Create a deliverable vector from a hand-lettered sketch

Getting Sketches Onto the Computer

Option 1: Scan
For me, I’ve found the sweet spot to be 600 DPI when scanning in my lettering. It’s a nice sweet spot for resolution and file size. I hardly ever find myself needing any higher resolution, and the file size isn’t bad at all. You may want to check the settings on your scanner to see what adjustments and resolutions are available and try out different ones to see what you like
Option 2: Take a photo
Believe it or not, the majority of the lettering I end up digitizing came straight from my iPhone camera. With Photo Stream enabled, the pictures I take of my lettering are on the computer within seconds. I didn’t even have to think about it, or wait for the scanner to warm up! I recommend turning on your camera’s grid view to help keep things straight, but even if it’s a slightly crooked, that’s nothing a little Photoshop can’t fix.

Digitally Preparing Sketches

Crop your image
Get rid of unneccesary space and objects in your work space. Crop your image to create a workable layer you feel comfortable with.

Hint: Remember to use the Ruler/Guide tools to create a well aligned image.
Add a levels adjustment layer
One of the first things I do is add a Levels Adjustment Layer. This is going to give us a good idea of what Live Trace will be seeing, which can help you better prepare the image for conversion to vector
- Layer > New Adjustment Layer > Levels
- Underneath the histogram, you’ll see 3 triangles. This upper set of triangles for the input is what we’ll be adjusting (no need to use the lower pair of triangles controlling output)
- If there’s any paper texture visible, I’ll pull the white triangle to the left (decreasing the value) until any paper texture is completely gone and cleared.
- If the sketch I’m working with is inked, I can usually just nudge the black triangle to the right (increasing the value) to give it richer blacks.
- If I’m using a pencil sketch, I may drag the middle gray slider to the right (decreasing its value) to darken the mids and bring out the neutral led-colored grays a bit more.
Touch up your scan with Photoshop
With the Levels adjustment boosting the lights and darks, we have a pretty close idea of what Live Trace will be seeing. If there are any imperfections that I am unhappy with at this stage, I use a combination of the following tools in Photoshop:
- Clone Tool (S)
  - If you’re working with a large quote, you can Clone one better looking word or letter onto another area.
  - You might see a part of a letter that came out better that another, and you can use the Clone Tool to splice one particular piece
- Spot Healing Brush Tool (J)
  - This is mostly useful for super fast, little cleanups. Let’s say you have an inked letter you filled in by hand, but you missed filling in a spot. Just brush over it real quick with this tool, and it’ll fill it in smartly.
  - I use this a lot with specks on the paper. Maybe I took a picture of my lettering and there were still bits of my eraser scattered on the page. If I leave them, they’ll be picked up in the Live Trace, which I don’t want. With the Spot Healing Brush, it’s as simple as single-clicking the specks to make them disappear.
- Brush Tool (B)
  - The good ol’ trusty Brush. In cases where I want a little more control and don’t feel as comfortable leaving it up to the Clone or Healing tools, I’ll simply add two blank layers above my artwork and name them “Black” and “White”. With the Brush tool, I’ll paint in white or black where ever I see fit to perfect the piece. This is usually much easier to correct in this stage because when you convert to an Organic Vector, the large number of points that make up the rough-textured look are quite difficult to maintain or adjust.
Add a textured background to your image
Let’s say you want to mockup your lettering onto a cool, textured background you have. Well, the lettering you scanned in is black on white, right? The most common approach is to set the image of lettering on its own layer with a blend mode of Multiply. The problem is, one you’ve set your blend mode to Multiply to get rid of the white background, there isn’t a very easy way to color the lettering. If you add a Color Overlay, it doesn’t quite work like you’d expect it.

Here’s how I get it to work:

Set your lettering layer to Multiply
Create a new layer above the lettering

Hold down Option/Alt on your keyboard, and click the separator line between the two layers.

This will indent the above layer, indicating that its will only apply to the content of the below layer.
Set the blank layer’s blend mode to Screen

You can now paint in this layer and watch as the color is applied exclusively to your lettering

Alternative, you can fill the entire layer with any solid color, and give the layer a Color Overlay (be sure to set this blend mode to Screen as well).
Changing this Color Overlay will give you a quick and easy live preview for testing your lettering in different colors.

Creating Organic-Style Vectors

Open your sketch in Illustrator
Since I am typically editing my lettering in Photoshop beforehand, I will typically just grab a Copy Merged of my Photoshop document (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + C), and paste that into a new Illustrator document (Cmd/Ctrl + V)

You could also locate your image in a file browser, and Right Click > Open With... > Illustrator

