Airbrush1
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A Tip for New Sign Makers (That Took Me 7 Years to Learn)
Most of you experienced sign shops already know this, but I thought I’d share it for the newbies—because it took me 7 years to figure out.
I’ve had my Mimaki CJV150-130 for about 8 years now. Like many, I started in the school of hard knocks (still enrolled, by the way). I do most of my work in Photoshop but constantly bounce back and forth with Illustrator.
Early on, I would create a layout in Illustrator, bring it into Photoshop for tweaks, and then save it as an EPS—thinking I still had that crisp vector quality from Illustrator. I didn’t.
Just because something saves as a vector format doesn’t mean it remains a vector. Once Photoshop rasterizes the image, saving it as an EPS doesn't magically restore the vector quality. What you get is what I call a "vectorized-looking raster file"—lol.
The result? My prints were often grainy, semi-transparent, and just didn’t have the punch I expected.
So to any newcomers: keep your vector work in Illustrator when possible. If you need to use Photoshop, know what’s being rasterized and when. It makes a huge difference in print quality. Always try to Save from Illustrator.
Hope this saves someone a few years of trial and error!
Most of you experienced sign shops already know this, but I thought I’d share it for the newbies—because it took me 7 years to figure out.
I’ve had my Mimaki CJV150-130 for about 8 years now. Like many, I started in the school of hard knocks (still enrolled, by the way). I do most of my work in Photoshop but constantly bounce back and forth with Illustrator.
Early on, I would create a layout in Illustrator, bring it into Photoshop for tweaks, and then save it as an EPS—thinking I still had that crisp vector quality from Illustrator. I didn’t.
Just because something saves as a vector format doesn’t mean it remains a vector. Once Photoshop rasterizes the image, saving it as an EPS doesn't magically restore the vector quality. What you get is what I call a "vectorized-looking raster file"—lol.
The result? My prints were often grainy, semi-transparent, and just didn’t have the punch I expected.
So to any newcomers: keep your vector work in Illustrator when possible. If you need to use Photoshop, know what’s being rasterized and when. It makes a huge difference in print quality. Always try to Save from Illustrator.
Hope this saves someone a few years of trial and error!
