Making a Cut Line, around a vector image.

The job: I have thousands of little vector images i need to put a cutline around.
The solution: I have a little program that will record my mouse and keyboard strokes, repeat said recording as many times as i tell it to, so i can easily automate all the work i have to do.
The problem: I need to find a way (preferably using illustrator only) to more reliably put a cutline around a vector image. Now I know of a few ways to do this, but so far none work across the board on all vector images.
For example: I've tried making a copy of the vector image layer (theres only one layer on all these files) selecting the copy layer, then hitting the Unite button on the Pathfinder window. On most vectors this joins all the segments into one solid object that i can then put just a stroke on and voila, i have a cutline to rename CutContour and I'm good to go. But on some there are stray lines even after hitting the Unite button (i assume just left over from the original artist) and unfortunately cleaning up stray points doesn't clean it up since there short lil trash line segments left over, not just points.
Normally if it were just a few images i would go in and delete them by hand, but i can't do that if I'm automating this. I could maybe rasterize it and get it to work, but i need to keep it a vector to blow up huge later.
There has to be some way after selecting everything on one layer, to then tell illustrator to make that selection one solid object,.. outlined, no lines or shapes inside, filled one solid color, regardless of what it has selected.
Anyone know how to do this?

maryjanejungle wrote:
Thanks for taking the time to illustrate that for me, good to know,.. doesn't seem to work with the dino image though, when you offset the line, it just blows up the little stray line segments too, then when you click Unite there still there. Nothing we're doing is actually looking for the outer most edge,.. or if this were photoshop i could fill in an area with a color,.. if it could some how do that, just fill the area solid and treat it as one shape on one layer.
If you expand the appearance and turn it into a Live Paint Group you can color the stray paths so to speak with a stroke of none.
But this might work as well
Copy the art and paste behind
Use the Unite filter in the pathfinder
give the stroke the color of black
then go to Effect>Path>Offset Path
this might work, I did not try this on the dragon and i am afraid I trashed it yu will have to repost the file as it is not available on that download a page.
If yo still have extra paths showing in the toes of the dragon then expand the art turn it into a live paint group with the option to paint strokes and with the Live paint brush stroke it with a color of either none or white.
The Live Paint Bucket becomes a brush when hovered over a stroke is strokes are check as an option for painting.

Similar Messages

Need to add a cut line around text with a stroke

This has been driving me nuts for years and I've often found ways to "kind of" accomplish this, but I figured someone here might be able to help.
Create text, convert to outlines, add a stroke. Ok now I want to add a cut line around that entire thing so it's dye-cut out on vinyl. My cut line is just a stroke with a color defined in my pallet. I can create 2 strokes, but I can't figure out how to get one to go to the edge of the other. I also tried duplicating the image, creating just an outline, but it's impossible to get it exactly outlined by hand.
If I'm not explaining this right, please let me know.
So there I have the text, converted to outlines, white fill and gold stroke. I need to be able to dye-cut this. If you add a new stroke, it's on top of the old one. Basically I want to add a stroke, to the stroke, but only the outside.
Thanks in advance!!

Thank you Larry. I kind of followed what you said but I think there's some steps missing here?
I'm glad you showed me how to create additional strokes without creating outlines, I was never clicking above "character", I had to click above it to add a new stroke, if you have the text selected, it's greyed out.
Ok so I created a new stroke, then selected it, went to FX > Path > Offset Path. I chose 0.02 (closest I could seem to get, but not perfect, ok in some areas, bad in others), miter joins set to 4? Are those the same settings you used? You didn't tell me how much you offset yours. Then I selected the offset path stroke and went object > expand apperance, but it didn't seem to do anything? It just removed the offset path FX option on the stroke? This is where I'm pretty confused. Why even do the step after the offset, couldn't I just stop there and print?
After adding a stroke and offsetting
After selecting Object > Expand appearance.
As you can see, like on the C. There is a gap between the cut line and the stroke at the top, but there's no gap on the left side, but there is on the right, and there is on the bottom as well? If I printed this, I would get white fill, gold stroke, and then another white stroke basically.
Thank you for your patience, I'm self-taught but over the last 4 years of using it every day I'm still learning new tricks!

