10 more great welding cursive fonts for diecutters

Here’s a list of 10 more cursive fonts that cut and weld wonderfully, and, as you can see, they look great as well. Download at the links below the graphic.

1)Alex Brush 2)Arsenale White 3)Bira 4)Dancing Script 5)Grand Hotel 6)KG Always a Good Time 7)Monoment 8)Sacramento 9)Sofia 10)Xiomara

The first set of great fonts for welding is here.

10 great free dingbat fonts for diecutters

Free dingbat fonts are a great source of images to use with your diecutter, but how do you know which ones cut nicely? I’ve done the trial and error for you on these ten fonts that are perfect for diecutting. Links are listed below the graphic.

1)09kutups 2)Efon 3)Board Dudes 4)Damask Dings 5)Hibiscus 6)Kalocsai Flowers 7)Peoni Patterns 8)ND Urban 9)Sepeda 10)Sewing Patterns

10 great Doodlebats for diecutters

10 more great Doodlebats for diecutters

Class of 2013 free SVG

In honor of my niece, and by request, I’m posting the 2013 version of my “class of” SVG. Hope you enjoy the file and congrats to all your graduates!

Click here to download in SVG format

Click here to download in .studio format

Terms: Free for personal and commercial use. Just don’t sell the file in digital form. Please share the link to this post, rather than the file itself. Thank you!

2011 is here

2012 is here

Vinyl Cost Calculator

I’ve recreated my Vinyl Cost Calculator on Instacalc, along with some instructions (it’s easier than it looks). Type in a few particulars and it quickly returns a comprehensive total cost per square foot. This is great for comparison shopping or for deciding what quantity you should order.
Here’s an annotated screen shot (click to enlarge) with all the info (plus overkill) you need to get started.

Click here for a printable PDF of the above instructions

Click here to go to the calculator

Christmas sketch freebie

Here’s another sketch file I was able to centerline trace with Adobe Illustrator for machine sketching. The scan above shows what it looks like sketched with a Sharpie pen in my Silhouette SD.

Download the .studio file here or the .svg version here. Please remember that this file is only for sketching, and is not suitable for cutting.

The original was a free vector from Vector Graphics Blog so if you like this file leave them some love, too.

Freebie for sketching

I’ve been trying to learn to convert different kinds of images to sketch files (single line/open path) with mostly disappointing results, but here’s a pumpkin border I was able to successfully centerline trace in Illustrator. The scan above shows what it looks like sketched with an orange Sharpie pen. I know you talented folks will make some lovely cards with this one!

Download the .studio file here or the .svg version here. Please remember that this file is only for sketching, and is not suitable for cutting.

The original was a free vector from Vector Graphics Blog so if you like this file leave them some love, too.

Stencilizer: a shortcut for diecutters

My latest web app crush is squarely on Stencilizer, a cool online tool for automatically posterizing, smoothing, vectorizing and color separating photo input. Upload an optimized (clear, close up, cropped, background removed, high contrast) image and Stencilizer first presents you with 9 choices in various brightness levels and number of colors.

Choose your favorite and then Stencilizer yields up to 5 SVG files ready to download, cut and layer.

In addition to its intended purpose of making layered stencils, I see at least 3 more ways the digital diecutting community can put this tool to use. First off, if you are familiar with the stunning Paper Portraits by Greg over at Paper Kutz Studios you may have wished for a lazy crafter’s version. Stencilizer gives you that.

The Stencilizer output is not nearly as detailed as what you would get through the meticulous methods Greg generously shares in his tutorials, of course, but should work fine for smaller projects, greeting cards, etc. Though I haven’t tried it yet, I can foresee combining the Stencilizer output with Greg’s advice on paper colors to create some nice pieces.

Secondly, rendering photos in vinyl for tiles and for etching on vases, etc is very popular. File creation has been a challenging proposition, though, as most crafters lack the image editing savvy to translate a photo into a single color cut file that is recognizable, much less flattering. While the SVG files from Stencilizer are not suitable for vinyl work, the enlarged previews it generates are adequate for tracing.

I’ve put together a video tutorial on how you can use Stencilizer to make cut files for vinyl. In it I use Silhouette Studio for the tracing, but any cutting program or Inkscape would do the job just as well if not better.

Though not diecutter related, I will mention (since it happens to be October) that you could use Stencilizer in this same manner for custom pumpkin carving designs. Assuming the black will be cut out, be sure you add “bridges” so that you don’t have any white completely surrounded by black.

Thirdly, Stencilizer works well for the posterization needed for the hatched sketch technique I recently posted and for other projects such as glitter/sand painting where areas of discreet color need to be delineated. The SVG files Stencilizer generates are meant to be stacked, so they will not work for this, as we can not have hatching layers overlap, but once again, the previews can be traced with good results.

I’ve made a video on using Stencilizer as part of the sketching process, too.

