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Computers and Software => Raster and Vector Manipulation Programs, and How to Do Stuff in Them. => Topic started by: Gilligan on August 07, 2012, 09:57:34 AM
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I want to print this with the black being black and then the inside white bits being white (amazing I know).
How would I do this via Illustrator (unless there is a better way to do this?) I've tried expanding and releasing the compound path but things just get ugly at that point.
FYI the font is "Woodcut".
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convert to path then release from compound path.
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In Corel there is several ways I would think one could be applied to Illy as well./
1. is to use the smart fill tool time consuming but it works
2. Is to use the boundary tool which then would need to be trimmed by the black part of the text leaving only the white areas as objects.
Another pain staking way is to break it apart and then dig out all the pieces that were the white areas weld them into one object and color but that way sucks trust me.
The boundry tool is my fav way to do this but a nasty font like that tends to cause node issues up the ying yang in Corel, the program is weak in that area I know Illy is much better at things like that.
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Hey Gilligan, I'm guessing you have the font, so here's how I would do it: Set the type, "Create Outlines" under the Type menu to convert to vectors. Now, put a rectangle of any color behind the text, select all, and on your Pathfinder pallet, use Divide, then with all still selected, selected, Ungroup. Now take your direct selection tool, the hollow arrow, and select the parts you don't want and throw them away; all done, easy peasy.
Steve
The problem you may be having is that when you Create Outlines, the white is actually empty, fill is None, so there's nothing to grab and color...
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The easiest way I know of is in Corel (not sure if that helps you), but just convert it to bitmap and trace it.
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The easiest way I know of is in Corel (not sure if that helps you), but just convert it to bitmap and trace it.
Interestingly, the white shapes already have that "traced" look, probably from the creation of the font in the first place.
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that's why you don't want to turn to bitmap and trace, because trace simply isn't good enough, it looks like a trace, and it really shouldn't. Follow my instructions Gilligan, their in Illustrator, takes less than a minute, all shapes are sharp. If you need some help, call me or email me.
Steve
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Hey Gilligan, I'm guessing you have the font, so here's how I would do it: Set the type, "Create Outlines" under the Type menu to convert to vectors. Now, put a rectangle of any color behind the text, select all, and on your Pathfinder pallet, use Divide, then with all still selected, selected, Ungroup. Now take your direct selection tool, the hollow arrow, and select the parts you don't want and throw them away; all done, easy peasy.
Steve
The problem you may be having is that when you Create Outlines, the white is actually empty, fill is None, so there's nothing to grab and color...
Not sure if this is what Mike was describing to do in corel, but it made me think about the path finder tools. Thanks for laying it out though, I always have a hell of a time picking the right tool for the job.
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Hey Gilligan, I'm guessing you have the font, so here's how I would do it: Set the type, "Create Outlines" under the Type menu to convert to vectors. Now, put a rectangle of any color behind the text, select all, and on your Pathfinder pallet, use Divide, then with all still selected, selected, Ungroup. Now take your direct selection tool, the hollow arrow, and select the parts you don't want and throw them away; all done, easy peasy.
Steve
The problem you may be having is that when you Create Outlines, the white is actually empty, fill is None, so there's nothing to grab and color...
this is the way I would do it or pretty close to it. Make sure the block of color is behind the text after you convert to outlines and then just click on the merge in pathfinder. Grab the big block around the text and delete it. . .
pierre
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I dont know what the path finder tool is but it sounds like its similar to smart fill?
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Drop that puppy in Photoshop. 600 ppi. Clean edges make good selections. Fill on to a new channel and POP! You're done.
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Drop that puppy in Photoshop. 600 ppi. Clean edges make good selections. Fill on to a new channel and POP! You're done.
Thought about that as well.
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Hey thanks Steve I forgot how to do that and I,ve been doing it the hard way in photoshop, very easy just hope when I need to do it again I still remember how LOL.
