We like to paint our names on the wall

[venta]

I've spent a few minutes trying to knock out some logos to go on t-shirts for Mabel. It's not gone entirely to plan.

I had stolen, from somewhere online, the following picture of a sword lock:



Now, that's a little small to go on a t-shirt. But it's also not a very high quality image, so blowing it up makes it rather fuzzy. However, the GIMP appears to have options like "smart sharpen". OK, that looks like a good plan - sharpen the edges up, it'll be fine.

The result:



What on earth's happened there ? It looks knitted.

However, I'd also found that the GIMP has an option for "smart enlarge", so perhaps I can start again from the little lock.



Well, that's hardly any better, is it ?

Does anyone know what these functions are meant to do ? They clearly don't do what I was expecting of them.

Also, can anyone give me idiot-proof instructions on how to bend text ? I want to write something round the lock, but have no idea how to go about it. I'm at work, so I only have the GIMP (and don't want to spend time downloading other stuff, even if it's free) - though if people can offer very idiot-proof instructions I can try Paintshop/Photoshop when I get home. Graphics software and I don't really get on. Really.

And... I tried, I really did. I mocked up some designs using various fonts. And what does it look like the majority vote is in favour of ? Comic Sans. I ask you.

People will no doubt be pleased to note that the overall effect of yesterday's playlist experiment was to remind me that there are a few albums I haven't listened to enough, or haven't listened to in a while. So today, I've listened to Envy of Angels, by the Mutton Birds, Lost Horizons by Lemon Jelly and am currently listening to Head Music by Suede. I found the Suede album cheap in a bargain bucket somewhere and have since been recommended against it, since it belongs to Suede's crap (ie post Butler-departure) era.

Comments

[onebyone.livejournal.com]

But doesn't that either cost $499 or require dumping the bulk of the project off onto some other muggins? As such, calling "the correct" way is IMO a little strong.

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

Or having copied the thing illegally from your previous employers.

And then lost the CD. Bah.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

It's the correct way to solve the problem assuming the problem is "Produce a print-ready t-shirt design".

If you re-cast the problem as "You have a bic biro, a whiteboard marker and a paper towel, produce a print-ready t-shirt design" then yes, you'll get a different answer.

(And if venta gives me the text and some idea of font it wouldn't be too hard to take it to the point where the real work could be done in the GIMP anyway.)

[venta.livejournal.com]

The text is simply "Mabel Gubbins", though the jury's currently out on whether the text should be curved round the bottom, round the top, or one word each. My favourite was "in a straight line underneath" :)

Font is (bah!) comic sans. I liked the one M$ calls Impact, but I've not yet managed to convince others it'd look better.

I'm afraid I'm a bit lost in the program here, and I'm not sure what you mean by "the real work" - other than sorting out the intersections, what d'you think I'd need to do ?

I'm very clueless about graphics - thanks very much for the image posted.

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Well, I guess we're just following orders, so Comic Sans (<spit> !) it is for now. Changed version uploaded.

And no, I didn't mean anything besides sorting out intersections. It's "real work" only in the sense that it requires slightly more care and patience.

Incidentally, whilst I'm a fan of Impact (it's the one I use for my work homepage) it's not ideal for curved text because it's very narrow. Would work nicely for the straight text you advocate... but you can easily add that yourself and prove your detractors wrong !

[venta.livejournal.com]

Thanks a lot. I'll have a look when I get home tonight.

(I load a .ai file into Photoshop, and it becomes apparent what to do with it ? Does it ask me how big I want it ?)

I owe you a Big Cake ;)

[bateleur.livejournal.com]

Yes, it asks you how big you want it. Also, you can set the resolution. (I use 300dpi for t-shirts.) With the resolution set correctly, it should be possible to specify image size in real world units (eg. centimetres).

Editing with a laptop 'mouse' can be accomplished, but you may find you need to resort to the cursor keys for positioning things exactly.

Incidentally, the vast majority of printshops can work directly from Photoshop files, so there may be no need to actually print it out.

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

I agree Illustrator is a good vector program, but it's far from the only one, and she did mention she had Photoshop which does Paths quite well...

Therefore I'd describe your solution as a correct one - but far from the only one. Also, it may be expensive ;-)

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Just for a note: you've added each rapper on top of the preceeding ones. So the first one, at the bottom of the pile, is the horizontal, and the last one is the one sloping steeply from the top left (handle) to bottom right.

They should be intertwined in three dimensions, so the whole thing locks together. Which is probably what venta means by "sorting out the intersections".

Not knowing anything about Illustrator, I don't know how soluble that is, or whether it's a task better suited to a "pencil and eraser" approach (ie. a bitmap editor).

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Apologies: I've misattributed. broadmeadow created the image, not bateleur

[al-fruitbat.livejournal.com]

Nah, broadmeadow merely rendered and posted bateleur's vector plot from Illustrator.

[broadmeadow.livejournal.com]

Indeed. I posted in response to Venta's saying "(And I can't even look at the result just now, on account of only having the GIMP.)" as I had just loaded it up to have a look!

[lanfykins.livejournal.com]

That's what bateleur meant by 'the stick crossings need editing manually'.

Illustrator, like Photoshop, uses the layer approach. Each stick is on a different layer, so a stick can only be on top of others or underneath them, not woven through them.

You can fix that either by a number of horrific kludges in Illustrator, or by using a bitmap editor.

[wimble.livejournal.com]

Nah, let's do this properly.

Lay 'em out in a three-d package, and then ray trace 'em.

zandev?