Vinyl plotter software Flexi 8

I bought a plotter about 6-7 months ago and I haven't had a lot of time to mess with it. I had issues with the needle cutting crooked designs, now that I haven't messed with it in months I have forgotten how to use the program.
 
I can cut vector logos and text fine but if I have a jpeg logo I can't cut it. It just cuts the size of the jpeg and I get a square. Is anyone familiar with this program or know how to convert my jpeg logo to vector? Thanks!

Realistically you will only want to cut vector logos, thats whats going to give you the best results.  You will want clean smooth lines.  Trying to cut a JPG is not going to work that well at all as you have found out.    You can try some of the programs out there that will "auto trace" jpgs (illustrator, corel, etc), however you will find that will not always work well either and you will be forced to recreate all/parts of some logos.      

Thanks! The jpeg that I am trying to cut is black and white if that makes a difference? I used to know how to trace the jpeg in the program but I don't remember.   There is a help section in the program but it wasn't clear on how to do it. I'll keep trying! Is there any easy way to make my jpeg a vector image in photoshop or illistrator?

open it up in PS and select it as a smart object. it will trace a loose vector over the image that you can edit and clean. should work out good since its just B/W.   you can copy that smart object to ill, too.      

--------------------------------------------- Originally posted by Jance Customs Thanks! The jpeg that I am trying to cut is black and white if that makes a difference? I used to know how to trace the jpeg in the program but I don't remember.   There is a help section in the program but it wasn't clear on how to do it. I'll keep trying! Is there any easy way to make my jpeg a vector image in photoshop or illistrator? ---------------------------------------------Black and white for sure helps it, but it still depends on the quality of the original JPG.  As Zach said you can do like he said in photoshop and help clean it up sometimes, other times if the quality of the jpg is bad you will be forced to recreate it if you want it to be more accurately the customers logo.  Often over the years ive seen alot of people try to do "auto" tracing of horrible JPGS and they end up not the customers true logo.  Idealy the customer would provide you with a vector of their logo in a perfect world.  Sadly its rare.  LOL. So I wouldn't always say there is a "easy way".  Its a case by case deal really.

As brant said, you need to have anything that you send to your plotter in a vector format. Your getting just a box cause there is no data in the jpg file that tells the plotter where to cut, so it's just doing the outline and calling it a day. If your in Flexi, hit CTRL+F and it should toggle Fill mode, which will show  you all the line work. that's what the plotter is going to read. Now as far as converting your black n white Jpg image to a cutable file, you have a couple options. one of the popular ones was already mentioned and thats using a program like Illustrator of Corel to do a trace on the image. You also have the option of opening the image in photoshop, select all The black areas and go to your Paths tab, then at the bottom of that window there is a button that says "make work path from selection", click on that and it'll convert everything you selected to a path, now that's the same as having a vector image imbedded in your photoshop file. Now you can go to File>Export>Paths to Illustrator and export just the cut lines to an AI file that you can now open up in Flexi or whatever software you choose to plot with... Hope that helps you out a lil bit and maybe gives you another option when it comes to converting and getting a file ready for a plotter... good luck 

Edited: 2/2/2009 5:47:50 PM by Jance Customs

Thanks for the help guys! A lot of helpful information that will come in handy! I learned a few tips which are always good to have. Thanks again! :TUP: