Aries Graphics FAQ page

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Frequently Asked Questions

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Questions

How can I know how smooth the transitions are between arcs or between arcs and lines that should be tangent?
What scanning resolution and type of artwork should I use to scan in artwork for vectorizing?
Why do I get an empty box after sending a vectorized image to the Plot Manager?
Why am I not getting good results with Color Vectorizing?

Answers

How can I know how smooth the transitions are between arcs or between arcs and lines that should be tangent?
When you are using the vector edit tool, the “vector handles” between all the lines and arcs will have one of four possible shapes: (1) a small black square, (2) a + symbol, (3) a hollow square, and (4) a black square with a white + symbol in the middle. The latter three shapes are slightly larger than the first. The small black square indicates that the angle between the ends of the adjacent vectors is greater than the Tangency setting in the Tools menu/Options/General/Vector Editing. The + symbol indicates that the angle is less than the Tangency setting. The hollow square is the Start/End point with an angle greater than the Tangency setting. The square with the + symbol in the middle is the Start/End point with an angle less than the Tangency setting.

To show how this works in practice, set both the Tangency setting and the Curve Resolution setting to 1. If the Helvetica Medium letter O has + symbols at all the vector handles including at the Start/End points, all the vectors are tangent to each other to within 1 degree. Click and drag on any vector handle until it changes shape (to a black square or a hollow square). This can be a very useful tool for cleaning up an image that has been scanned and vectorized or tuning up a customer’s logo.

What scanning resolution and type of artwork should I use to scan in artwork for vectorizing?
The main purpose of the vectorizing function in the Wizard is to convert a graphic design into its component vectors for cutting the design on a vinyl cutter. For both monochrome (black and white) and multicolor designs, the higher the scanning resolution the more faithful the vectorized image will be to the original artwork but the more nodes or vector handles there will be in the vectorized image. Although fidelity to the original artwork is obviously important, the time it takes to edit a vectorized design and eliminate any unwanted vectors is also important. If a design does not have a lot of small details, it will often take less time overall to scan the image at a lower resolution because the vector editing phase of the job will be much easier.

For multicolor artwork, there are two other issues to consider. First, based on our purpose as stated in the paragraph above, it is important that all the colored areas be as uniform as possible. “Fountain Blends” that have continuously changing tones will not give good results and should be avoided. Secondly, if the artwork was created by traditional “process” printing techniques, the colors may not be what they seem. For example, if you look at a gray area with a loop or other high powered magnifying lens you will see many small cyan, magenta, and yellow dots, but no gray dots. If you scan that kind of colored artwork at a lower resolution than the original was printed, the individual cyan, magenta and yellow dots will be averaged to the overall color you eyes see – in this case gray. If the original was printed at 600 dpi and if you scan it at 150 dpi, you should get uniform colored areas when you vectorize the colored image. But if you scan the same image at 600 dpi, the results will generally not be what you need. So, the rule is to scan the image at about 25% of the printed resolution or as low a resolution as possible that is consistent with the details of the design. In some cases it may be necessary to go back to the source of the artwork and request that the original artwork be printed at a higher resolution so that the scanning resolution can be higher.
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Why do I get an empty box after sending a vectorized image to the Plot Manager?
When you vectorize a bitmap image, the vector image and the bitmap image are exactly lined up with each other. If you click anywhere within the boundaries of the overlapping images and you happen to be very close to a vector, the program will probably select the vector image, but it may select the bitmap image. If it selects the bitmap image and you click on Plot Manager, the program will send the bitmap image to the plotter whose only vectors are those that define the rectangle around the bitmap. The solution is to click with the left mouse button anywhere within the two images, drag whichever image the program selects and move it (e.g. up and to the right) and release the left mouse button. Then click on the F3 key which toggles the colors on and off. It should then be obvious which is the vector image and which is the bitmap image. Select the vector image and send it to the Plot Manager.
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Why am I not getting good results with Color Vectorizing?
Color Vectorizing is the process of converting color bitmap images into vector images which are separated by color. This process works well if the original image has clean artwork with spot colors that can be clearly differentiated. This process does not work well with full color photographs that have very gradual color changes and blends, since the software is trying to find the edge between two distinct colors.

One approach to making a bitmap file more suitable for color vectorizing is to import the image into an image editing program, and then convert the image to a finite number of colors using the Posterize or similar feature. This feature will enable you to select the number of colors, which the color vectorizing feature would then more easily be able to diagnose.
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