Darryl
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In Illustrator, take your type and create outlines, then click on live paint bucket, then click on the "type", next it will ask you if you want to convert the image to live paint image, click image. Use spot colors and you can have your separations.
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I dont know what the path finder tool is but it sounds like its similar to smart fill?
In Illy, Pathfinder is a collection of vector tools that cut shapes out of each other, so to speak. Most sign programs have them as well. One of them is union, which is weld, like when you set type with Brush Script and want to connect the letters... I'm pretty Corel has them too, it would make sense. One of my favorites is when you get a vector graphic with a hundred shapes overlapping, use the Merge tool to cut into simpler shapes with no overlaps, and no change visually.
Steve
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Oh ok Steve its the shaping tools. Yep Corel has plenty of them.
weld
trim
intersect
simplfy
etc.
The smart fill tool is awesome Corel came out with it several versions ago, with in any segment you use the smart fill tool and it will fill it with an object as long as the area is fully enclosed.
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In Illustrator, take your type and create outlines, then click on live paint bucket, then click on the "type", next it will ask you if you want to convert the image to live paint image, click image. Use spot colors and you can have your separations.
Hmm.....Been using Illustrator for over a decade and never used the tool.....I guess I need to take a trip to Youtube and figure out what it does.....
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Live paint does some pretty cool tricks. I posted in this section before about some stuff that got solved with live paint (from an Adobe forum user), I posted the suggestion here for closure. It is definitely interesting.
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Live Paint is very cool indeed. There's a tut out there that walks you through making a really nice dartboard that uses live paint. There are a ton of Illustrator tuts for free out there that can teach a lot of things you might not bump into on your own. Learning to use the Appearance pallet is also eye opening.
Steve
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I took a look at some tutorials last night and played around a bit......I can not imagine a need for it with the work I do, but nice to know it is there if the need arises.....
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Hey Gilligan, I'm guessing you have the font, so here's how I would do it: Set the type, "Create Outlines" under the Type menu to convert to vectors. Now, put a rectangle of any color behind the text, select all, and on your Pathfinder pallet, use Divide, then with all still selected, selected, Ungroup. Now take your direct selection tool, the hollow arrow, and select the parts you don't want and throw them away; all done, easy peasy.
Steve
The problem you may be having is that when you Create Outlines, the white is actually empty, fill is None, so there's nothing to grab and color...
An easy way to grab the unfilled paths in this scenario after Dividing paths (I prefer the Merge paths as it combines like colored objects that touch or overlap) and after ungrouping everything is:
Click a black piece, then go to SELECT>SAME>FILL COLOR
That'll give you all your black bits, group those.
Drag select over the entire art, then shift deselect the grouped black and you're left with the empty paths. Fill all those with white and delete at pieces (middle of the O's and A's) that you don't want white.
You can select an empty path by doing the SELECT>SAME>FILL COLOR at any time as well. Everything with a fill color of NONE will be selected.
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I gotta give that a shot, I never could grab the empty path, which is why I came up with my method. I also use the Merge tool quite a bit. Thanks,
Steve
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I was almost there.
That is how I was teaching my wife to select all the black bits to make a gutter in that font (after we did the converting the empty to white part). I did select same as fill then shift click/drag to get rid of everything else, then offset path.
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There's so many useful things in Illy to use, but my problem I forget them sometimes because I don't use them that much, any body ever make a note book of shortcuts to help you remember stuff.
Darryl
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A lot of the linux commands I use to build servers are that way. Don't use them enough to remember. I keep a notes file on my server that I can refer to when I'm building a new server so I don't have to go and dig up all the exact commands and order they need to be typed in for the more intricate procedures.
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There's so many useful things in Illy to use, but my problem I forget them sometimes because I don't use them that much, any body ever make a note book of shortcuts to help you remember stuff.
Darryl
I think there are 8,000+ shortcuts in Illustrator......I think most notebooks end up as very large textbooks.....
