The details are better at 600 dpi

Yesterday in my post, Trouble with Fonts, I shared about all the problems I was experienced with the embroidery setup.  Today I brought in the desired logo image as a GIF image.  Unfortunately, the software didn’t like GIF images.  So, what kind did it like?  JPG format was the preferred format.  So,I brought in the right file format.  When the image was imported into the program it appeared to shrink from a very large size in the image file to 1/4 inch high.  The program had a difficult time trying to identify some of the characters.  It lost some detail.  So, what was going on?  After I thought about it for a while, it turns out that the default for my paint program was 92 dpi.  That was fine for websites, but not to good for interpretation by Embroidery software.  Once, I figured out what was going on, I changed the scale to 600 dpi and selected the largest font that was available 288 pt.  After these adjustments, I created my logo again.  This time, the Embrodery software had not trouble identifying the characters.  In fact it was pretty flawless.  We generated a test with the new image and everything worked beautifully.

MrWes logo on blue shirt

Once we worked out all the kinks the finished product was exactly what I was looking for.  Now I know that a 600 dpi jpeg image is exactly what an Embroidery machine is looking for.  I also learned that while you’re working out the details of an image, you might want to have your laptop handy to make any last minute details.

MrWes logo on green shirt

Great Job

Within hours of submitting my design,  I was able to wear the final product.  I plan to wear these shirts all the time.  In fact, I’m already planning on having a few more made.  It turns out embroidery is pretty affordable.  Thanks you Double Stitch for helping me get the end result I was looking for.

The Results

I started wearing my shirt right after I received it from the shop.  Without even thinking about the message I was sending out to the public.   To my surprise, a cashier at Home Depot started up a conversation about social networking and Twitter.  That was really cool.  I’m already getting the results, I was hoping for.

Till next time,  Don’t forget to Follow Me @MrWes

Twitter background

Making the background image was easy

It wasn’t too hard to create my Twitter background.  I used Paint.Net with layers to create this one.  I loaded the main picture to the bottom layer.  In case you didn’t notice, this was an image from my recent hiking trip to Lake Chabot in Castro Valley.  I created a second layer for the text.  It took a little while to get the text to look the way I wanted it.  Then I saved it.  It took a few tries, because the first time, the picture wasn’t scaled properly.  I ended up with the focus being zoomed into the upper left part of the picture.  I went back and changed the dimensions of the picture to about 20″ wide, then resaved it.  This brought most of the picture into focus.  For wider screens I’m sure it will look normal.  I’ll probably do 17″ next time.  I’ll probably do a little more experimentation with the image size and the background color.

Font selection was the hardest part of the image

It took me longer to figure out which font I would use than it did to generate the image file.  For the font choice I was going for a specific look that says,”This is Wes Johnson”  I initially created 117 various combinations of Font families, boldness, and capitalization.  I picked my 3 favorites from the list, then I had some others pick our their 5 choices out of the 117.  I am still amazed that there was unanymous agreement on the Font family and capitalization to use.  I chose the font that is on the picture above.  I’m sure I’ll update the image in the future or at least add more personal marketing info.  In the meantime, I think this image will work fine.

Till next time, visit my Twitter profile and follow me @mrwes