Adobe Illustrator - wacom pen tablet pressure dynamics

Author

wacom pen tablet pressure dynamics

Gerard Verhoef

2005-10-07, 6:21 am

Hi,

I'm new to Illustrator. Asking this question to be sure. More often than not
I thought I understood, but was proven wrong.

Is there a way to use pen pressure dynamics in Illustrator. In my particular
case I want to digitize my signature. Using a fountain pen and scanning into
Photoshop is one way. Using my Wacom and directly drawing in Illustrator
seemed to be more direct.
Of course: the fountain pen gives me light upstrokes and more heavy down
strokes. Also in Photoshop I can get the same result with the Wacom
pen/tablet.
Illustrator seems to allow only one stroke width for each object, so the
desired effect seems to be impossible.

I guess there is a way around, tracing the Photoshop scanned image in
Illustrator, and set trace in a way that the lines of my sig are interpreted
as objects with a fill. But it would be nice to draw a vectorized signature
in Illustrator to begin with.

Excuse me for bothering you with perhaps a simple question.

Hoping someone can set me right.

Gerard

gar

2005-10-07, 6:15 pm

what you could try is actually creating the signature like you did in PShop
using the tablet to get the desired variable stroke widths on a new Layer.
Select the signature and go to the Paths palette and click on the side
arrow and select Make work Path and enter maybe 0.5 for the tolerance.
Next, with the path selected go to File, Export, Paths to Illustrator and
name.
Finally, open Illustrator and the saved Paths file and edit.

hope this is useful.

Gary W. Chmura

"Gerard Verhoef" <Gerard_Verhoef@Hotmail.com> wrote in message
news:9Gp1f.960$as3.168@amstwist00...
> Hi,
>
> I'm new to Illustrator. Asking this question to be sure. More often than
> not I thought I understood, but was proven wrong.
>
> Is there a way to use pen pressure dynamics in Illustrator. In my
> particular case I want to digitize my signature. Using a fountain pen and
> scanning into Photoshop is one way. Using my Wacom and directly drawing in
> Illustrator seemed to be more direct.
> Of course: the fountain pen gives me light upstrokes and more heavy down
> strokes. Also in Photoshop I can get the same result with the Wacom
> pen/tablet.
> Illustrator seems to allow only one stroke width for each object, so the
> desired effect seems to be impossible.
>
> I guess there is a way around, tracing the Photoshop scanned image in
> Illustrator, and set trace in a way that the lines of my sig are
> interpreted as objects with a fill. But it would be nice to draw a
> vectorized signature in Illustrator to begin with.
>
> Excuse me for bothering you with perhaps a simple question.
>
> Hoping someone can set me right.
>
> Gerard
>

Gerard Verhoef

2005-10-07, 6:15 pm

"gar" <bdchmura@cogeco.ca> wrote in message
news:X0s1f.2702$49.1205@read1.cgocable.net...
> what you could try is actually creating the signature like you did in
> PShop using the tablet to get the desired variable stroke widths on a new
> Layer. Select the signature and go to the Paths palette and click on the
> side arrow and select Make work Path and enter maybe 0.5 for the
> tolerance.
> Next, with the path selected go to File, Export, Paths to Illustrator and
> name.
> Finally, open Illustrator and the saved Paths file and edit.
>
> hope this is useful.
>
> Gary W. Chmura
>
Thanks Gary,

This is indeed something I was looking for.
I'm going to experiment with this some more, using different tolerances etc.

Until now, the indirect method of fountain pen, scanning and using trace
(really wonderful in CS2!) gives the best results. Perhaps because I have
more control on the fountain pen, than using the Wacom pen. Also the
fountain pen produces different shades of blue, besides different widths of
the stroke.

Thanks again, I learnt a lot today!

Gerard

Laura K

2005-10-07, 6:15 pm

"Gerard Verhoef" <Gerard_Verhoef@Hotmail.com> wrote in
news:kOt1f.9$Ef6.3@amstwist00:

> Until now, the indirect method of fountain pen, scanning and using trace
> (really wonderful in CS2!) gives the best results. Perhaps because I
> have more control on the fountain pen, than using the Wacom pen. Also
> the fountain pen produces different shades of blue, besides different
> widths of the stroke.

Remember that Illustrator is a vector program. It doesn't put down an image
pixel by pixel like photoshop does but uses a mathematical equation to draw
an image between two points. That's why vector images can be made huge
without loss of quality.
What you need to change is how the line looks between the points in your
signature. Brushes are the easiest way to do this.
Write your name using the pencil in Illustrator. Select it and try the
different "pen" brushes to get the one you want. (Windows>Brushes>Pen) You
may need to try several different brushes to get the effect you want.
Calligraphy can make an elegant sigature. Or use different brushes on
different letters.

Gerard Verhoef

2005-10-09, 6:15 pm

"Laura K" <laurak@madmousergraphics.com> wrote in message > Remember that
Illustrator is a vector program. It doesn't put down an image
> pixel by pixel like photoshop does but uses a mathematical equation to
> draw
> an image between two points. That's why vector images can be made huge
> without loss of quality.
> What you need to change is how the line looks between the points in your
> signature. Brushes are the easiest way to do this.
> Write your name using the pencil in Illustrator. Select it and try the
> different "pen" brushes to get the one you want. (Windows>Brushes>Pen) You
> may need to try several different brushes to get the effect you want.
> Calligraphy can make an elegant sigature. Or use different brushes on
> different letters.
>
>

Thanks Laura,

That gives me a nice stylized signature, far better than my regular one.
Never thought about using the pencil first and afterwards changing to brush.
Of course I realize AI is a vector based program, but apparently that's not
in my genes yet. Perhaps working in Illustrator needs a different mindset.

Gerard