Anytime I buy a new PC, the first software I’ll install is Inkscape and Gimp. It’s free and a must-have for all hobbyists. To create my vector file I used Inkscape. CNC laser cutters, vinyl cutters, plasma, waterjet, routers, they ALL will read a. ANY computer controlled cutting system can read a. The go-to file type for a vector image is a.
That’s what is called a “vector graphic”. When cutting an image on a vinyl cutter, the cutter needs just the profile of the image to cut out, which will create our image. The common printer goes line by line dropping ink to create the image.
Right now the image we have created is the type of image you would send to a common printer. Right now we still have an image file which we’ll then need to convert into a file type that the vinyl cutter can read as a cut path. Once the image represents what the vinyl sticker should look like, you’ll need to save that image as a new JPEG file. The trick is to remove enough features while still leaving the important components. Using the slide bar in the threshold tool you can adjust the contrast to highlight the features you want the sticker to be comprised of.
Once I had the image cropped down to what I wanted in the photo, I used the threshold feature in Gimp (Colors > threshold). For this photo, I had to remove any part below my chin area using the lasso feature in the tool box (see arrow in below image) Gimp is a photo editing tool similar to photoshop, but entirely free! We use Gimp regularly at The Foundery for modifying photo’s for laser or plasma cutting.įirst step in Gimp was to remove any part of the remaining image that I didn’t want in the vinyl sticker. Once I had the image as a JPEG without the background, I imported the image into GIMP to convert to black and white and customize the contrast. Once the background was removed I right clicked on the image and saved-as a JPEG file. The next step after deciding on which super awesome selfie to use, was to copy-paste the image in Power Point so I could remove the background At first I didn’t know if that was a “yes” or a “no”…it was a “no”. Her response when I asked her to take my picture was something on the order of “Damn it corey! you just really love yourself don’t you!”. I could have had my wife taken the photo for me, but she was REALLY against the idea of me making a vinyl sticker of my self. Since I’m so photogenic this step was really easy.
The first step was taking a nice picture of myself. I think you could accomplish this entirely with Inkscape but since I’m not that tech savvy and love to make tasks harder than they need to be, this was how I did it. The software I used for this was all free or commonly available. After a quick test run, cutting out some Foundery Logo stickers, I figured I’d move onto a real value-added application….a vinyl sticker featuring my face! We recently got a vinyl cutter at The Foundery.
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