How to make a 'vector-grayscale' (shades of grey to a vector bitmap)

[paljasken]

I've been thinking about something for a while now, and tought "Maybe the friendly people of talkgraphics have a easy solution for my porblem".

I want to create graphic that can be printed on a T-shirt in one color. Because it's not digitaly printed but in the old way, I can only use one color and can't use grayscale. But... and here's the problem: I want the whole graphic to be vector artwork. So no bitmapping for me, I only want vectors.

In the example included you can see how I tried it, but unfortionatly, it's very time consuming and far from precise.

Does anyone have an idea how to do this in a acurate way?

I've also added the artwork I want to use this technique on.

[steve.ledger]

You are looking for vector halftoning output.
I don't know of a technique for XaraXtreme but there are small softwares that can do this.

Here's one

[steve.ledger]

I think I managed to acheive the result you are seeking with a combination of PhotoShops ColorHalftone filter, a few PS tweaks and then Xaras tracer?

The result is a pure vector halftoned image that is scalable.

If this is what you think you need I'll write up a micro-tutorial for the steps I used?

[paljasken]

Oh yeah! Thats what I need!

[steve.ledger]

ok no worries - micro-tutorial coming shortly..

[David O'Neil]

A search for 'halftone' brings up some solutions using only Xara. Here's one that is relevant.

It doesn't work for making resizeable vector dots, though.

[michaelward]

In a situation like this I would always consider outputting a bitmap.

Whilst vector is great for the original files, there is little reason to not output the vector as a bitmap at the required resolution then apply halftoning in a bitmap application.

Is there any reason why the final output can't be a bitmap?

[paljasken]

In a situation like this I would always consider outputting a bitmap.

Whilst vector is great for the original files, there is little reason to not output the vector as a bitmap at the required resolution then apply halftoning in a bitmap application.

Is there any reason why the final output can't be a bitmap?

Jup, there is! One of the possibilities with the drawing shown in the first post is making it into a huge flag. Therefor the original should be vector artwork, this way the drawing stays rasorsharp.

[steve.ledger]

I agree with michaelwards' suggestion for your final output.
The vector version can be scaled to any size you like and stay razor sharp when you output to raster (gif would lilkely be the best choice)

I quickly created the micro-tutorial describing the steps I used to arrive at the result I posted above.

See link in sig.

Hope this helps you on your way

[gnurf]

Does it have to be accurate raster? How about guest tutorial 76 at xaraxone? Use the raster technique and then trace it with the help of guest tutorial 62.