Lastly, you can open the image as a New Document from within Illustrator (File > Open...), or import the image into an existing document (File > Place...)
Use live trace to sharpen your image
Make sure your image is selected with the Selection Tool (V)
- Find the Live Trace button on your toolbar and click the small arrow to the right of the button, then click Tracing Options...
  - You can also access this by going to Object > Live Trace > Tracing Options...
  - I highly recommend setting a keyboard shortcut for Tracing Options:
    - Edit > Keyboard Shortcuts...
    - Select “Menu Commands” instead of “Tools” from the second dropdown
    - Drill down on Object menu to select Tracing Options under Live Trace
    - I set mine shortcut as Cmd + Shift + T
  - Once in Tracing Options... be sure to check the box next to “Preview” to be able to see the effect of your changes before applying the trace.
Edit vectors with Illustrator tools
- Live Trace Different Parts at a Time
  - With complicated artwork, you might sometimes have areas of illustration or fine detail that would render better with different settings. In those situations, I would first focus on the simpler parts of the image, such as the solid letters, and trace. I remove the shapes that didn’t turn out as well, and re-import the image. I would again do a Live Trace, but adjust the settings to best fit the problem area. Simply remove the bits you already traced in the first pass, and piece the good elements together.
  - Masking or cropping specific areas of your image beforehand in Photoshop can save you the trouble of having to delete shapes later in Illustrator after you run a Live Trace.
- Roughen
  - If the resolution of the image you’re working with isn’t high enough to give you the detail you’d like, or maybe you simply want to introduce more texture, you can use the Roughen filter. However, there’s a bit of a trick to get an extra level of detail out of it.
  - First, you’ll want to scale up your vector. Somewhere around 200%–300% larger than the largest size intended.
    - If you’re working with precise sizes and need to make sure you’re able to resize back exactly, use Transform to specify exact dimensions (Window > Transform)
  - With the artwork scaled up, go to Effect > Distort & Transform > Roughen...
    - I find that zooming in close before pulling up the Roughen filter can help you better see the effect when Preview is turned on
  - I like to switch the radio button from Relative to Absolute
  - Depending on how large you scaled up, you’ll typically want to set the Size to something quite subtle around 2px–5px.
  - Experiment with increasing the Detail slider, but don’t go too high. If the detail is too fine, you won’t be able to notice when we scale back down. Also it will introduce a ridiculous amount of vector points that can make things sluggish at times.
  - When you like the result, hit OK.
    - Currently, this filter is applied as an effect. If you were to scale down at this point, the effect would readjust itself to the smaller size—which we don’t want.
  - To preserve and apply this effect, you need to Expand Appearance (Cmd/Ctrl + Shift + E or Object > Expand Appearance)
  - Now you can scale the vector back down to the intended 100% size and admire that tasty texture.
- Skewing
  - For the longest time, I could not figure out how to effectively skew a single corner of a vector. I knew how to achieve this in Photoshop, but I couldn’t get Illustrator to do anything but scale. That is, until I discovered a somewhat hidden feature of the Free Transform Tool.
  - Select your vector, then choose the Free Transform Tool (E) and follow these instructions carefully:
    - Click and HOLD on any corner or side anchor on the bounding box of your selected vector(s).
    - While holding, press Cmd/Ctrl on your keyboard. If done correctly, your cursor will change from the resize icon to a small triangle.
    - With the mouse and Cmd/Ctrl held down, you can drag to skew whichever corner or side you selected.
    - If you hold down Shift in addition to this whole combination, you can constrain your movements strictly to the X and Y axes.
Adjust your live trace settings
Live Trace Settings (CS5)
- Threshold
  - Controls the boundaries between black and white pixels.
  - I usually stick to a Threshold value of 128, and if the letters are are coming in a bit too thin, I will try increasing it to up around 140
- Blur
  - A Gaussian Blur is applied to the image in the pixel amount specified. This can help soften unwanted rough edges.
  - Your Blur amount doesn’t have to be a whole number. It can actually contain a decimal point, allowing you to use fractions of a pixel.
  - It depends on the resolution of the image you’re using, but I usually like to apply just a hint of Blur with an amount of 0.6 pixels. For images with a very high resolution, I may apply anywhere between a 0.8 up to a 2 pixel blur in most extreme cases.
- Path Fitting
  - Specifying a low pixel number such as 1px for Path Fitting will make the trace very tight to the silhouette of your letters. As you increase this number, say, to 4px, the trace will be more loosely fit to your image, as it will only adhere to your shape every 4 pixels.
  - If you enter a value of 1px, the trace will fit to every pixel at whatever resolution. However, as with Blur, you can use less-than-whole pixel amounts.
  - My favorite trick: Setting the Path Fitting to 0.8px or 0.9px. This has the unique effect of giving the trace a very nice texture. Just that hint below a full 1px fit is enough to introduce some slight irregularities that come out beautifully in print.
  - Keep in mind, that if you go too far below 0.8px you will start to accentuate the pixelation which doesn’t look very nice at all.
- Minimum Area
  - If you have small areas of detail in your image, you’ll want to pay attention to this setting.
  - For areas that you do want to keep, make sure to decrease the pixel amount to an area that is lower than the smallest detail you want to keep.
  - In the case of details or specks that you do not want to be included, simply ensure that the Minimum Area pixel amount is larger than the unwanted detail size.
- Corner Angle
  - Unlike the previous settings, this value is not a pixel size, but rather an angle amount. Angles that are determined to be above the value you enter here will be rendered as corner point as opposed to a smooth curve.
  - Depending on the other settings you have, changing the Corner Angle may have little to no effect. To best notice the effect this setting has, try first putting a good amount of Blur, and also increase the Path Fitting pixel amount. With both of these having values of a few pixels or higher, you’ll notice Corner Angle have more of an effect
    - Try toggling between the two extremes: 0 degrees and 180 degrees
  - I usually like to keep this value very low, if not at 0 to really sharpen up the corners in my letters.
- Ignore White (Checkbox)
  - Unless you have shapes inside your letters that you want to preserve and further manipulate, you will typically want to check the Ignore White box. This will keep Live Trace from giving you a bunch of white shapes inside and outside your letters, and instead provide only the black shapes of the letters.
Save a live trace preset
Save a Preset
- Funny enough, Live Trace in Illustrator CS5 actually comes with a “Lettering” preset. Of course, I much prefer to customize my own settings.
- Once you’ve tweaked the values to get a result you like, be sure to save a preset! When working with different projects or images of differing resolution, you’ll usually find yourself tweaking the settings. Saving and using presets will promote consistency in projects where you are digitizing more than one piece.
Image Trace Settings (CS6)
- In Illustrator CS6, Live Trace is now called Image Trace.
- I’m just going to be straightforward with you: I don’t like Image Trace in Illustrator CS6. I have intentionally stayed on CS5 for this very reason. I’m going to do my best to still provide guidance for working within Illustrator CS6, but if you’re still on CS5 and digitizing lettering is something you consider to be a significant part of what you do, I would refrain from upgrading at this time.
- CS6 delivers a new rendering engine and reworked settings to go along with it. The supposed "upside” is that it does a better job of converting full color photographs to vector (hence the new name). All in all, this is true: Image Trace in CS6 certainly is “smarter” when it comes to rendering photographs, and the new interface is more simplified.
- The bad news is that this simplification does away with a very crucial part of my digitization approach. Let me explain:
  - Path Fitting (CS5) is now called Paths (CS6)
  - Instead of pixel values, Paths now uses percentage-based values—Low to High, 0% to 100%. Where smaller pixel values previously meant a tighter fit, now a higher percentage means a tighter fit.
    - Remember that partial pixel trick of using 0.8px for the Path Fitting value to get the unique texture I use? It’s practically a staple of my digitization style, but it will now no longer work:
    - A value of 1px in Path Fitting (CS5) is effectively 100% in Paths (CS6). In CS5, you could go lower than 1px with a decimal point (i.e. 0.8px). However, you cannot achieve the same effect in Paths (CS6) because it will not allow you go above 100%. Entering a percentage value greater than 100% manually will automatically get reverted to 100%.
- Here’s the gist: If you want finer control for digitizing lettering, stay on CS5, or get a standalone copy of Illustrator CS5. If you’re ok with the simplified controls, Illustrator CS6 can work.