Enlarged bounding box around imported vector images (InDesign/Illustrator CC 2014)

Hi all, I've searched the forum for an answer but can't seem to find one. Hopefully someone can help.
Ever since my upgrade to CC2014, whenever I import a vector image from Illustrator into InDesign, the image comes in with an expanded bounding box. Unlike in the old days (i.e., the moment before I upgraded), when the bounding box would exactly enclose my image with no extra white space on any of the sides.
Sometimes the bounding box is small and sometimes it's gigantic. I cannot determine any rhyme or reason why it varies. Sometimes it's wider on the sides than on the top/bottom. Other times it's gigantic on one side but not the others. Basically, it's all over the place with no consistency that I can determine.
I find it incredibly visually distracting to have these weird-sized bounding boxes around my art, and it sucks to have to constantly resize them on every imported image.
I promise there are no guides, stray points, etc. in the Illustrator files. There is absolutely nothing "invisible yet there" that would create these expanded bounding boxes.
Two samples are below.
Note on this first one that the bounding box is wider at the right than the left.
On this second sample, note that the bounding box is gigantic in general, but especially at the top, and it's smaller on the sides/bottom. Huh?
Any ideas? I desperately want this to stop. Just want a bounding box that exactly encloses my artwork after I import it.
Thank you for your ideas or suggestions,
Laurie

Hi Bob, thanks very much for this info. I figured there was a checkbox hidden somewhere...
I tried all of the cropping options and although it seems like this would be a fix, it's unfortunately not fully resolving the issue.
The option that gets me closest is "crop to art." However, as you can see from the sample below, there's still a pretty large gap at the bottom, as well as a small one at the left side. (The top and right actually are cropped to the art, as requested.)
Do you have any other suggestions of things I can try? Or does anyone else have any ideas?
Thanks again,
Laurie

Why the White Lines around imported Photoshop Images

Working in CS6, importing native Photoshop images into an Illustrator gradient. Certain imported Photoshop images, with transparent background, produce white lines bordering the images. The white lines stand out against the AI gradient. The whites lines are not visable on screen. They came out in the commercially printed product. The overall AI document, with PS images placed and linked, was save to a PDF. It was then printed from the PDF. The PDF, as viewed on screen, does not show the white lines either. Why and how do the white border lines (the box surrounding the image) appear?

First I would recommend making sure there are indeed »no pixels« there in Photoshop – applying the Layer Style Stroke can help locate stray, semitransparent pixels.
Other than that I am afraid your print service provider may not have provided optimal output.
What print process was employed anyway?
It looks like flattening effects, but those should simply not be visible in print.
They happen when exporting X1 or X3 pdfs, which disallow transparency, so in creating the pdf the psd files that have transparency are flattened with whatever background and often broken up into smaller parts.
That way a whole mess of fragmentary images can be created, as one can see when one opens such a pdf in Illustrator.
One can avoid that by creating X4 pdfs, which do allow transparency, but if those can be processed by the printer is another question.
But this issue might be more suitable to the Illustrator or pdf Fora.

Removing the blue line around a linked image in IE

I've got a "bookmark this page" button that I can't get the
blue line off of. I got it out in firefox by giving the image a
style with the color of the background but the success didn't
transfer over to IE. I tried using the hotspot tool and linking it
that way but it didn't work. It just reloaded the page. Any
suggestions? (thanks in advance for not being a jack *** to a
newbie) Much appreciated.
www.recoverytoday.net > button is on the top of the right
column.

