Originally Posted by
robbrigg2
Here are the steps to working with a picture like the one you had of the tractor.
1. Import the picture into Adobe Photoshop. (It is easier to use this program for creating a usable file then AI. Sometime I use AI to make the original source but I always bring it into PS to convert it to a PNG file).
2. Convert the file to Grayscale
a. Go to the top and select Image then Mode then Grayscale
3. Increase the size of the image
a. Under the Image Heading select Image Size
b. Make the Resolution 300
c. Make the file approx. 5”x5” (this is big but the bigger the better where Designer is concerned).
4. Delete the white from the background of the image.
a. Select the magic Eraser tool
i. This is on the left side of the screen (should be) and it is under the Eraser tool. It has a star next to an eraser.
ii. This tool will delete whatever color you select so click on the white of the background and it should all go away (or most of it)
iii. Touch any other spots of white that you can see that you want gone.
5. Now add a new layer for the background
a. Go to the heading “Layer” click it and then click “New”
b. ON the right you will see two layers one is the image, the other is the blank layer you just added. Make sure that the image layer is listed first by dragging and dropping it into place. Touch the blank image layer and add color through the paint bucket tool on the left. Use a bright color.
i. If you do this right you will see your image on top of the color you just added, you will also see little dots of black and grey that were in the white field but did not get deleted by the magic eraser.
6. Erase the little black dots with the regular eraser tool
a. Make sure that you activate the picture layer first so that you actually delete the black spots. If done right the color layer you added should not be affected.
b. Go through and delete all of the spots on what was once the white background that you can see.
7. Add Gaussian Blur
a. To do this select Filter from the top and then Blur and Then Gaussian Blur.
b. For your image I had to use a 2.0 blur but normally I use 1.0 and sometime less. The more blur the less of the details. But it will belnd to a degree all of the spot shading in an image.
8. Now save the File as a .png file (select File Save as and do the drop down to select a Png toward the bottom of the list).
9. Import the file into designer
a. When you get it into designer apply it to a blank project board. The line around the edge should look normal if you see a bunch of round spots like partial drills holes go back to your picture in APS and delete the spots in the area that is affect. You should be able to find them if you use the microscope in that area, use the eraser and get rid of all of them that you can find.
b. Import it again, continue to do this until you get clean lines.
10. This file took me about 30 minutes so it is relatively easy to do it just takes patience. You can spend more time and you will get even better results. Understand though that some files are simply to cluttered to use, but they can be reworked in a more artistic fashion and you still can get great results.
I hope this helps. Please ask any other questions you are unsure of and I will do my best to explain or answer them more fully.
On this color that you add to the new layer, do you want it to remain as part of the png that you create? I thought you needed a "blank" background in order to get a good pattern? Should you not delete it after you get all the black specs removed? Basically giving you a transparency.
Steven Alford
Colorado Springs, CO
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