Author Topic: Help creating my own exemplars?  (Read 1405 times)

Offline Alma

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Help creating my own exemplars?
« on: January 31, 2017, 06:19:46 PM »
Dear all,

My name is Alma. I am teaching a class at the university I work at titled Explorations in Scripts and Lettering. But I am facing a dilemma. The students would like to have a template or an exemplar, I guess you can call  it, to trace the letters from. They want to get the basic structure of the letters. A lot of them were not taught handwriting or penmanship. Hence, they feel a tad lost. I need help in how to create an exemplar. I am a designer and as dumb as this may sound, I am not sure how to create one. I know there are many for free or in books but I would like to learn to make my own. Do I draw the letters and just scan them and then make them fit on between a baseline and a mean and cap line? Or do I draw each letter separately? Any help would be appreciated!

Alma
Love learning and obsessed with typography, lettering, and calligraphy. Latin music lover and have a weakness for chocolate chip ice cream.

Offline Bianca M

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Re: Help creating my own exemplars?
« Reply #1 on: January 31, 2017, 06:44:38 PM »
Hi Alma,

I scan mine in, touch them up in Photoshop, if needed, and import each letter into Illustrator.  I arrange each one along the appropriate base line, waist line, etc. which I keep in a separate layer.  If you write the letters and scan in at the height you're going to use for the exemplar, it's easy to accurately place them on the guide lines.  For example, if I write them at a 1/4" x-height, I can drop them in on the same guide lines in Illustrator without having to resize.

I've done it a number of ways, including live-tracing my letters for easier arrangement, but live trace always seems to fattens the lines.  I've switched to selecting each letter in photoshop with the selector tool, copying and then pasting directly into Illustrator.  I forgot what I do to make sure the background is transparent, but, if it's not, you can always use the "multiply" option on the opacity to knock out the white. 

There are likely much easier methods out there, but this is how I roll. ;)

Good luck!

Offline Erica McPhee

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Re: Help creating my own exemplars?
« Reply #2 on: January 31, 2017, 09:19:42 PM »
I do similar to Bianca except I do it all in Photoshop. I use the same guidelines on a lightbox to create all of the letters, then scan it in and place them on the guidelines in photoshop on a separate layer.  :)
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Offline prasad

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Re: Help creating my own exemplars?
« Reply #3 on: January 31, 2017, 11:04:09 PM »
HI Alma,
What Bianca and Erica said are probably the best way as they are pro's and know what they are doing  :)

I don't have a scanner handy most of the time and more importantly I am not at the level to write it out well either.  Still learning.   For my practise I use exemplars that have been generously provided By Ken Fraser.

http://theflourishforum.com/forum/index.php?topic=2233.0

I do it as below:
1)  get the image of the exemplar I want.
2) Open "New File" in photoshop or any other image software you want and set page to A4
3) Use the line guides (the ruler thing) to make the x height to what I like  (e.g..5mm, 8mm....)
4) Copy , paste the image (Ken's exemplar) onto this file and resize it so that the x height matches with the guides
5) Print it

Now the images are low resolution, so the print has jagged edges.  So I, either write with a pen on top of it directly or place tracing paper on top and re-trace the exemplar.  The base is now at a size I want,  and the tracing is ready for Photocopying for multiple copies. 

But if you are going to use Ken's exemplars and are using it in the University, I think you could ask him for permission to use this.

Happy writing
Prasad
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Re: Help creating my own exemplars?
« Reply #4 on: January 31, 2017, 11:40:31 PM »
Hi Alma,

Adding my bit to all the members who have already replied.
When I need to trace any letter. I prefer to write it with Black ink, scan it at Hi-Resolution.
Import it in Illustrator and use 'Image Trace'. Once you are there open the sub-options in Image Trace and click on 'Sketched Art' this will help remove the white path behind the lettering
and give you a crisp detailed vector. Then you can place them accordingly.

Hope this helps. Let me know if you have any doubt.

-Ashok

Offline Alma

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Re: Help creating my own exemplars?
« Reply #5 on: February 02, 2017, 04:14:53 PM »
Hello @ash0kgiri, @prasad, @Erica McPhee, and @Bianca M,

Thank you so much all! This is very, very helpful! I just got my new art light pad and will be able to follow the instructions. Sometimes it is the simplest things… Thank you, thank you!  :) :)
Love learning and obsessed with typography, lettering, and calligraphy. Latin music lover and have a weakness for chocolate chip ice cream.