Trouble with importing EPS logo

[Brian]

We recently received the attached EPS logo from a potential client however all my attempts to import it into gravostyle have failed. The file imports however there are always some parts of the logo which are filled in or not filled in properly.

I've tried fiddling with the grouping and ungrouping options for a while but have still had no success getting the logo to look right in gravostyle. I've attached the EPS as well as a PNG so you can see what the logo should look like (of course I'm aware that the colours would be disregarded).

Are you able to get this logo to work in gravostyle or are there other tricks or tips you can suggest for getting EPS logos to work? When we were at the training the files seemed to import just fine but this one isn't providing a workable logo at all. Any tips or suggestions would be appreciated.

[Franklin]

Brian,

It looks like the main problem with this logo is that many of the letters have a double outline, as you can see here:
39

When you try to group this letter, you will get a thin black outline, with no fill in the middle.
The solution is to ungroup everything, zoom in, and delete the extra outlines.
After that, you can group everything together and fill black to get the finished logo.

When I tried it, I had one further issue with this logo, and that was the center of the "A" in WARREN. I'm not sure why, but it is apparently not a closed shape, as it is not able to be filled, even by itself.
To work around this, I simply copied the center of the A in FINANCIAL, enlarged it a bit to match the larger font, and replaced it.

Here is my final result:40

Gravostyle isn't the best software for editing shapes like this, but it's usually possible to get the job done.
What I use personally (but I didn't use it on this job) is CorelDraw to edit logos and then save them as EPS or AI to import into Gravostyle. Corel can handle multiple colors, and has many more options to break/combine/weld/trim different shapes to get the result you need and is fairly inexpensive at around $300 online.

[Brian]

Thank you for this tip. We actually do have a license for Adobe Illustrator currently so we can use that however I hadn't noticed this double outline you found. Thanks for your help with this... hopefully as we work with these more we'll be able to troubleshoot these issues more effectively.

[drooker]

Franklin,

I use Corel Draw (x4, I think) for a lot of stuff, but I've had real sketchy results importing .eps to gravograph. I've actually done much better just printing directly from Corel Draw. The setup is a little more time consuming, but at least it prints what I want. <g> Any hints on how to export the .eps from Corel Draw and get a good result?

FWIW. I've used a lot of jpgs with good results. Even text looks pretty good saved as jpg and imported into gravograph. Some of our customers will created their text in word at the size needed and we just import and print.

[Franklin]

Dave,

What sort of problems have you had when importing .eps from Corel to Gravostyle?
The process has always worked very well for me, but you do need to make sure you have a good clean file to start from.
- No overlapping lines (you can sometimes get away with a bit here)
- No open shapes (they won't be filled in Gravostyle)
- No stroke widths (they won't show up at all in Gravostyle)
- Don't depend on various colors to show up, everything will import as black, so if your drawing in Corel is grey text on a black background, it'll end up as black on black.
- Sometimes when importing an EPS file, it will come in with an extra square around the whole image. This will cause the colors to appear inverted. Simply ungroup, delete the extra line, and regroup again to fix this.

[drooker]

I haven't tried setting color space to B&W. I can see how that would make a difference. The problems I have are usually that the eps opens in gravograph with odd fills and shapes, regardless of the settings I use to import. I don't really know how to set up the file & the export I guess.

It is so easy to run directly from Corel Draw that I'm using that frequently. It took a little while to figure out the little details (like setting page size to 12x18), and learning how to read the print driver, but I can create shapes and paragraphs so much quicker for custom things. I do a lot with Corel Draw so it is a very comfortable software for me.

A tech document on exporting and importing eps files might be helpful.

[Franklin]

Could you send me a particular EPS file that you are having trouble with?
I'd like to see what issues you are experiencing, and perhaps I could use that to illustrate a tech doc or similar

[drooker]

Here's a recent one I worked on. Both the .gif & the .eps were created from the same Corel Draw file. If you'd like the cdr file I'll send it to you.

[Franklin]

I see why you would be having trouble importing this logo.
Looking at the EPS file in CorelDraw, I noticed that there are a number of shapes that are either filled with white, or have a white outline set.
This is a common drawing technique, however it is unsuitable for lasering, as all shapes must be filled black, and have no outline.
This can be fixed in CorelDraw with the "Convert Outline to Object" tool, but it can take quite a bit of time.

The faster and easier method is to simply export as a high quality GIF (I generally use 600dpi) and run that through VectorMagic (http://www.vectormagic.com)to process. The attached file is an example of this method. 80
You can import this directly into GravoStyle, and the only editing you'll need to do is to break apart the object, delete the bounding box, and regroup the logo again.

[drooker]

I guess one of these days I'm gonna have to experiment with Vector Magic. <g> I've just been too cheap to set up an account. I'll experiment with creating files appropriately in CD as well.

Actually, FWIW, I've had excellent results simply importing the high res .gif into the gravograph software. I've even had some customers give me .jpg files of a word doc that was set up the way they wanted it and in the proper size, and the result was acceptable. Text isn't quite as clean, but the customer was happy.