Urgent please. How to make objects to vector? CS6

Question

Hi please urgent, the printing press for signboard is looking for an vector of my design there are waiting for me right now. I send them the .eps format. I use pen tool for making different curves and shapes. How can I make it to a vector?
Here is the .eps file
http://www.solidfiles.com/d/5164de41a2/

Answer 1

It's not clear what kind of production workflow will happen.
Exactly. (At last!)
Hi please urgent...
Given the "urgentcy" I'll first ask you to forgive my being a little rough. None of this is meant to offend. It's meant to teach with some appropriate pointedness, hopefully to the benefit of all who come here having got themselves into similar jams. So be a little thick-skinned in reading this, but take it seriously. It's sound advice. It's good advice. It's given freely and represents considerable time, and so I consider myself at liberty to phrase it the way I see fit.
This is how you (and many others) get into trouble. Failure to read instructions. Failure to become familiarized with the basic principles and mechanics of a reproduction method before charging customers for designing for those methods. Then relying upon user forums for answers to get you out of a jam, when there is no guarantee that others on a user forum know any more than you do. Wrong or incomplete "answers" here are at least as common as correct answers.
Your situation is no more "urgent" than most who come here with questions.
I send them the .eps format.
EPS is Encapsulated PostScript. EPS (like PostScript) can contain any combination of raster, vector, or text objects. Think of EPS as just a "container." Just because a file is EPS does not necessarily mean its content is entirely vector paths.
I use pen tool for making different curves and shapes.
You used the Pen tool for drawing a few simple closed paths. You combined some of those simple paths into compound paths. You converted some text to paths. Those objects are vector paths which can be translated to HPGL instructions which a typical vinyl cutter can use to direct its cutting blade.
But then you filled some of those objects with graduated fills. Grad fills are common constructs and can be thought of as "vector in nature" (resolution independent) in that they are mathematically-described printing instructions. But that is not something that can be reproduced by cutting pieces our of solid-colored vinyl sheet material.
Then you applied raster-based effects (the fuzzy drop-shadows) to some of those vector-based paths.
Plus, the compound paths in the EPS file contain raster images used as transparency masks for the shading. Like grad fills, raster images cannot be rendered by cutting a shape out of solid-colored vinyl. And Draw X4 isn't going to know what to do with that construct.
So you are not delivering just vector-based paths in this file, no matter what file format in which you save it.
Whenever you deliver a file for sign cutting/printing:
Know the limitations of the sign shop you are using and its kind of equipment. Some sign shops only cut solid-colored vinyl on an HPGL-driven cutter. Other sign shops have more expensive equipment which can print raster images or grad tones onto vinyl first, and then cut the printed vinyl to shape after. Some sign shops use separate equipment for those two operations. Just as in print, you can't know how to properly prepare something for a particular output workflow unless you have at least a basic understanding of the operations involved.
Ask the sign shop what software and version it is using. Ask what formats and versions their software can open/import.
Best practice: Have your own copy of the software the sign shop will be using. (CorelDraw can be had by any Illustrator user at a modest competitive side-grade price, and you receive alot of other useful stuff in the deal. Any designer frequently delivering files to sign shops should make this investment.) That way, you can see what they will actually be dealing with before you send it.
Failing that, at the very least re-open the file that you export from Illustrator in Illustrator before sending it so you can see what kind of objects you are actually sending. If you Open your EPS in Illustrator and tear it apart, you'll see the objects that I described above.
"Dumb down" your content to the "lowest common denominator" constructs. When it comes down to it, almost everything in graphics boils down to simple vector paths, compound vector paths, vector paths used as clipping paths, raster images, and text objects. Avoid proprietary software-specific constructs like meshes and effects. Figure out the most basic and fewest kinds of objects required to build the graphic.
Make sure you do not use compression on the file that you export.
How can I make it to a vector?
First, do not say "a vector." A vector-based graphics file is not "a vector." "A vector" is a direction, usually associated with a force. A vector-based graphics file is a collection of vector-based paths. "Vector path" or "vector drawing" or "vector file" are shorthand terms using the word "vector" as an adjective (modifying the path, drawing, or file), not a noun. This is not just a pet peeve of mine. It's one of those dead giveaways of beginners who usually don't really understand what they're dealing with.
I sent them the .pdf format...
A PDF file is like an EPS file in that it is also a "container" which may contain any combination of any number of vector paths, raster images, or text objects (as well as many other constructs, such as data fields).
...but they are still asking for the .esp....he will do it using CorelDraw X4...
Just as there are designers selling services they don't understand, there are sign shops using software they don't understand. Smart designers working with such shops learn to watch for the "tell tale" signs of amateurism in the output houses they use.
CorelDraw X4 can indeed "open" (i.e.; translate into its native constructs) PDF, EPS, and AI, so long as:
The files are not newer versions which the particular version of CorelDraw predates.
The files do not include Illustrator-native constructs which CorelDraw does not understand.
(This is not because Illustrator is in any way "superior"; the same general principles apply when exchanging files in the other direction. Each software has its own proprietary constructs for which the others don't have a directly corresponding native construct.)