Adding the border="0" will cause your pages not to validate
in a strict
doctype.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
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"TC2112" <[email protected]> wrote in message
news:g01t0i$d0c$[email protected]..
> Hello,
>
> You can use CSS to stop browsers from using the default
image link border.
>
> a img {border:none;}
>
> This prevents the border on all image links in the page,
or if using a
> stylesheet, all image links on the pages.
> (vesus adding border="0" to every image on every page)
>
> Take care,
> Tim
>
>
> "grlovelidge" <[email protected]> wrote
in message
> news:g01rbp$b90$[email protected]..
>> I've got a "bookmark this page" button that I can't
get the blue line off
>> of.
>> I got it out in firefox by giving the image a style
with the color of the
>> background but the success didn't transfer over to
IE. I tried using the
>> hotspot tool and linking it that way but it didn't
work. It just
>> reloaded the
>> page. Any suggestions? (thanks in advance for not
being a jack *** to a
>> newbie) Much appreciated.
>>
>> www.recoverytoday.net > button is on the top of
the right column.
>>
>
>

Need to learn how to make contour cut lines around a decal so that my Graphtec CE6000-60 cutting plotter will recognize and cut along it.

I'm using Adobe CC Illustrator. I've got a decal I need to draw a contour cut around so my Graphtec CE6000-60 will recognize it

lapintx,
Presumably you nedd to create a (closed) nofill path with a sprcific Stroke Weight and possibly a specific colour, and possibly with a specific name, possibly on its own layer, but you should find out what the plotter requires, maybe what its manual says.

How to remove gray line around an empty image in DW CS6

I have an image that I retrieve from a database (the path) files are stored in a folder.
However when there is no image the image outline is still there.
I have managed to remove the image dreamweaver CS6 gives you automatically (if there is an error etc.) , however the outline is still there even if you set the border to zero. When there is an image it is shown with no border
Is there a solution to remove the border of the empty image or remove the empty image all together
Please find my code I'm using below
<img src="<?php if (is_null($row_Recordset1['SmalImage2'])) {
} else {
}   $file_path.$row_Recordset1['SmallImage2']; ?>" alt="<?php echo $row_Recordset1['Manufacturer']; ?> <?php echo $row_Recordset1['Model']; ?>" name="t2" width="60" height="60" id="t2" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','<?php echo $file_path.$row_Recordset1['LargeImage2']; ?>',1)"border = "0"></td>

Thanks again for looking
I have now changed the code as you said it is looking as follows:
<?php if (!is_null($row_Recordset1['SmallImage2'])) { ?>
echo $file_path."|".$row_Recordset1['SmallImage2']; exit();
<img src="<?php echo $file_path.$row_Recordset1['SmallImage2']; ?>" alt="<?php echo $row_Recordset1['Manufacturer']; ?> <?php echo $row_Recordset1['Model']; ?> name="t2" width="60" height="60" id="t2" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','<?php echo $file_path.$row_Recordset1['LargeImage2']; ?>',1)"border = "0"><?php } ?>
however
echo $file_path."|".$row_Recordset1['SmallImage1']; exit();
is written in black (not sure if that is what you wanted)
the source code is as follows:
<td width="67"><img src="../files/Images/product/image.jpg" alt="alt text here" name="t1" width="60" height="60" id="t1" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','../files/Images/product/image.jpg',1)"></td>
    <td width="60">
          echo $file_path."|".$row_Recordset1['SmallImage2']; exit();
<img src="../files/Images/product/image.jpg" alt="alt text here name="t2" width="60" height="60" id="t2" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','../files/Images/product/image.jpg',1)"border = "0">
      </td>
    <td width="60"><img src="" alt="alt text here" name="t3" width="60" height="60" id="t3" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','../files/Images/product/',1)"border = "0"></td>
    <td width="245"><img src="" alt="alt text here" name="t4" width="60" height="60" id="t4" onClick="MM_swapImage('main','','../files/Images/product/',1)"border = "0"></td>
    <td colspan="2"></td>
    </tr>
<tr>
    <td colspan="4"></td>
    <td width="0"></td>
also the first image is now squashed up in the preview

Why & remove: thin black line around new image?

