JPEG ---> Vector

[grdshute]

Hi Everyone
Apologies in advance if this has been asked before but i couldn't find a thread that addresses this.
Anyway, I get a lot of customers who give me low resolution jpegs for a job, and for some reason they always seem to lose contact with their designer
There is no way that I'll re-trace the logo by hand without charge so I usually trace bitmap in corel which doesn't come out as clean as I'd like it. There is a website called vector magic but it does pretty much the same thing as coreldraw.
I was wondering if you guys/girls could give me some advice. What do you do when you absolutely can't use the customer's logo because it is so low-res? Do you re-draw it yourself (and if so, how?) or do you charge for re-design?

 

[J Hill Designs]

I usually redraw @ hourly (giving customer an estimate for time it should take)

alot of people send to vector doctor (real person who does the same as above, for a great price)

 

[signcrafters london]

Vector Doctor.

He is a merchant member here and I use him whenever something comes up. Every single experience working with Eric has been smooth, professional and quick.

You beat me to it.

 

[Fred Weiss]

I also highly recommend The Vector Doctor, however ...

In my experience, the majority of art deficient clients supplying low quality artwork will magically come up with high quality replacement artwork when confronted with having to pay for a redraw. Stand your ground and don't be afraid to charge for your professional services (which would include paying a outsource to do it for you).

 

[2B]

I also highly recommend The Vector Doctor, however ...

In my experience, the majority of art deficient clients supplying low quality artwork will magically come up with high quality replacement artwork when confronted with having to pay for a redraw. Stand your ground and don't be afraid to charge for your professional services (which would include paying a outsource to do it for you).

+1

once people are told they have to spend $ they will put forth the effort to locate the needed files or at least a file that is better

 

[trakers]

This happens every time (But its a PDF. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

That and the infamous handing of the business card with the 1/2" logo they want made into a 4ft square banner.

We request a vector eps/ai/pdf

Customer sends a PDF with said jpg/doc/pp/bmp/png file embedded

 

[Pixels Are Bad Mmmkay?]

I use Photoshop to increase resolution and clean up the jpeg as well as possible, then autotrace with Inkscape. If that doesn't produce the desired results then we hand trace for a fee. For autotracing, try Inkscape. You will love it and the software is open source.

 

[Graphic Destruction]

Vector Magic is (imo) faster and more powerful than tracing in Corel, Flexi or Illy.

I charge anywhere from $5-$75 to run it through VM. Golf outing signs get the $5 treatment and whatever comes out of VM is what is printed. When I have to clean up beyond that I charge more. VM was paid for in the first month of owning it was used so much. Well worth the $300 or whatever it was.

If I'm busy and don't have time for a big re-draw, I have used Vector Dr. and he's great.

 

[Baz]

Make it part of your services.

Tell customers that you can accept their photo images but if a vector conversion is needed there will be an additional charge. (i go from 65.0$ to 85.00$ depending on complexity).

You can add value to that charge by informing the customer that you will give them the vector file afterwards so they can use it for other promotional items .

In my experience i would say about 90% of the people i have this discussion with end up finding the vector file that i need. Most common excuse is
"But i could not open this file so i thought it was no good" ... which i say "The file you can't open is the file i need!!!".

 

[grdshute]

This happens every time (But its a PDF. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

That and the infamous handing of the business card with the 1/2" logo they want made into a 4ft square banner.

Yes or even worse when they send you a PDF but it's just a JPEG pretending to be a PDF

 

[grdshute]

Thanks for all of your help guys. Vector doctor looks quite good. I especially like that he understands how a logo should be vinyl ready
I guess you could even direct the customer there if you don't want to swallow the costs yourself!

 

[joshGN]

Thanks for all of your help guys. Vector doctor looks quite good. I especially like that he understands how a logo should be vinyl ready
I guess you could even direct the customer there if you don't want to swallow the costs yourself!

Dont do that!...

Charge them $20-50 for the re-draw and pay VD his money and pocket some yourself....all for sending an email!

You'd be a fool to send the customer to Vector Doctor..

 

[signage]

Thanks for all of your help guys. Vector doctor looks quite good. I especially like that he understands how a logo should be vinyl ready
I guess you could even direct the customer there if you don't want to swallow the costs yourself!

