and white and then trace if you really need vector... which you shouldn't

[Fresh Baked Printing]

I've LiveTraced a few signatures with quick, good results.