Studio V4.1 How do I Resize/Scale?

Hi DJG, what you've described is effectively the same thing that I was trying to describe myself; I just didn't explain myself properly! You can offset lines in Illustrator in much the same way, but I prefer to increase the weight of the line then outline it. You're left with two lines then, an outer line and an inner line, which I delete. The result's the same: a "fatter" letter or shape. Thinking about it, though, this could make things a bit worse, because the bole, or the hole in the letter your weeding, becomes smaller. It's the small size of the bole which is creating the problem. I think the weak tack combined with such a small surface area means that the smaller pieces of vinyl just can't hold on when the vinyl that surrounds them is pulled up. Larger letters don't give me a problem.

After I got my cutter up and running, I purchased a few champagne flutes to practice on, so in order to get rid of them I'm going to try etching monograms on them. This will enable me to use larger text. However, I think these will prove much harder to sell than what I originally had in mind. I think for the kind of work which I was planning to do I need to look at a different process. I'm still glad that I've got my cutter working, though. I'm sure there's lots of other stuff I can use it for. Some of the stuff I plan to do will rely heavily on presentation, so I think this cutter will come into its own once I really get going.

Have a look on Youtube there are loads of videos showing different things and you might find something else you'd like to create. Although most of the vids are using earlier versions of Studio the tools are the same in V4 they're just laid out differently

That's a great idea DJG, but the font isn't really in keeping with the rest of my design. Because it includes lots of curly lines, I'd need something more ornate and less functional looking. 'Tis, a good idea though!

Mick are you using stencil vinyl or just ordinary as I believe stencil vinyl is better for small detail although I haven't tried it myself. Re the offsetting have you tried just offsetting the inner parts of the letters. In Illustrator type the text, create outlines, release compound path then just do a very small offset to the inner parts before making in to a compound path again. It doesn't always give a good result depending on the font you are using but it may be worth a try if all else fails.

Hi Shirley Anne,

stencil vinyl? I didn't know that there was such a thing. When I bought my new vinyl the other day, I told the man who served me about the problem I was having and asked if there was any difference between matte and gloss vinyl in terms of their suitability. He never mentioned stencil vinyl. He just suggested that I don't work too small. I'll keep a lookout for stencil vinyl, though, and read up on it a bit.

Regarding your suggestion about offsetting the text, I think it's going to take more than just a slight increase in size to sort things out, unfortunately. I was working with 15pt type to begin with, then increased the size to 20pt. Although there was a marked improvement, it was still less than perfect. I think I need something more reliable. I'll still look into stencil vinyl and give that a go, though. However, I've been looking at other techniques, and found that professional etchers use a process which is very different. They're able to etch very small text indeed, but it's a very long winded procedure. They produce vector art work then print it off on light sensitive film before exposing it under UV light. Then they wash the film under a jet of water to reveal the stencil. After placing the stencil on to the substrate, it's blasted with tiny grains of aluminium oxide. You have to ask yourself why they go to these lengths, and the answer has to be that they simply can't get the same results, or degree of reliability, using the methods which I've been using. I think, ultimately, that those procedures used by commercial etchers are the ones I will have to adopt if I want to move forward with what I'm doing.

There is a bit of info about using stencil vinyl for etching here https://www.silhouetteamerica.com/ho...=glass-etching Mick but I think you are probably right in saying that the size of the text you are using text is probably too small. I usually don't go much below 36pt type to get a good result (dpending on the font) and I can usually cut that size on either vinyl or thin cardstock without a problem- that is the size I used on the attached screenshot. I wish you luck in your venture and hope you can come up with a solution.
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Thanks Shirley Anne, your input has been really helpful and very much appreciated.