This is one of the reasons we need a professional website. Every newbe want to just pass valuable info onto their customer!

 

[visual800]

I also highly recommend The Vector Doctor, however ...

In my experience, the majority of art deficient clients supplying low quality artwork will magically come up with high quality replacement artwork when confronted with having to pay for a redraw. Stand your ground and don't be afraid to charge for your professional services (which would include paying a outsource to do it for you).

absolutely. People are lazy until they have to pay more

 

[Carnage Graphics]

This happens every time (But its a PDF. Grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr)

That and the infamous handing of the business card with the 1/2" logo they want made into a 4ft square banner.

I print a lot for a NASCAR Xfinity team, very small operation, so sponsors change weekly, and are usually obscure companies. I run into this ALL THE DARN TIME...

I have empathy for you...but unfortunately I'm a small operation too, and can't turn down the $$...

 

[GAC05]

I also highly recommend The Vector Doctor, however ...

In my experience, the majority of art deficient clients supplying low quality artwork will magically come up with high quality replacement artwork when confronted with having to pay for a redraw. Stand your ground and don't be afraid to charge for your professional services (which would include paying a outsource to do it for you).

Fred I think this holds true until you try to deal with someone in the local government. All of them are proficient in the graphics arts suite - MS Office 97.
Doesn't matter how you explain it, all their stuff is "production ready" artwork.
Did this just last week:
Fleet of 19 trucks - 19 unique village logos.
First artwork was off a thumb drive in the form of a single PDF.
19 logos that looked like they had been printed out on a desktop inkjet printer with 1 or 2 bad carts - then scanned to PDF using the "email quality" scan setting.
Back and forth trying to explain what was wrong and what I needed........
Final try handed over was a cd with all the logos - some good enough to print (I was surprised) - some looked like they had be screen capped off a webpage header & one than must have been a scan off an embroidered patch from a jacket or uniform.
Printed the good ones - did a little touch up on the not so good ones & redrew the one scanned off the patch.
Proving once again to the government that the artwork they provided was indeed production ready..........

wayne k
guam usa

 

[grdshute]

This is one of the reasons we need a professional website. Every newbe want to just pass valuable info onto their customer!

what do you mean when you say 'we need a professional website'? Just curious. And do newbies really exist anymore? I don't see many people opening new sign businesses these days

 

[phototec]

what do you mean when you say 'we need a professional website'? Just curious. And do newbies really exist anymore? I don't see many people opening new sign businesses these days

Yea because they are NOT brick and mortar, however every John or Jane Doe that has $500 along with the help from Signwarehouse is starting to make signs in their spare bedroom and low balling prices which is killing the industry.

 

[artbot]

In photoshop

1- enlarge and clean up edges with sharpen/median/and levels (background needs to be solid fill)
2- threshold the image
3- Selctions/Color Range, the object
4- with selection running, choose Paths/Make Work Path/2.0 pixel tolerance
5- File/Export/Paths to Illustrator
6- Import Illustrator file into Corel
7- Import original image (lock image) lay path over image and edit nodes

 

[bob]

Yes or even worse when they send you a PDF but it's just a JPEG pretending to be a PDF

Hardly. A .pdf file is merely a container for all manner of objects. Vector objects, text objects, bitmap objects, and bog knows what else can all be packaged in a .pdf. A .pdf has no particular native format.

 

[signage]

Hardly. A .pdf file is merely a container for all manner of objects. Vector objects, text objects, bitmap objects, and bog knows what else can all be packaged in a .pdf. A .pdf has no particular native format.

PDF= Portable document File

 

[phototec]

Ok, back to the OP question:

The trick to using any AUTO TRACE program to convert a jpg to a clean vector image is to first clean up the jpg in Photoshop (or your photo editing software). Increase the contrast as best you can (whiter whites and blacker blacks), then I use Photoshop with the Perfect Resize plugin and enlarge the jpg image as big as possible and at the same time change it from 72dpi to 300dpi which matches Illustrator, then when you use your AUTIO TRACE function you will get a much cleaner and better result.


Remember the old saying garage in garbage out, so you have to feed AUTO TRACE the cleanest jpg image you can make.


Here is video showing how to clean up a jagged image in Photoshop before you AUTO TRACE the image.


[video=youtube;BEN0zP1pqPU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BEN0zP1pqPU[/video]