Using shapes, lines, text for a t-shirt graphic–desperate plea for help!

E
Posted By
EBL
Jul 4, 2007
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227
Replies
5
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Closed
Hi–

I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

So-apologies to those of you who are knowledgeable about graphics in photoshop. I’d be very grateful if someone could let me know:

1. Workflow to accomplish this (each rectangle on a different layer? Each name on a different layer? Each line on a different layer?).
2. I can use the rectangle tool to make a shape. Then I can use the
f tab at the bottom of the layers to bring up the styles menu, and increase the pixels of the layer to some number to make a border. But then the edges of the rectangle are rounded. Is there another way to do this? Am I totally off base?
3. Moving on to the lines (I figured I might have more luck with them), I made a connecting line between 2 boxes. I couldn’t figure out how to get a line with a non-rounded end (I wanted two flat ends). The only options I could find were for arrows or not.

Many thanks in advance for answering my plea for help. I will be very grateful for folks who point me in the right direction!

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Mike Russell
Jul 4, 2007
"EBL" wrote in message
I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

My first suggestion would be to do what you did before, only at a higher resolution. 200 pixels per inch should be plenty for a T-shirt.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

Sounds about right.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

So-apologies to those of you who are knowledgeable about graphics in photoshop. I’d be very grateful if someone could let me know:
1. Workflow to accomplish this (each rectangle on a different layer? Each name on a different layer? Each line on a different layer?).

Set the shape tool to "Add to Shape Layer", then it’s probably easiest to create all the boxes and arrows on one layer. You will still be able to move the boxes and lines around, using the direct selection tool. The names will need to be on separate layers. If you’ll be doing a lot of moving boxes around, you may be better off putting each box on a separate layer, and lock it to the text for that layer – then they will move around together.

2. I can use the rectangle tool to make a shape. Then I can use the f tab at the bottom of the layers to bring up the styles menu, and increase the pixels of the layer to some number to make a border. But then the edges of the rectangle are rounded. Is there another way to do this? Am I totally off base?

Set the stroke to the interior of the box.

3. Moving on to the lines (I figured I might have more luck with them), I made a connecting line between 2 boxes. I couldn’t figure out how to get a line with a non-rounded end (I wanted two flat ends). The only options I could find were for arrows or not.

AFAIK the lines are square ended. If it’s still causing problems, draw a long skinny box with black fill

Many thanks in advance for answering my plea for help. I will be very grateful for folks who point me in the right direction!

Good luck!

Mike Russell – www.curvemeister.com
FS
Fat Sam
Jul 4, 2007
EBL wrote:
Hi–

I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

So-apologies to those of you who are knowledgeable about graphics in photoshop. I’d be very grateful if someone could let me know:
1. Workflow to accomplish this (each rectangle on a different layer? Each name on a different layer? Each line on a different layer?).
2. I can use the rectangle tool to make a shape. Then I can use the
f tab at the bottom of the layers to bring up the styles menu, and increase the pixels of the layer to some number to make a border. But then the edges of the rectangle are rounded. Is there another way to do this? Am I totally off base?
3. Moving on to the lines (I figured I might have more luck with them), I made a connecting line between 2 boxes. I couldn’t figure out how to get a line with a non-rounded end (I wanted two flat ends). The only options I could find were for arrows or not.
Many thanks in advance for answering my plea for help. I will be very grateful for folks who point me in the right direction!

To be honest, I wouldn’t have reccomended Photoshop for Vector art. It’s a Raster grahics package and that’s where its power lies. Sure it can handle vectors, but it’s not what it’s designed for. It’s kind of like using an electric kettle to boil an egg, or a microwave oven to dry your washing.

You’ll find the job a whole lot easier with any reasonable vector graphics package, setting a large canvas size, then exporting the entire resulting image as a high resolution Jpeg.
Even something like PowerPoint will handle the job of making a family tree easier than Photoshop, as it has a built in flowchart function.
E
EBL
Jul 4, 2007
Thanks to both of you who replied. The t-shirt guy actually recommened Illustrator. After a few more hours this morning getting frustrated with PS, I downloaded the trial version of Illustrator (should have thought of this before!), learned enough of the program, and now I have a great vector graphics file!

Thanks to all who replied. Happy 4th!

ebl

On Jul 4, 8:03 am, "Fat Sam" wrote:
EBL wrote:
Hi–

I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

So-apologies to those of you who are knowledgeable about graphics in photoshop. I’d be very grateful if someone could let me know:

1. Workflow to accomplish this (each rectangle on a different layer? Each name on a different layer? Each line on a different layer?).
2. I can use the rectangle tool to make a shape. Then I can use the
f tab at the bottom of the layers to bring up the styles menu, and increase the pixels of the layer to some number to make a border. But then the edges of the rectangle are rounded. Is there another way to do this? Am I totally off base?
3. Moving on to the lines (I figured I might have more luck with them), I made a connecting line between 2 boxes. I couldn’t figure out how to get a line with a non-rounded end (I wanted two flat ends). The only options I could find were for arrows or not.

Many thanks in advance for answering my plea for help. I will be very grateful for folks who point me in the right direction!

To be honest, I wouldn’t have reccomended Photoshop for Vector art. It’s a Raster grahics package and that’s where its power lies. Sure it can handle vectors, but it’s not what it’s designed for. It’s kind of like using an electric kettle to boil an egg, or a microwave oven to dry your washing.
You’ll find the job a whole lot easier with any reasonable vector graphics package, setting a large canvas size, then exporting the entire resulting image as a high resolution Jpeg.
Even something like PowerPoint will handle the job of making a family tree easier than Photoshop, as it has a built in flowchart function.- Hide quoted text –
– Show quoted text –
T
Tacit
Jul 4, 2007
In article ,
EBL wrote:

I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

Yep, sounds about right.

You are trying to hammer nails with a screwdriver rather than a hammer. Yes, it can be done, if you don’t mind that it will be difficult and frustrating and you’ll end up with inferior results.

Photoshop is the wrong program to be using for this. in fact, what you’re doing is about the equivalent of trying to write letters using Microsoft Excel instead of Microsoft Word. It’s not surprising you’re having problems.

Use Illustrator, not Photoshop, for this kind of job.


Photography, kink, polyamory, shareware, and more: all at http://www.xeromag.com/franklin.html
W
Waterspider
Jul 5, 2007
"tacit" wrote in message
In article ,
EBL wrote:

I’ve just gotten back from a t-shirt printer-I had made a black and white genealogy chart (simple rectangular boxes containing names connected by lines-I used an org chart software program) and saved it as a TIF file, but the text was of insufficient quality to make good t- shirts for a family reunion. The printer suggested I remake the files in photoshop so that they were vector files and would scale up well.

Well, I’ve never done much graphics stuff in photoshop (I’m pretty advanced at photography tools, tho), so I thought-how hard could it be? All I have to do is make a simple rectangular border, put some text in it, duplicate it about 40 times, connect all the boxes with lines, and I’ll be done.

So here I am, 4 hours later, and nothing to show for all my trials, except for my desk surrounded by 5 photoshop books with post-its and a bunch of tutorials printed out from the web.

Yep, sounds about right.

You are trying to hammer nails with a screwdriver rather than a hammer. Yes, it can be done, if you don’t mind that it will be difficult and frustrating and you’ll end up with inferior results.

Photoshop is the wrong program to be using for this. in fact, what you’re doing is about the equivalent of trying to write letters using Microsoft Excel instead of Microsoft Word. It’s not surprising you’re having problems.

Use Illustrator, not Photoshop, for this kind of job.
I’d use InDesign for this kind of texty project.

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