Finally, let me mention that Stencilizer’s revenue stream comes from sales of custom cut paper stencils. Since those of us with our own diecutters will not need to buy stencils, I encourage you to take advantage of Stencilizer’s donate button if you find the web app useful.

How to sketch a photo with your diecutter

Ever wished you could sketch a photo with a pen in your diecutter? Well, I found a way, if you’ve got enough patience. The general steps are as follows: simplify photo, posterize photo, vectorize posterized photo, hatch fill each section with density corresponding to color, randomize the hatching, save as svg, send to cutter.

It’s a simple idea, but tedious to execute. I am surprised I wasn’t able to find software to do this automatically (that’s a big hint to you programmers out there). Anyway, here is my tutorial. It assumes you have at least an intermediate comfort level with Inkscape, and some basic photo editing skills as well.

To do this you will need:

• Inkscape
• Eggbot extensions for Inkscape installed. Click here for download link and installation instructions.
• some sort of photo editing software that has a Posterize command or ability (I used Photoshop. You could use Photoshop Elements, Paint Shop Pro, Gimp, paint.net, fotoflexer.com, iPhone apps like ToonPaint, etc.)
• large clear photo with good contrast.
• diecutter and software that can read vector formats output by Inkscape. (Cricut users may be disappointed as its drawing capabilities are inferior to other consumer machines.)
• method to hold a pen in your cutter. I use the adjustable marker holder from Chomas Creations.
• suitable pen for drawing. I am using a Sharpie retractable pen.

Before you get started, it is a good idea to draw out the sample file I put together to help you see how the different fills will equate to the grays in an image. I have an SVG version and a .studio version for you to download. For best results, use the pen, settings, paper, any type of mat that you will be using for your final portrait.

It should look something like this when you are done:

Here’s the photo I started with

Using Photoshop, I:

-deleted the background

-changed the photo to black and white

-adjusted brightness and contrast

-posterized to 4 levels

The great thing about using Photoshop for this is that you can set up adjustment layers so that you can change the brightness and contrast and see the effect on the final posterization in real time.

-I also used the Dust and Speckles filter to smooth out the image

If you don’t have Photoshop, PSE or a similar program, the key here is to obtain  a 3 or 4 tone image that is relatively smooth (this is for the sake of efficiency, it doesn’t have to be as smooth as for cutting) and at least medium resolution. You might even try some of the web apps that produce an “Obama Poster” as these produce a similar effect, albeit in fairly low resolution. Another possibility is to do this directly in Inkscape concurrent with the Trace Bitmap step (take advantage of the Options tab). My original photo was too dark and lacked contrast so I did not have good results with these alternate methods, but I think better photos would work fine this way. There are dozens of methods for and tutorials on posterizing. Find one that fits your software and skill level.

Update, no make that News Flash: The online tool, Stencilizer,  is a useful online tool for the posterization and smoothing. See my video tutorial here.

-Next bring the image into Inkscape using the Import command and with the image selected choose Path>Trace Bitmap.

-We will be autotracing using the following settings: Grays checked, Smooth checked, and Stacked unchecked. The number of scans will depend on the number of colors in your image, more or less. Start with the same number as your posterization levels and experiment up or down a notch if you aren’t satisfied with the results.

And here is my result, shown ungrouped and split into the light, medium and dark layers for reference. There was an additional lighter layer, which I deleted.

-Size your image to the approximate size you will want the final sketch to be. If you change the size later it will affect the shading and might not appear the way you want it to.

-Make a copy of the trace to use as reference and drag it off to the side. Ungroup the working copy one time. You will have 3 or 4 paths, each representing one brightness level of the image.

You will probably find it easier to work with the pieces separately, but it is important to be able to bring them back together in exactly the right orientation. You can either paste each piece in place onto a separate layer or use shift-arrow to move the pieces in large discreet increments that make it easier to backtrack later. I put each piece on its own layer, titled light, medium and dark, so that I could toggle them on and off as needed, but also make frequent use of the shift-arrow technique for interim moves.

-Start with the darkest section and apply a hatch fill by selecting Extensions>Eggbot Contributed>Hatch Fill

-Choose an angle you’d like the strokes to lean with 0 being horisontal and 90 being vertical. In my case, I chose the angle to match the tilt of the subject’s head. You can choose any angle you like.

-You’ll want to refer to your sample swatches to help you select a setting for the hatch spacing. Smaller numbers mean the lines will be closer together, and the effect will be darker. Looking at my swatches for reference, I used 1.5 for black because I wanted the pen strokes to still be visible, but barely.

-It may help to switch to outline view (control- 5 on numeric keyboard to toggle) so you can see the hatching take effect.

-When the Hatch extension finishes, you will have a group of 2 objects: the original path and the hatched version. Ungroup them and move the original out of the way. (I sent it back to another layer for safekeeping.)

-Choose the next darkest color and repeat the steps above, using a larger setting for the hatch steps. I chose 2.7 and 3.5 for the medium and lighter colors respectively.

-To get a better idea of what your sketch will look like, select the entire hatched version and set the fill to none and the stroke to a width of 1 px.