CorelDraw dominates in the sign business (and for good reason). But sign shops are notorious for not keeping their Corel software up-to-date. Current version of Draw is X6, and a new version is no doubt just around the corner. You are using Illustrator CS6. You just need to save your Illustrator files back to an earlier format and CorelDraw X4 can open them. In fact, I just:
Opened your EPS file in Illustrator CS3.
Saved as Illustrator 8.
Saved as PDF 1.3 (Acrobat 4)
Opened both the PDF and the AI file in CorelDraw X3, with nothing missing.
Why did this work? Because in saving back to earlier versions, the content was automatically "dumbed down" (deconstructed) to the more basic building blocks of graphics: Separate vector paths and raster images.
Understand, this is still not ideal, because leaving that deconstruction to automated routines still results in needlessly messy and fragmented content. For example, when opened in CorelDraw, the AI 8 file contains 36 vector paths and 53 individual raster images. (This is not Draw's fault. It's what was exported from AI to the legacy format.)
...after I send the vector .eps format he said "which you send eps it open but not it vector it has more part" What he mean by it has more part?
He meant there are objects in the design which are missing in the file you sent him after opening in Draw. That's because you did not save back to an earlier format which would deconstruct the file to more basic elements.
He said "I have to cut acrylic & then the sticker printing...
I'm assuming that he means cutting from vinyl adhesive film (although it's quite possible he does indeed mean acrylic plastic sheeting for a fabricated sign.) This implies (although it's still not certain from the poor wording) that the sign shop is not limited to just cutting sign vinyl, but also has the ability to print onto sign vinyl (to accommodate the grads and raster-based shading). Based on those assumptions, you still have some qestions to answer. Think of the basic operations. Think like the device(s) that have to build the physical sign:
The solid-filled vector paths can be cut from sheets of solid-filled colored vinyl. The cut vinyl can then be applied to the (assumed) white sign board. That part is simple.
The grad filled objects can be printed on white vinyl and then cut to shape. But there are three problems:
Registration of print to cut. What if the printing and cutting are done in separate operations? Just as in offset printing traps and/or bleeds are typically included to allow for slight mis-registration of abutting colors, a similar trap or bleed may be required to allow for slight mis-registration between the printed grad fills and the paths which will then cut around them.
How do you intend the drop shadows to be handled? They are graduated, so they will have to be printed. But then what? How do you cut to shape a soft fuzzy edged image from a solid piece of material? Where will the cut be made? Obviously, it has to be cut beyond the edges of the fuzzy printed image. But where? Will the whole graphic that involves the graduated fills and transparency masks (the circles, three curves, and drop shadows) be simply printed onto a piece of white vinyl and then that white vinly be cut to a single circular or rectangular shape? Or will it be cut to an offset contour running parallel to the outer edges of the whole graphic? If so, can you live with the visibility of that cut edge which is not actually part of the design? What about when that cut edge becomes more visible (as it will in the real world, especially if deployed outdoors)? Either way, you have not provided a cut path for the drop shadow portion at all.
Or do you want the entire design to be rendered on a single sheet of vinly so as to avoid that problem of a cut edge outside the bounds of the drop shadows? If so, you don't need any vector content at all. The whole thing could just be one big raster image.
Crosscuts: Back to the assumption that you do intend for the smaller graphic to be cut out of individual shapes, you have two dark blue vector paths overlapping. If the cutter blade follows those two paths, then they will be cut up into five separate pieces. Those paths should have been unioned into one path. A similar overlap situation exists between two green paths. unnecessary crosscuts are a bad thing in sign vinyl. Climate changes can cause slivers or peeling to appear between the unecessary cuts.
Overlaps: Overlapping vinyl pieces can also be problematic in built-up multi-layer vinyl signs. The vinyl is usually glossy and lighting can cause the bumps at overlaps to become distractingly visible. Where that is considered a possible issue, path operations should be used to "punch" different-colored paths from each other, and then appropriate offsets added to accommodate registration, much like building traps in offset printing.
(The above considerations are among the reasons why proper logo designs are intentionally designed as line art to avoid dependency upon graduated effects. If essential to the design, graduated effects are not just problematic for signage, but also for low-res printing like flexography, engraving on plaques or writing pens, single-color printing, screen printing, and other common needs.)
So to do this right, you have some decisions to make:
If this design is to be rendered from individual cut vinyl pieces adhered to a white substrate, especially for outdoor use, I would:
Convert to solid-colored line art. Ditch the drop shadows and grad fills altogether.
Union the two overlapping dark blue paths.
Union the two overlapping green paths.
Punch the green and light blue paths from the dark blue paths.
Create offset paths of the green and light blue paths. Intersect these with the dark blue paths. Union the intersections with the green and light blue paths.
Assemble in this order: Light blue, green, dark blue. This would provide a slight "trap" of the two ligher colors underneath the dark blue where they "kiss."
The above treatment would be the simplest and most outdoor-durable since no printing is involved.
If this design is to be rendered from individual cut vinyl pieces adhered to a white substrate, but I insisted on the grad fills and drop shadows, I would:
Provide one raster image consisting of the small graphic.
Provide one vector cut path for that image.
Povide solid-filled cut paths for everything else.
JET