Text

[boink]

I'm designing a wood sign for a company in PS and will be printing it out full size for them. I'll print it out 36 inches wide and 96 inches long.

To save a lot of ink is there anyway I can change the letters from solid letters to just the outlines of the letters?

Thank in advance

 

[MrToM]

Add a 'stroke' to the text via the 'fx' options. (Bottom of layers palette).
Set 'Fill' to zero. (Under opacity).
This will remove the text colour but retain the stroke, (Outline).

Regards.
MrTom.

 

[boink]

Add a 'stroke' to the text via the 'fx' options. (Bottom of layers palette).
Set 'Fill' to zero. (Under opacity).
This will remove the text colour but retain the stroke, (Outline).

Regards.
MrTom.

Thanks Mr. Tom, just what I needed and worked like a charm for me.

 

[Tom Mann]

A cautionary note: If the stroke is set too thin, sure, you'll save ink, but you will also decrease the readability of the sign when viewed from long distances, and presumably that is precisely why it is being made so large in the first place.

Also, have you looked into companies who specialize in printing very large signs / billboards using an offset / half-tone press instead of trying to do it yourself, especially if you had intended to produce it on a wide body, photo quality inkjet? There might not be much cost savings to be had on such a short run, but it might be worth looking into.

Tom

 

[boink]

A cautionary note: If the stroke is set too thin, sure, you'll save ink, but you will also decrease the readability of the sign when viewed from long distances, and presumably that is precisely why it is being made so large in the first place.

Also, have you looked into companies who specialize in printing very large signs / billboards using an offset / half-tone press instead of trying to do it yourself, especially if you had intended to produce it on a wide body, photo quality inkjet? There might not be much cost savings to be had on such a short run, but it might be worth looking into.

Tom

Hi Tom and thanks for your reply. My husband owns a a large architectural millwork shop and also does hand carved, routed and sandblasted signs and has clients that go back to the 50's when he was a babbling kid learning his dad's business. Hands on is what they want no cnc.

Most of the time I use Autocad and Coreldraw to design all the layouts with but decided to give PS a try with some of the newer ones.

I understand line weight and printing. We do all of our designs and shop drawings on three HP Designjet large format printers up to 48 inches wide.

On the signs we use full size plots and transfer the layouts to the sign blanks.

We do hands on in our shop and use the cnc machines only for a wicked radius and mouldings.

Once again I thank you for your fast and awesome suggestions.

 

[Tom Mann]

Ahh ... very good. As you were new to the forum, I didn't know if this might have been a first for you, and how exactly it was to be used, but it sounds like you have it more than covered!

Your products sound very interesting. To avoid new arrivals signing up for this forum simply to promote their own websites / products, we don't let newbies post links, however, I would love to know more about your products. Any chance you could drop me a private message and give the URL of your operation?

Thanks,

Tom

 

[ALB68]

Please share with me also. Thanks

 

[boink]

Hi guys...old post but I'm having to do this again and it's not working for me. Any clues to what I'm doing wrong?
Thanks in advance.

 

[Tom Mann]

Hi Boink - Welcome back. There are a huge number of things that could have gone wrong, so we need a lot more info to help you. Why don't you make up a tiny image (say, just a single letter) that exhibits this problem and post the PSD file here. This is probably the easiest and most direct way to figure out what's going on.

Tom

 

[boink]

Hi Boink - Welcome back. There are a huge number of things that could have gone wrong, so we need a lot more info to help you. Why don't you make up a tiny image (say, just a single letter) that exhibits this problem and post the PSD file here. This is probably the easiest and most direct way to figure out what's going on.

Tom

Hi Tom and thanks for your reply. I doubt it would do any good to put up an image.

When I go to fx options and put the stroke in it gives me the default red stroke around the letters. When I change the fill (opacity) to 0 it removes the stroke and the letters stay black.
I've tried it in cs5 all the way down to cs2 and ImageReady and the same thing happens in all of them.

It mus be me doing something wrong.

 

[boink]

Hi Tom and thanks for your reply. I doubt it would do any good to put up an image.

When I go to fx options and put the stroke in it gives me the default red stroke around the letters. When I change the fill (opacity) to 0 it removes the stroke and the letters stay black.
I've tried it in cs5 all the way down to cs2 and ImageReady and the same thing happens in all of them.

It mus be me doing something wrong.

Ok, I think maybe I have it now. Once I put the stroke on the letters I had to go to Blending Options and change the Opacity there.
Another blonde hair day I suppose.

Once again I thank you for your reply.

 

[Tom Mann]

Glad you got it. Don't hesitate to contact us again if it gives you more problems.

Also, you would be astonished at what we can learn from a PSD file. It almost always is vastly faster than verbal / text descriptions or having to ask question after question.

Good luck with your project,

Tom

 

[IamSam]

For future reference.........

The RED arrow points to the Layer Opacity.

The BLUE arrow points to the Fill Opacity.

 

[Mike321]

Nice to know the reviews about the text option.I am also getting hep from these text stroke and fx option and create my logo design.Its very awesome in working.Nice sharing i got on this thread.