illustrator files to signpal software

[Peter Normington]

Are you importing a picture or a vector don’t know signpal but most sign software works on vectors, not bmp/jpgs you can trace the image in most good sign software so maybe thats what you need to do?
peter

[John Harding]

Mark

Assuming you started with a vector graphic in illustrator and you open it in signpal you should be able to ungroup it and play with the components as required, if not post more info on the problem

John

[John Thomas]

As John said assuming you are working with a vector file in Illustrator in the first place.

With Illustrator & Signpal, it all comes down to what version
of Illustrator you use & how Signpal accepts it.

For example you have some ‘text & a shape’ in Illustrator which
you want to cut in Signpal, select the ‘text & a shape’ & convert to
outlines, make sure the document is in cmyk color mode & leave the vector black & white.

If you are using Illustrator CS, go to—–File
—–Export

A browser window pops up with Export as ‘Untitled.ai
Change the file type to .eps,
Hit Export,
A second browser window pops up, giving you more Export options,
you now need to choose Illustrator 3 from the options & Hit Export for
the last time.

Now go to Signpal, & go to—–File
—–Import

Browse to your ‘Untitled.eps file & Hit Import.
Make sure to ungroup objects, and your ready to cut.

If using the lastest version of Illustrator, which is Illustrator CS 2
Do as above but you now Save from Illustrator (not Export)

Even when using older versions of Illustrator, I would get into
the habit of saving/exporting as Illustrator 3, this way
if you send out graphics to be cut/printed by another person,
you will avoid hardware & software compatabiltiy issues.

Illustrator CS 2 now comes with its own built-in ‘Live Trace’ function
which has more options than Signpal/Flexisign and produces a far
superior result. Worth having.

Note:
A more complex vector Illustration in Illustrator that was made
by someone other than yourself may be made up of layers,
it is important top make sure all vectors are on the one layer
before saving/exporting for Signpal.
Some Illustrations also have color gradients that are created
using the ‘mask’ feature in Illustrator, if you ‘unmask’ the
object before saving/exporting you should still be left with an
outline of the said vector.

[Martin Pearson]

don’t know if it is a free download or software you have to purchase but there are members of this forum that use illustrator and plot straight from it. Hopefully one of them will read this post and add a bit more detail, if you are already familiar with illustrator then this may be a better option for you. Try searching the boards as there may already have been some posts about it.

[Nigel Pugh]

Just to add, SignPal software is OEM versions of Flexi software, from basic to Pro level.

Mark I assume you have a Jaguar plotter, and there would be a windows print driver cd that would be with the machine that will allow you to cut directly from Adobe , CorelDraw etc if you wanted to.

Regards
Nigel

[mark gilchrist]

thanks to all for the fast replies, i really appreciate it. i seem to be getting somewhere now. a case of trying to learn everything too quick and missing the obvious i think. good to know i can plot direct from illustrator, i wasn’t aware of that

thanks again to all

mark 🙂