03-28-2005, 07:35 PM

I need a little help from anyone who can use photoshop. My grandmother and her son gather and sell maple suyrup around this time every year. Well she asked me to design a new lable for them as there old one were not that great looking. I need some help making it look better. I got the general stuff i want on it there but i need it to be readable. The max size it can be is 2 inches in diameter. While color would be cool it is not necessary.

The first attachment is of my first designs. I like, and my parents do also, the one with the maple leaf in the background.

The second and third ar the originals i used to create the design

The biggest problem i have is that the text is fuzzy and unreadable. Can that be fixed?? The address on the bottom is 8573 Remlinger Rd. Crestline, OH 44827 (419) 683-2164 so that you can work that into the design.

Anything you guys come up with would be great!!

Thanks

Here is what i came up with:

03-29-2005, 03:50 PM

Can anyone give me some pointers in the right direction.

My problem is that when i minipulate the text it becomes really hard to read!!

Any help would be greatly appreciated!!!

Thanks

Oh, the pic of ohio has a transparent background, and the one that says Ohio Maple Syrup Lables.pdf is the document that has the example i came up with.

03-29-2005, 04:06 PM

First I would recomend NOT doing your text in photoshop... that is not what it is ment for. Use illustrator or Indesign or Quark for text/copy.

Second there are a ton of good books out there on how to use Photoshop correctly.

Or third, you could always hire a graphic artist like myself to do it for you and your grandma would have the best label in Ohio!

I can even print the labels for you!

03-29-2005, 04:19 PM

Originally Posted by MickMAC

First I would recomend NOT doing your text in photoshop... that is not what it is ment for. Use illustrator or Indesign or Quark for text/copy.

Thanks for the suggestion.

I have used Photoshop before at school but that was only an entry level class...and now that i think about it we never did use text in the pictures we were editing.

I told my grandma that i could whip up a rough idea and then she should send it to someone to be done properly. She never did answer me.

So, since you do this kinda stuff MickMAC, how much does this kinda stuff usually cost. The circle is 2in in diameter, the disign is all black (although color on the "Pure OHIO Maple Syrup" would be kinda nice). These need to be on lables so they can be pealed off and put on the bottles.

Sorry for the questions, just trying to find this stuff out for my grandma.

Thanks

03-29-2005, 04:39 PM

I will send you a PM

03-29-2005, 05:31 PM

Im sick still, if I'm around tonight, I may give it a try.

03-29-2005, 05:46 PM

Originally Posted by Macman

Im sick still, if I'm around tonight, I may give it a try.

Sorry your sick. I was too all Easter weekend and i am just now getting over it.

Thanks for taking a stab at it.

03-29-2005, 08:20 PM

I'm not feeling too good, but here's a quick one, all in illustrator, I just recreated the ohio shape ion illustrator. its an awful lot of type to fit on such a small cap.

03-30-2005, 12:06 PM

That looks really good Macman.

I'll show that to my grandma and see what she says. I think she will like it.

With the way that turned out i think i will have to play with illustrator at school.

Thanks

03-30-2005, 02:39 PM

Make sure you sign up for vector works for next semester. I"m currently taking this semester, and it's come in very handy.

03-30-2005, 06:48 PM

Yea, Illustrator is much better than Photoshop for text. I look at the Creative Suite like this:

Photoshop: For editing photos and fancy text effect

Illustrator: when vector atwork/text is necessary, some layout (Illustrator isn't that handy for output for press).

Indesign: For taking everything you made in illustrator and photoshop and putting it together for press

GoLive: Web layout, I personally don't like it

Acrobat Pro: Really cool software, convert anything to a PDF (just abt.), as well as some new and exciting multimedia capabilities.


In case they didn't teach you in your photoshop class abt. raster and vector, here is an easy guide. Raster images are made up of pixels. They are "photos" like what you'd take from a camera. Vector images/text is made up of two points with a line drawn between them. Their advantage: they can be blown up a gazillion times and still be perfectly clear. Photoshop deals with photos, vector is done w/ illustrator.

Unless your dealing with photos, don't use photoshop. (although photoshop filters can be really cool on text, remember that it is still raster based.)

03-30-2005, 10:58 PM

Thanks for the quick lesson.

I am going to spend some time at school and mess with illustrator a little.

Thanks

03-30-2005, 11:20 PM

no problem, lol. I think I've trained about 30 friends unoficially on the Creative Suite. I even made a few videos on my PC by recording the screen movements.

prostuff1, what kind of software do you currently have/ have easy access to?

03-31-2005, 11:58 AM

I can mess with quite a few/all of the Adobe products at school. but they are older, older versions. The digital art side of the art department gets left out a lot and i still think they run on Photoshop 6. We are finally getting tyhe transition made to OS X but that also requires more memory in the computers and so on.

We just got in a shipment of eMacs and i think there was one left over so i am going to try to set it up in the tech admins office and mess with it while i aid for him. I should be able to put all the new stuff on that computer.

I also use Photoshop CS at home but besides that program that is about it.