Creating Precise Vectors

Place guides
Placing Guides
The primary point of guides is to ensure uniformity in your vectors. Turn on Smart Guides (Cmd/Ctrl + U) so your points will snap to your guides.
Create vectors with the pen tool
- Using the Pen Tool
  - If there is a golden rule, it’s this: The fewer points you have, the smoother your lines will be.
  - Focus on point placement
    - Place your anchor points at the extremities. Find the outermost spot on a curve and place your point there.
    - A good exercise is to first go through your entire piece and simply place the anchor points. Don’t even worry about pulling out bezier handles initially. Focus on where the points should go.
    - With all of your points placed at the extremities, grab the Convert Anchor Point Tool (Shift + C), and start pulling out your curves on each anchor point.
    - It’s easy to get distracted by bezier handles as you go and then make bad decisions on where the next anchor point should be. This anchor-point-first practice will help you focus on proper placement first, and curves later.
    - Once you get the hang of it, you’ll be able to look ahead and project where you next point will be, and create your bezier curves as you go.
Create vectors using shapes
Using Shapes
- You can sometimes save time by starting with basic shapes and further manipulating as needed. If you notice that the structure of a letter is generally based on a circular form, you could begin with a shape created with the Ellipse Tool (L). Similarly, if your letter contains rectangular forms, the Rectangle Tool (M) can be a good starting point as opposed to clicking four times with the Pen Tool to make the same shape.
- Make sure your vision informs the tools you use and not the other way around. If you are setting out to create geometric type, then by all means embrace the inherent geometry the tools have to offer. But don’t let the use of shapes oversimplify what nuances and optical adjustments may be necessary to realize your vision.
- While many typefaces are categorized as geometric, very few, in fact, are actually purely geometric without slight alterations to compensate for visual suitability. There are numerous optical adjustments and tweaks that are necessary for proper optical balance. For instance, in order for certain strokes to appear correctly weighted, they may actually need to be ever-so-slightly thinned.
- As you develop an eye for type, you’ll learn to rely less on rigid measurements and more on your typographic eye. Properly crafted letters are not reliant on exact measurements and geometric shapes, but rather optical balance and typographic intuition.

Additional Resources

Blend Mode Keyboard Shortcuts
For further reading, see: http://ilovetypography.com/2009/01/14/inconspicuous-vertical-metrics/

Caleb Sylvest

Designer, Developer, Maker of Things

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