TO PROVIDE YOUR OWN GRAPHICS FOR VINYL BANNERS & SIGNS

We accept vector graphics in various formats on PC or MAC, floppy or CD, or over the internet at the email address j2@untranslatable.com. Paper previews are requested along with your disk, but paper cannot easily be scanned and converted to vector format without incurring an art fee.

This is a guide for you or your graphic designer to produce graphics in the proper file type. First off, graphics files come in two fundamental kinds of formats: VECTOR and BITMAP. Vector saves the graphics as a set of points and tangents, producing perfectly smooth edges of distinct shapes. Bitmap saves graphics as a grid, like a TV screen, with each dot having a particular color. The difference is: if you zoom in on a bitmap graphic, you will eventually see a grid of squares. If you zoom in on a vector graphic, you will still see a perfectly smooth line, since the lines are all expressed as a mathmatical formula.

WHY DO WE NEED VECTOR GRAPHICS FOR VINYL?

Quite simply, it's the language our plotter speaks. In order to create your banner or decal, our equipment traces the outlines of your graphic with a synthetic diamond-tipped blade onto a solid roll of vinyl. We then remove the negative space from around the cuts, leaving us with a vinyl positive. We use this cutout for your final product. What works perfectly well for printing- IE, bitmap graphics- will not work for vinyl because we are cutting, rather than printing.

WHAT'S THE DEAL WITH FONTS?

Fonts are the style of type displayed on your computer. What you are reading right now is a font that your computer has stored and chosen to display text on your web browser. The good news is that if you can find the file for the font you'd like on a text-only banner, it is very easy to recreate a graphic, even if all you have is a bitmap file. This means we can do it for cheap. You can email us a .TTF file (PC format) and we can do the rest for a small surcharge (as opposed to $50/hour) If you are working in a vector program to send us a graphic, be sure to convert your type to outlines, or paths. (These are other words for vector.) This way we don't have to have the font file.

CAN WE CHEAT?

Unfortunately, no. Please note that you cannot convert bitmap graphics to vector by IMPORTING or OPENING them in a vector program. EX: If you used QuarkXPress to import a bitmap graphic and save it as an EPS, we would not be able to use that file to cut vinyl. We recommend Adobe Illustrator, Macromedia Freehand, or Coreldraw for the creation of vector graphics. Photoshop files will not work. For conversion of bitmap graphics we recommend Adobe Streamline, followed by editing each line manually in Freehand or Illustrator. Please convert all type to curves, or include a .TTF PC version of any fonts used on your disk. Our favorite file format is FREEHAND or .PDF (Acrobat). If you are using a macintosh, please save the file with an file type after the name. EX: vinylgraphics.PDF

If this is not clear, please give us a call. We can help.

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