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I just wish I could get my wife to use keyboard short cuts more. I'm not sure if she's being stubborn because she doesn't like change or if it's just because I suggested it. ;)
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When I try to show my wife a "trick" she's very resistant, then when I do it for her, she says "why didn't you show me this before?"
Steve
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The wife is always right so best to keep your mouth shut......lol...
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LOL
She is by FAR the Illustrator/Photoshop expert between the two of us... I'm just a keyboard shortcut whore. But to me you should be using "V", "Z", and "SPACE" pretty much all the time... she NEVER uses those.
Beyond copy and paste (in place) she just goes over and clicks on what she needs.
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ha You guys kill me with smart keys and such....I have to do EVERYTHING by myself, smart keys, dumb keys hell if I had anyone running keys I could care less how its done.
i say to you guys who whine (my wife uses all the wrong keys) it doesn't matter if she uses a Freddie Flinstone stone hammer and chisel to do the work as long as she is doing it and it is good when you get it............you go girl.
there is no future in proving your wife or siginificant other wrong, if you aresuccessful in making your point you lose, if she is right you lose, if she says you do it your way and goes away you lose.
mooseman
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ha You guys kill me with smart keys and such....I have to do EVERYTHING by myself, smart keys, dumb keys hell if I had anyone running keys I could care less how its done.
i say to you guys who whine (my wife uses all the wrong keys) it doesn't matter if she uses a Freddie Flinstone stone hammer and chisel to do the work as long as she is doing it and it is good when you get it............you go girl.
there is no future in proving your wife or siginificant other wrong, if you aresuccessful in making your point you lose, if she is right you lose, if she says you do it your way and goes away you lose.
mooseman
That is a good point... but it is her job. I would have started a t-shirt business if I didn't have an amazing artist for a wife/partner. I don't see how some of you guys do it without the ability to do artwork in house.
That being said... if you have an employee don't you want them doing things as efficiently as possible? All we do is refine our process to shave off production seconds here and there. You spend an hour or two here and there to build a 3rd hand to assist in making up roller frames, you can do it with out it, but it's easier and FASTER with it. That is the only point. you want everyone working as efficiently as reasonable. If using keyboard shortcuts would shave off minutes of the process every time she works on stuff and and that is primarily what she does (she also does web design and photoshop work for a bunch of authors), and she complains about how she doesn't feel like she has enough time to get everything done. Wouldn't finding faster ways for her to get the same task make sense?
That's the reason we Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V(F) to copy and paste... it's just seconds faster than doing "Edit -> Copy" and "Edit -> Paste (in place)"... even the latter of that is a short cut that she learned to shave off time replacing an object that arbitrarily gets pasted wherever as it gets pasted right back where it was copied from. If it makes sense to shave off those seconds why wouldn't it make sense to shortcut with the v key and the z key to go from selection tool and zoom tool... as well as Ctrl+0 to get back to "fit artboard" vs "View -> Fit artboard" and the space to move things around while zoomed in seemed genius to me when I first saw someone doing it in a tutorial. I immediately was like <assumes celestial singing voice> "Aaahhhh, what a time saver!" and immediately consumed that into my repertoire. Same thing with dragging while holding ALT to make a copy much faster than a copy paste and move.
These are just a handful of shortcuts that shave off minutes on just about any project that you are seriously working on. If you only save 5 minutes an hour because of short cuts that's 40 mins a day, 200 mins a week, over 150 hours a year that = over $11,000 bucks a year in saving/more productivity!!!
Seems like well worth a small struggle.
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Gilli,
I think you missed my point it is not about efficiency, $$$$ ,....LET THE WOOKIE WIN
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I got it, but if she can say "why does it take you guys so long to print a job, that just doesn't seem right". Then I will open my big mouth too. ;)
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1/2 of my work in Corel is keyboard shortcuts. I wouldn't be able to watch someone do it without them, but my wife would net be receptive to me showing her how to do it better either.... :o