Starting as a hobby, Active Army Soldier needs help

[armystarter]

Im a active duty Soldier in the army. Im stationed at Fort Campbell, KY and i would like to get this started in my garage. There is only one screen printer here around post. Im not looking to take all their business. I just want to be able to do some work for my friends for our MMA fight teams and a few units looking for easy, cheap shirts. I have watched all the video's and i can do the labor. What im seeing me having problems with is dealing with the artwork. I use a MAC and watching the alot of video's about how to do the artwork to get it as a vector to be used for prints but im having a hard time with making them into vectors. Can anyone help me?

[Shamax]

Welcome to the forum, Sarge, and to the world of screenprinting!

For your artwork, you don't *have* to do everything as vector art, but it is considered a best practice, especially if it's some kind of line art, logo, or text that you'd like to be able to print at different sizes without any loss of detail. How are you doing your designs currently? Hand-drawn art? Using a raster graphics program like Photoshop or Gimp? And what programs do you have at your disposal?

I'm a Windows-user, myself, and a bit of a cheapskate since I'm just starting out so I use the free, open-source programs. I use Paint.NET (Windows-specific) or Gimp (open source and cross platform compatible) for raster graphics and layout, and Inkscape for when I want to vectorize everything. Both programs are free (and Inkscape is cross platform compatible), so my process usually goes something like this:

All photos, drawn art, non-text stuff gets done in Paint.NET (for simple stuff) or Gimp (for halftones and higher-detail stuff). I use those to clean the image up, make sure it's at 300dpi or better, and reduce everything to a 2-color black and white image. I then save my work in a non-compressed format (usually as a .TIFF file).
I could actually print my film positive from there, but I like to vectorize everything, so I then import that image into Inkscape and play with the "Trace Bitmap" function to have it auto-vectorize everything.
I then add any other text/layout stuff that needs done and add my registration marks, and save it as a PDF & print the films.

If you have any other questions or you're getting tripped-up by something specific, don't hesitate to ask!

[Catspit Productions]

Andy I think it’s time for a shout out video for you

You really step up and help people out right away while I’m off busy printing or making videos. I truly appreciate it. Please contact me.

I hope to do some simple tutorials on creating basic artwork very soon. I am doing one about halftones in the next couple of weeks. It will be an art video followed up by the printing of the job. But I will speak mostly of film output in that video.

So please stay tuned. I will eventually do some simple artwork creation videos including vector-izing big enough image files.

Here are more free graphic art software downloads:

http://www.catspitproductionsllc.com/fr ... tware.html

Thanks for signing up to the Catspit Forum!

[armystarter]

Thank you for everyones help

[Leadfoot]

Hi Matthew,

First of all let me say Thank You for your service! I have friends up there at Ft. Campbell and I am just a bit away in Smyrna, TN.

I was right where you are just a couple years ago and it can be frustrating but ultimately it will be rewarding! The software to do the artwork could quite possibly be one of the hardest parts of getting going. I was lucky enough to have someone give me Photoshop and Illustrator...however, Andy really gave some great advice on that subject. I was in the middle of learning GIMP when the gift of PS and AI came along.

I would be more than happy to help in any way I can in the way of suggestions for a home based set up, but I am far from a pro like Jonathan. Most of what I have learned came from Jonathan and his videos so watch all you can and you will learn a ton of stuff!

[Lottie05]

Matthew you can download a free trial of adobe photoshop so you can get a feel of how the software works and at that time you can see if its. Good fit for your needs