Hi there.
PS CS3 (10.0.1)
Why does PS automatically make a thin black line around any new image and how can I set PS not to do this?
You can please have a look here:
http://www.josua.co.za/graphics/josua-banner.jpg
I will really appreciate your help.
Regards,
Deon

Thank you for replying to my question.
You are 100% right ... I have made the canvas a bit larger and there is no line.
BUT, why is there a line around the image when viewing in a browser? I dont' want it there and this is the first time I have this problem.
Thank you for your time & help.
Regards,
Deon

Line around art

When we PDF our documents raster line art has cut lines around or beside them if you zoom in they go away and they also do not print. what is cause this. Our customer does not want to see them.

Most of our content is in xml and we output using Antenna House we use a mix of vector and rastor art we only have problems with the raster images
On output it defaults to PDF1.4. But this problem started when we went from 6 to 7, presently we use Acrobat 9 Pro

Contour Cut Line on Rasterized Image

I am trying to create contour cut lines on rasterized images using Illustrator CS4. I have been changing the PNG files to TIFF files and saving with preserve transparency and then placing them in Illustrator. From there I live trace a copy to make a vector outline of the image, but I am uncertain what to do to make it so that I can upload my file into FlexiSign, make contour lines from that file, print, and cut. Everytime I save the file into AI format and bring it into FlexiSign it just contour cuts a rectangle around the image instead of making an actual outline of the picture.

Did you expand the trace first?
Object>Live Trace>Expand

How do I create a cut-path ONLY on the outer edge of my vector image?

Okay, I have a dilemma. This could be one of those things that is so simple when explained, but at this moment in time it has me scratching my head.
Here I have a vector image. The pink stroke is a cut path that the software I use at work recognises and cuts. (Used for vinyl decals/stickers etc). All the lines highlighted in pink is useless to me, as it would cut out each individual line.
All I need is the outer edge of the entire graphic.
Note my crudely drawn red lines that border the image, that is exactly what I need. As you can see, the paths run through the image. BUT...When I try to erase the paths using add anchor point then cut path at selected anchor points so I can remove that particular segment, the colour essentially "leaks" as it isn't a closed area anymore. Rasterizing the image destroys the quality and I would like to be able to perform this task without loss of quality.
If anybody could help, I'd be eternally grateful!
Thanks,
Ben

Ben,
As far as I can see there are three sets of pink strokes, and I guess you wish to use the outermost one and have it form one continuous path round everything and in the hole between the letters.
Presuming you have the other strokes under control, you may be able to copy everything to the top of the stacking order and then, with all the copies selected, Pathfinder>Unite to get that compound path with pink stroke and no fill, which you may then split into one path for the outside and one path for the hole if needed.

DW8-Fine white line around images

DW8 - On some of my images there is a very fine white line
around the edge when the site is previewed in the browser. The site
has an almost-black background color (181714), and I use the same
color in making the image backgrounds (in Photoshop CS), for
example roll-over images. How do I get rid of this?

You wouldn't set this in the Property inspector, you'd set it
in the CSS,
and the only time you need it would be when the image is
within a link:
a img { border:none; }
Also, you wouldn't expect this effect to produce a white
border - it would
be a blue one (by default).
I'm guessing the fine white line is part of the image (it's
easy to
undercrop when the canvas is white).
> I've noticed
> that in tables, having nothing there is "bigger" than
specifying a zero.
If you have nothing there, you will get the default value for
the all of the
table attributes, which is often (but not always) not zero.
Murray --- ICQ 71997575
Adobe Community Expert
(If you *MUST* email me, don't LAUGH when you do so!)
==================
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- DW FAQs, Tutorials & Resources
http://www.dwfaq.com - DW FAQs,
Tutorials & Resources
==================
"Damaeus" <[email protected]> wrote in
message
news:[email protected]..
> Reading from news:macromedia.dreamweaver,
> "Fugasi" <[email protected]> posted:
>
>> DW8 - On some of my images there is a very fine
white line around the
>> edge when
>> the site is previewed in the browser. The site has
an almost-black
>> background
>> color (181714), and I use the same color in making
the image backgrounds
>> (in
>> Photoshop CS), for example roll-over images. How do
I get rid of this?
>
> Check to make sure that your image border is zero in the
Properties
> Inspector in Dreamweaver for the specific image in
question. I've noticed
> that in tables, having nothing there is "bigger" than
specifying a zero.
> I
> don't think I get a white border around images with
nothing in the image
> border width setting, but see if that works?
>
> Damaeus

