Author Topic: outdoor name plaque  (Read 4014 times)

Offline justsomeguy

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outdoor name plaque
« on: April 11, 2014, 03:18:36 pm »
Hello again everyone,

i'm looking to make a couple outdoor name plaques for some friends of mine. i really like this pattern that steve posted : http://www.stevedgood.com/newwelcomesign.pdf

however i would like to change the "welcome" to someone's last name. can i get your guys and gals recommendations on the best way to do this please.

would i just find a font that i like and print it off and set it ontop of steve's pattern and try to match them up together as best i can? or is there a program that i can upload his design into and change the pattern to show the name i am looking at inserting? it would be nice to have some kind of program or pattern that is kind of generic that you can change the names for different people...is this possible at all?

Offline spirithorse

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #1 on: April 11, 2014, 07:51:53 pm »
Greetings,
Either of the options you asked about would work.
For a graphics editing program, many people on the
scroll saw forums use GIMP or INKSCAPE which are free
down-loads on the internet.
Naturally, there will be a learning curve to see how well
you can master either program but, there are lots of tutorials
available also.
If you post the name you want, chances are someone will
be able to do it quite quickly.
God Bless! Spirithorse

Offline justsomeguy

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #2 on: April 12, 2014, 09:45:54 am »
Thanks for that suggestion spirithorse..I will try downloading and see what I can do...

in the meantime if anyone would like to try their hand at changing the "welcome" in the sign I posted to reflect " The Strey's"   and trying to keep that same flowy font that would be awesome and I would be greatly appreciative !!!

thanks everyone. I really like this site and glad that I decided to post for help as everyone is so helpful around here !!

Offline daveo

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #3 on: April 12, 2014, 12:12:46 pm »
is this what you want, its a bit ropey in places but I'm sure you will get round that
Dave

Offline frankorona

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #4 on: April 12, 2014, 02:23:14 pm »
Wonderful pattern Dve, thanks for your help.

Offline justsomeguy

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #5 on: April 12, 2014, 02:46:30 pm »
DAVE !!!!! that is AWESOME!!! what did you do to do that???? was that in that inkscape program? please share with me your wisdom !~! please please please !!!!!!

Offline Marcellarius

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #6 on: April 13, 2014, 01:32:25 am »
great job David, really nicely done.
Marcel

sometimes I make designer firewood....

Offline daveo

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #7 on: April 13, 2014, 12:00:08 pm »
DAVE !!!!! that is AWESOME!!! what did you do to do that???? was that in that inkscape program? please share with me your wisdom !~! please please please !!!!!!

Well now
first of all we are dealing with a PDF, of which we need to convert to an image.
Now many may suggest the use of conversion software, but that means you need to download the PDF first and then convertof which converts the whole file, when really we only need the one page.
So what I do is to open the PDF and print off the page I want, then simply scan it back into the computer and it auto-save as an image.
That done open the image in "GIMP" and remove anything you don't want, in this case the lettering, and then save
now open the file in inkscape and trace the bitmap
You will now be able to size the image to exactly the size you want and it Will print that size.
Now select the font tool and choose your font, which in this case is "Ball Park" ( you will need to download that)
now click in another part of the screen away from the image and type the lettering you want
now click on the selector tool and your lettering will be selected, and you can then open out the box to a size that you can see the letters easily, that done
select font again and the cursor will be at the end of the wording, use the left arrow key to move the cursor in between the last two letters, now hold down the ALT key and at the same time tap the left arrow key and this will bring the last two letters together, then move the cursor between the next two letters and repeat, until the whole word is joined together
now select the selector tool again, put the mouse pointer inside the box, hold down the left mouse button and drag the wording into the original pattern, you can now mess with the size so that  it fits the pattern
Save as an SVG, then when you want to change the name just click on the lettering and you will be able to edit and re-size as you wish
there you go, as clear as mud I guess

Dave

Offline Merlin

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #8 on: April 13, 2014, 05:07:15 pm »
Dave Thanks for the info basically what I do but I do all mine in Inkscape.
But could you please explain why you save as SVG file, I can not open SVG files on my computer.

***Merlin***
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Offline daveo

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #9 on: April 13, 2014, 05:32:09 pm »
Dave Thanks for the info basically what I do but I do all mine in Inkscape.
But could you please explain why you save as SVG file, I can not open SVG files on my computer.

***Merlin***
sorry don't quite get this
any file created and saved in inkscape is an SVG, unless you are telling the computer to save as something else??
Dave

Offline Merlin

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #10 on: April 14, 2014, 12:29:20 am »
Sorry Dave my mistake I did not realise inkscape was svg  ;D
But when I d/loaded your plaque for "justsomeguy" it wood not open but I just tried d/loading it again and (strange) it worked, bloody computer gremlins :P

***Merlin***
Try not! Do,
or do not
There is no try

Yoda "Empire Strikes Back" 1980

Offline daveo

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #11 on: April 14, 2014, 12:20:36 pm »
Sorry Dave my mistake I did not realise inkscape was svg  ;D
But when I d/loaded your plaque for "justsomeguy" it wood not open but I just tried d/loading it again and (strange) it worked, bloody computer gremlins :P

***Merlin***
yes the gremlins pop up at various times :) :)
however just to clarify, I always save as a SVG so that they can be edited as and when you want to
the one you have downloaded is a JPG because we have to convert to be able to post, so as you may have noticed you can't edit it unless you go through the whole process again
Dave

Offline justsomeguy

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #12 on: April 14, 2014, 01:15:20 pm »
thanks dave !!! i greatly appreciate your help...with you quick instructions i was able to do what i was wanting to do without having to spend weeks upon weeks trying to figure out these couple programs !!
here is a quick shot of what i did..i still have to get the proper font that you mentioned but i was just trying to test it out real quickly. only problem i really have to over come now is to stretch it out bigger and then save it again so when i print it i can explode it more to print about 18 inches wide by about 12 high....i used gimp to erase the writing, my wife took it then over to her adobe photoshop and combined the 2 pages to one image , then i took it back to inkscape to input the new writing..now i'm sure there is one helluva lot easier to do it then i did but hey at least i'm learning...my wife said she can more then likely take and do whatever i wanted in her photoshop in about less then the quarter the time it took me lol


Offline Martin

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #13 on: April 15, 2014, 05:25:30 pm »
It's probably of no help in this case, but PDF's can be opened directly in Inkscape.

Martin.

Offline Martin

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Re: outdoor name plaque
« Reply #14 on: April 15, 2014, 06:33:38 pm »
I had to have a play :) I made a PDF of it and it would print at 18" x 7" approx. Taking it to 12" deep stretches it too much.
I didn't join the text to the border as I assumed, maybe wrongly, that it would have a backer.

Martin

 

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