-If you are satisfied with the relative shades of your hatching, its time to add some randomness to give the sketch a more hand-drawn look. Select one section and choose Extensions>Modify Path>Jitter Nodes.

You will want to experiment with settings to see what you like as results will vary depending on the size and composition of the image. The settings I used for my sketch are shown in the screen capture below.

-Repeat the Jitter Nodes process for each shaded section. You can use different settings for each one if you like. Longer strokes lend themselves to more displacement without distorting your image.

-Save a copy of your working document for safekeeping. Select the completed hatched and jittered sketch portion of your drawing and copy it to a new document and save it as SVG. If you are using Make the Cut or Sure Cuts a Lot, this SVG should be ready to import and draw as is.

Silhouette Studio DE users may also use this SVG version, however, if you have the standard version of Silhouette Studio, save the sketch as DXF instead.

-If you use either version of Silhouette Studio, you will need to set all the line widths to 0.0. Do this by going to the Line Style pane and sliding the slider all the way to the left.

-You will also need to go to the Cut Styles pane and set everything to Cut Edge.

It’s also a good idea to zoom in closely to verify that the cut lines are single, open paths, as that is what we want for pen sketching.

-It’s time to sketch your masterpiece. Choose the appropriate settings and find something else to do for the 15-30 minutes or so it will take this complex of a file to draw.

Here’s a scan of my sketched result, drawn with a Sharpie pen in my Silhouette SD. I think maybe I would like the middle tone a little darker next time, but you get the idea. Up close you can see the marker strokes and it really has a hand drawn look to it. From a distance, it looks even more like the original photo.

How to trace using transparency in Inkscape

Ever wonder how to autotrace those hard to handle .pngs with light colors against a transparent background. It’s quick and easy in Inkscape? Hint: It involves my favorite tool…the paint bucket. I’ll show you in less than 2 minutes.

Cool online tool for diecutters and other font lovers

If you follow this blog you know I love web apps and I am always on the lookout for new and cool ones. Mariairie left me a comment a couple of days ago with a link to IcoMoon, an icon font generator for web developers. At first I didn’t understand it or see any application for us diecutters, but the more I played the more excited I got. Here are some things you can do with IcoMoon:

Easily export all or selected glyphs in a font to individual SVG files.

1. Go to Free Font Converter, browse for your font and set the “…format to convert to” to SVG and click the big blue Convert button. An SVG font with the same name as your TTF will be downloaded to your computer (SVG fonts carry the .svg extension, just like a single SVG image)
   
2. Click the Import Icons button in IcoMoon and select the SVG font that you just generated. You will see all the glyphs from that font appear under “Your Custom Icons”
   
3. Click on the glyphs you would like to export to SVG. Selected glyphs will be outlined in yellow. To select multiples at once, click on the first and then hold down the shift key while clicking on the last one you want to select
   
4. Click the Images button. A zipped folder containing SVG versions of each glyph you selected will be downloaded to your computer. How cool is that?! Perfect for creating a specialized alphabet or for sorting images from a mixed theme dingbat font, among other uses we haven’t imagined yet.
   

Create a personal favorites dingbats font.

1. Go to Free Font Converter and convert each of the source fonts to SVG as shown in step 1 above.
2. Import your first font into IcoMoon as shown in step 2 above, select the glyphs you definitely do NOT want and press the trash can icon to delete them
   

   

3. Repeat this process with successive fonts until all your favorite glyphs appear under “Your Custom Icons”
   
4. Select the glyphs that make the final cut for your favorites font
   
5. Click the Font button
6. Type a character in the top box above each glyph and/or drag and drop glyphs to set their encoding (which key you will type to access each glyph)
   
7. Click the gear/flower icon and type a name for your font in the box and click the X to save it. (choose carefully as internal font names are not easily changed)
   

   

8. Click the Save button. A zipped folder containing TTF and SVG versions of the compilation font will be downloaded to your computer
   

   Note: The key word here is personal. Use these “mix” fonts on your own computer only. Please don’t use this technique to redistribute copyrighted fonts/glyphs/images.

Make your own dingbat font.

1. In Inkscape, Adobe Illustrator or other vector editor, create a set of SVGs you would like to compile into a font. (I am still experimenting with the format but starting using a 512 x 512 pixel high document seems to work.)
2. In IcoMoon, click the Import Icons button and navigate to your SVGs and import them.
3. Click and/or shift-click to highlight all of the SVGs which are now showing under “Your Custom Icons”
4. Click the Font button
5. Type a character in the top box above each glyph and/or drag and drop glyphs to set their encoding (which key you will type to access each glyph)
6. Click the gear/flower icon and type a name for your font in the box and click the x to save it. (choose carefully as internal font names are not easily changed)
7. Click the Save button. A zipped folder containing TTF and SVG versions of the compilation font will be downloaded to your computer

Caveat: So far I have only been able to get IcoMoon to work using Chrome as a browser.