How Do I Change a Picture's Lines to Red and 0.001 pt?

[Guest]

Hello, I'm a substitute instructor for a lab that utilizes laser engravers. I have Illustrator CC 2017. I have a simple puzzle outline that I would like to convert to something my engraver reads. I need the lines to be red and have a weight of 0.001 pt. I have spent about 20 hours researching how to do this. I don't know much about Illustrator, but it seems like this should be a simple task. I have attached the picture of the puzzle outline to this post. Can anyone help me out?

[Monika Gause · Accepted solution]

You need the stroke panel and the swatches panel.

set up a new swatch (spot color or whatever you need - read the engraver documentation) and name it "red" or set up the correct color (-> documentation). Apply the color to the strokes.

Set the line width in the strokes panel.

If the stroke width is set to some other value, uncheck the option "align to pixel"

[John Mensinger]

joeydudley  wrote

I need the lines to be red and have a weight of 0.001 pt. I have spent about 20 hours researching how to do this.

20 hours? Surely in that amount of time you must have come across How to apply strokes in Illustrator. I just found it in a few seconds. It would help to know what you've tried and what did or didn't happen when you tried it.

I suspect some other problem is in play here. Are you sure that's a vector graphic?

[Guest]

https://forums.adobe.com/people/John+Mensinger  wrote

JoeyDudley   wrote

I need the lines to be red and have a weight of 0.001 pt. I have spent about 20 hours researching how to do this.

20 hours? Surely in that amount of time you must have come across How to apply strokes in Illustrator. I just found it in a few seconds. It would help to know what you've tried and what did or didn't happen when you tried it.

I suspect some other problem is in play here. Are you sure that's a vector graphic?

I think I got it. I did come across that link, but I had to convert the image to vector first. I didn't know how to do that, inasmuch as last week was the first time I had ever used Illustrator. I did an image trace as line art and expanded it. Then I followed Monika's steps.

[Kris Hunt]

> 20 hours

I would have kept that part to myself...

[Guest]

Haha, I probably should have. I was getting frustrated. I have degrees in advanced mathematics, but I have never in my life used Illustrator or Photoshop before last week. It's not something I want to learn, inasmuch as I have much better things to do with my time (and I will likely never use them again), but I wanted to be able to help the students who have copious questions. From my research, there doesn't exist a complete step-by-step guide to taking an existing jpeg photo and changing it into lines that a laser engraver will recognize.

[Test Screen Name]

Ah, the really crucial part wasn't the recolouring (though it may have seemed it) but the converting bitmap to vector. I can see why you'd see it as just a block on recolouring though - this is a very common type of question. For engraving and some other technologies a very vital one...

[Monika Gause]

JoeyDudley  schrieb

I have degrees in advanced mathematics,

In that case you could assist your students in teaching them how Bézier curves work. So there's a lot of knowledge a mathematician has to offer in this field 🙂

[Guest]

I actually would love to do that. There is a ton of math involved, but most of the students are in Algebra II. It might be a bit much for them. I tried to make the connection of integrating curves and how that is essentially what shading an area under a curve drawn in our various software is doing. There were a lot of blank stares, haha. I am actually learning a lot now that I know how to make this ready for the engraver. I wouldn't mind taking some courses on it and teaching a more advanced course utilizing engravers and 3D printers. I could even work with math instructors and develop an integrated curriculum. I think that would be fun!

[jane-e]

I love this idea! Once you get the course developed, think about marketing it as a book or as an online course though one of the major online training companies, such as lynda.com.