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Creating vector outlines
Hi all,
I am trying to create graphics to be printed as vinyl stickers and have been advised by the printer that I need to create a magenta outline around the contours of the sticker for the die cutting machine to follow.
I originally thought that it would be sufficient to us the stroke function under blending properties to do this, but apparently it needs to be a vector path. My question is then, is there a way to create this magenta path outline around my raster image that doesn’t involve me painstakingly tracing it out with the pen tool?
Any advice would be appreciated.
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2 Replies
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well… this is a shot in the dark, but is your original graphic vector?
If not, there is another way, but it isn’t pretty most of the time,
especially if your graphic is of too low resolution.Command click your layer. Go to the Paths menu. Click the little arrow and select “Make Work Path”. Then play around with your tolerance. using a tolerance of .5 will get you a more accurate path but with a lot more points. A tolerance of 2 will get a smoother path, but a lot less accurate.
Good luck.
C.R.
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Hi Christina,
Thanks very much for your reply. I just gave it a try – as you said, it’s not perfect, but as I only need it to generate cut lines for the sticker printer, it should be workable. I’ve sent a copy to my printer to see if he’s able to use it. Fingers crossed…
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