[Amorya]

I am doing work experience for a web site firm. After seeing my success with Photoshop, they decided to give me a copy of illustrator, and have me try to trace round a character in a font they did not have.



The enlarged bitmap is what I had to work with, and the blue character is the result I gave to them. I was told it was absolutely ****ty, and I'd be fired immediately if I did such work for them as an employee.

I want to understand where I went wrong. This is my first time using a vector program, and I don't know what I'm not doing right. My work looks close enough to the original to me!

Amorya

Amorya:

You did nothing wrong.

First of all, if they don't have the font then they should try to obtain it.

To trace around an aliased typeface should never be asked of you because the character's quality is so poor that you won't be able to accurately outline its style.

However if the type was clean - it would have been easier.

If you need any Illustrator advice or have questions send me an email at kevinzupp@mac.com.

Kevin

[bonk]

There was a MacAddict article on using the pen a while back. It was very helpful.

Anyway, zoom out so that the original image is the way it was originally, that helps to find how it's shaped. Being so close to it can make you think it looks good, but it won't be. You can always enlarge the vector shape you created without loss of quality.

And create a layer above the 3 and trace over it instead of eye balling it.

-bonk

[itomato]

Photoshop would probably be adequate if not a better tool than Illustrator for that, I think. If it were me, I'd enlarge it to about the size you did, select the 3, blur it, so the jaggies go away (I did gaussian blur with a 2.0 pixel radius), then apply unsharp mask as 215% for amount, 28 pixel radius, and 0 threshold. That gives you a nice crisp shape. Then I went around the 3 with the magnetic lasso tool, to get a quick-n-easy path. Do with that path what you wish.

Of course, I'm no Photoshop jock.

[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: itomato ]

[Demonhood]

tell them to screw. giving you an pixelated font, throwing you into vectors for the first time, just cuz they don't want to pay for a font.

anyhow, the advice above is pretty good. selecting, blurring, or tracing are all good ways to go about it (in photoshop, of course). you could always select it, make a path, adjust it in until it looks right, then export it to fontographer to make them their font.

hope this helps.



times is also pretty close as well

[ 07-17-2001: Message edited by: Demonhood ]

[Amorya]

Thanks guys. I've not tried again yet, but I think I'll return to photoshop on your advice. Demonhood: thanks for your chart. I offered them Hoefler Text, but was told it wasn't close enough.

Thanks everyone for advice. I'll have to learn Illustrator better in the future (I want to be a graphic artist someday) but for now I'll stick to Photoshop.

BTW, which do you guys like better out of Freehand and Illustrator?


Amorya

[kaboom]

this has saved my butt many times:

MyFonts.com