outline trace a JPEG as a template???

[UserFriendly]

Actually, I just now opened it with Adobe Reader and saved to my desktop as a pdf, and then imported it into Xara Pro using the merge option.

Thanks for the tip, Ron! I'm sure that will come in handy in the future.

If anyone is looking for the font, it looks very much like 1979:
http://www.dafont.com/font.php?file=1979&text=SHEETZ

Richard

[Luciano]

Ron,
many new .ai files are just pdf files; if you rename them simply replacing ai extension with pdf, xara xtreme will directly import them.

regards
Luciano

[Fuerza]

Steveward, thanks on that keen suggestion about the Brand site. That helped alot.

Ron, as always, thanks for telling me how to open that puppy in Xara.

UserFriendly, thanks for the 1979 font. I actually learned about that about a day or so ago. The actual font I believe is Mata-condensed, but Mata isn't free like 1979. ;-)

Now, my new question is: how do I import design elements I created in Inkscape to Xara. I worked on the rays for the logo, which are more symmetrical than the originals, in Inkscape way before I started this project in Xara. I would hate to have to recreate all those in Xara from scratch.

[Fuerza]

Luciano,

I just tried your suggestion my appending .pdf to the Sheetz file I download. I attempted to open and import the file in Xara and got an error message; but when I did Ron's suggestion it worked. Perhaps you would like to try it and tell me what I am doing wrong.

[handrawn]

Now, my new question is: how do I import design elements I created in Inkscape to Xara. I worked on the rays for the logo, which are more symmetrical than the originals, in Inkscape way before I started this project in Xara. I would hate to have to recreate all those in Xara from scratch.

Hi Fuerza

PDF export from inkscape 0.45-1 imports into xarapro quite well as long as the drawing does not contain any transparency - including any transparency in graduated color, which is turned on in inkscape by default.

[Luciano]

Hi Fuerza,

the trick works only for ai files which are in fact pdf is disguise just like this one.
I renamed the file as seen on top of the picture, then I dragged and dropped in Xara Xtreme PRO 3.2 and that was all.

Ciao
Luciano

[Soquili]

An easy way to tell if an Adobe Illustrator .ai file is a .pdf file in disguise is to open it with a text editor like notepad.

If the first line is %!PS-Adobe-3.0
then it is an older file format, the numbers will be different for different versions of Illustrator.

if the first line is %PDF-1.4
then it is a .pdf disguised as an .ai file

[Fuerza]

Ron,

You said that you were able to do the lettering on the curve in about 10 minutes. I have watched Egg's video on text on a curve - super frustrating, he's all over the place with his instructions; and I've read other threads. Would you mind writing a basic list, like 1.) 2.) 3.) , of the steps to do, if you remember them. I want to be able to put the text in the shape without having to redraw the shape, as other videos have suggested. I'm trying different things but it is hard. For example, when I go to 'center' the text, it puts it somewhere that is not the center - this makes no sense why the program is doing this. Thanks...

[Egg Bramhill]

Fuerza,

Here's one that took about 15-20 minutes to create as I had to hand draw the Sheetz font.

Try pulling it apart to see how it's been constructed.

Egg

[Fuerza]

Egg,

Thanks for showing me this. 20 minutes to do all of it?!?!?! You have NO idea how envious I am that you can do it that fast. I have been working on this for DAYS!!! You hand drew the font?!?!? How the hell do you do that? I would love to learn how to hand-draw fonts that quick.

Handrawn was a real trooper in giving me some very detailed step by step instructions on how to do the curved text.

I am now finished with it - it needs some very minor touch-ups - but it looks good.

I will dissect your version Egg and see what I can learn from it. Reverse engineering is fun!! ;-)