Graphics Programs Reference
In-Depth Information
Cleaning Up a Logo
Import Globe Partners.gif to a new Xara document. Let's
suppose you were given this GIF logo and your client needs
you to update the logo to reflect artwork of the 21st century
(the choice of typefaces is pretty bush-league) and to create
the graphic as vector artwork at different sizes for all sorts of
display.
A cursory examination of the logo shows that significant
dithering has been introduced to the shading on the Earth.
This dithering has only a minor impact on the auto-trace of the
Earth; however, you'll probably need to replace the colors in the
bitmap before finishing the job.
Whenever you receive a low-resolution, low-quality bitmap
you're asked to rework, your workflow should go like this:
1.
Unless the logo features a distinctive handwritten or
other custom typeface, you're usually best off discarding
(not tracing) the text. Instead, recast the text portion,
using the fonts you have, or charge the client to buy
the same font. In this example, a variation on Novel
Gothic and Bank Gothic are used; however, the client
mentioned a new font so the point is moot.
If you can't discern a typeface, What The Font (
http://new.myfonts.com/WhatTheFont/)
is an excellent Web resource for visual identification of a typeface based on a screen-
captured sample of the font in question. You press PrintScreen, paste the graphic into a Xara
document, and crop the screen capture down to the text only. Then select the graphic, press
CTRL
-
SHIFT
-
E
to export it, and choose BMP, JPEG, or any other format MyFonts.com supports. In seconds you'll have
the font, availability, and pricing at your fingertips.
2.
You crop down to only the elements you need to have
Bitmap Tracer auto-trace. Simple logos such as a sphere
or a cube are usually best hand-traced by putting the
original on a locked layer and then using the Shape
Editor or Pen Tool to manually trace the shape.
You put shapes over areas you don't want to trace, and
3.
then make a bitmap copy of the shapes and the original
bitmap for tracing. Doing this simplifies the trace
procedure—you'll see how this trick works later in this
chapter.