Adobe Photoshop: how to create cut lines on landscape letter for two 5 by 7 in images?

adobe photoshop: how do i create cutting lines in adobe photoshop if my document is landscape 8.5 by 11 inches and the image are two side by side 5 by 7 in (so appearing 10 inches wides, 7 inch height)... so basically this leaves a 0.5 border top/bottom/left right....i need corner crop marks and a little line in the middle top and bottom (in the crop area) to designate where to cut the 10 inches into 2, creating my two 5 by 7 inches for each image... my guidlines are perfectly aligned, i just need to know how to make cut lines out of my guidelines except in the middle

What I use to do years ago, before most apps had auto crop marks. Was create the guidelines for the margin. Use a line tool, pen tool, etc. and create a line that goes from the guidelines where they meet each other and draw outwards to the edge of the page. Because the line is on the guideline, it snapped to it, making it a straight line. Repeated for the same corner drawing the other direction. (In other words, if I was doing the top left corner, I would draw out to the left, then repeat to draw out to the top of the page).
Group the two line, copy and flip to snap it to the next corner and repeat until all four corners of the page are done.
But if you have a postscript printer, acrobat pro, adober illustrator or adobe indesign, they will generate the crop marks for you.
tip: Do the above while creating an action and your done for the next time. Just run the action. But I reccomend that you set the rules to percentages when creating the guidelines, that way, it can work on more than one image size.

When browsing a new library that I created, the browser shows dotted lines around grey rectangles, no images. When I double click on a rectangle the image appears. How do I get images to appear in the browser rectangles?

When browsing a new library that I created and exported onto an external hard drive, the browser shows dotted lines around grey rectangles, no images. When I double click on a rectangle, the image appears, but all the other rectangles remain empty - no image. How do I get images to appear in the browser rectangles? I am viewing this on a second computer (an older intel duo iMac), not the one I created the library on (a MacBook Pro). Both computers have Aperture 3.2.4 installed. When I return the external to the MacBook, all images appear in browser rectangles. What's happening on the iMac?

You may have a problem with the permissions on your external volume. Probably you are not the owner of your library on the second mac.
If you have not already done so, set the "Ignore Ownership on this Volume" flag on your external volume. To do this, select the volume in the Finder and use the Finder command "File > Get Info" (or ⌘I).
In the "Get Info" panel disclose the "Sharing & Permissions" brick, open the padlock, and enable the "Ignore Ownership on this Volume" flag. You will have to authentificate as administrator to do this.
Then run the "Aperture Library First Aid Tools" on this library and repair the permissions. To launch the "First Aid Tools" hold down the ⌥⌘-key combination while you double click your Aperture Library. Select "Repair Permissions" and run the repair; then repeat with "Repair Database". Do this on the omputer where you created the library and where you can see the thumbnails.
Then check, if you now are able to read the library properly on your iMac.
Regards
Léonie

Whats the easiest way to put a thin line around an image?

Can anyone tell me the easiest way to put a thin line around
an image? I'm also interested in the use of thin lines as part of
the graphic design on a page, how are they generated?
Thanks

.oO(cdeatherage)
>In Dreamweaver, you can set a border for each image but
be aware that some
>versions of some browsers may not display it.
This shouldn't be an issue in any used browser today.
>If it is a consistent look you're
>after, I'd say the most permanent thing to do would be to
edit the image in
>Photoshop or Fireworks. In Photoshop, e.g, I'd create a
background fill with
>the color I wanted the border, then add the image,
centered, in a new layer on
>top of that. Merge the layers, then save optimized for
the web.
Way too complicated. If you want to change the color or style
of the
border, you have to modify the image. With CSS you can
directly change
the line style in a much easier and faster way.
Micha

Making a Cut Line, around a vector image.

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