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Font ID and colour match advice to assist inlay design for CPC addon (due to awol designer) (1 Viewer)

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drdr

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Hello fellow Chippers, and perhaps font nerds.

Am going to order a three denoms add-on to my CPC set. But as the previous prominent inlay designer has gone awol, I'm facing prepping the inlays myself. Was hoping can get ordered before the January price increase. I figure it can't be too hard... right? My 11 year old did a half year Photopea course and she did well. So simple... riiiight?

Three steps/queries I have:

1) The previous final inlay .ai file provided seems very small (1.01 mb) for six denoms and the inlay image quite pixelated when zoomed in. This normal? I ask because the mock jpg has a very crisp non-pixellated image and i'm not sure how that is possible based on the .ai file.

2) Inlay background is a gradient matched to chip's base colour. For the new denoms, is it as simple as using a colour picker tool to apply/replace the colour (hoping gradient stays automatic)?

3) Finding out what the heck the font is. Anyone recognise from pics below? Or am I being silly and editing software will know and I just change the denom numerals?

Aaaaah. Right. Made an attempt to do some of the above myself... didn't go well. May be better to hire someone else?
/Feel free to laugh at me too, don't mind entertaining you all.

DenomSnip.png
 
Vector files are very small, since they are not like photo files…just math.

The jpg made from the vector file may have been created in low resolution, or enlarged and cropped, which would make it more pixelated.
I’m sure it will print smooth.

Matching colors between inlays and chips is always a challenge, as most inlays use CMYK printing and chip colors are dyes and colorants.

The typeface might be Garamond, but I can confirm later when I get home, it looks the same as the original Bellagio denoms.
 
Also, if the image on the inlay was originally a photo, it may not print the same way the denom does. If you want to send the file to me, I can review it. Send me a PM if you want to share the .ai file, I’ll give you my email.
 
Colquhoun said:
Also, if the image on the inlay was originally a photo, it may not print the same way the denom does. If you want to send the file to me, I can review it. Send me a PM if you want to share the .ai file, I’ll give you my email.
Click to expand...
Very kind, C. May take you up on it. But delayed as is midnight here and work is in the morning.
 
drdr said:
That's a cool tool. Thanks.
I'm not picking the difference between the two. Seems EB is an open source version but otherwise intended to be identical?
Click to expand...
Yah... subtle differences for sure. To my eye maybe a little more swoop and bulge on the 5 for the Adobe Garamond. That and the $35 for the Adobe version.
 
Update. Reached out to CPC but David states J5 only provides a 'print file'. He explained the .ai file J5 provided to me has the fonts converted to graphics and background embedded, so those elements cannot be individually edited. Also said the font is not Garamond. Huh.

As such CPC can't/won't do the inlays for the addon chips. David did recommend someone who may help recreate the art.

Normal for designers to provide files that can't be easily modified?
 
drdr said:
Update. Reached out to CPC but David states J5 only provides a 'print file'. He explained the .ai file J5 provided to me has the fonts converted to graphics and background embedded, so those elements cannot be individually edited. Also said the font is not Garamond. Huh.

As such CPC can't/won't do the inlays for the addon chips. David did recommend someone who may help recreate the art.

Normal for designers to provide files that can't be easily modified?
Click to expand...
Yes, this is normal. Printers don't have all the fonts, so all text is converted to outlines when creating print files. This is a requirement for CPC.

FYI - Also CPC is correct the font is not Garamond it is Adobe Garamond bold
 
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drdr said:
But normal to withhold editable files from the client (me)? Maybe varies by designer?
Click to expand...
Sorry added aditional information above. It isn't so much as withholding editable files, sometimes modification are made that can't easily be done without converting text to outlines. Not saying it was done in this case, also I don't typically send editable files unless requested.
 
Okay. Dived back in to attempts to fix the situation myself.

Found that with Inkscape I am easily able to change the gradient background colour. I'll use the PCF thread that provides the colour formula of each clay colour to achieve colour matching. Seems it may also be easy enough to replace the denom text too.

Quick question. CPC should be able to use .scg rather than .ai, right?
 
Huh. Think I've done the inlays!

Struggling to know if the colour matching of background to base clay colour is right. Not sure how I'd verify.

Didn't need to change denom text. Addons were all fracs, so simply deleted $ and inderted c symbol.
 
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drdr said:
Huh. Think I've done the inlays!

Struggling to know if the colour matching of background to base clay colour is right. Not sure how I'd verify.

Didn't need to change denom text. Addons were all fracs, so simply deleted $ and inderted c symbol.
Click to expand...
It’s very difficult to match a color on an inlay with the clay because they are manufactured very differently. Inlays are usually printed with CMYK inks, and the chips are made with a mixture of colorants and dyes. And trying to match it on a RGB computer screen only compounds the issue.
 
Colquhoun said:
It’s very difficult to match a color on an inlay with the clay because they are manufactured very differently. Inlays are usually printed with CMYK inks, and the chips are made with a mixture of colorants and dyes. And trying to match it on a RGB computer screen only compounds the issue.
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Yep. Seems like that beyond the use of recommended CMYK values of each CPC clay there's not much to do but pray to the chip gods.

Two of the three inlay backgrounds I colour matched look right. One does not, but that could be due to the monitor or my colour vision.
 
I think I'll make kind of a last note.

With a little Google investigation it turned out relatively easy to use free software to update previous 'uneditable' inlays to suit the new chips. Three hours of bumbling but probably only take an hour accounting for the learning curve.

Given that, it seems surprising a premium chip manufacturer wouldn't/couldn't help.
 
drdr said:
With a little Google investigation it turned out relatively easy to use free software to update previous 'uneditable' inlays to suit the new chips.
Click to expand...
It all really depends on how well structured the inlay file you have is.

If you have well defined layers already converted to outlines, then you can easily just delete them, re-do the text, and reconvert it to an outline.

If all you have is a .png/jpg, good luck. You’ll just get some random algorithms trying to recreate the image into a vector file with no information on what’s underneath the text.

I’d assume David is reluctant to share files due to not wanting others to recreate customs from other people without the consent of the original owner. Or the files are deleted after a while and he doesn’t have them at his disposal. That’s why it’s always good to have your own version if you’re paying for a service rather than rely on them again in the future.
 
I did some matching using the provided values. Most came out well, gray did not.

You got what you need?
 
warma said:
I did some matching using the provided values. Most came out well, gray did not.

You got what you need?
Click to expand...
Drat on the gray.
Colour matching Light Blue has me worried. The colour looks quite different (more muted and gray) than in the CPC designer tool.
But this is probably my fault for not having a colour sample chip for this colour. Wait, that's not quite true; my custom set has a chip with light blue spots. I guess I'll take a closer look.
 
drdr said:
Drat on the gray.
Colour matching Light Blue has me worried. The colour looks quite different (more muted and gray) than in the CPC designer tool.
But this is probably my fault for not having a colour sample chip for this colour. Wait, that's not quite true; my custom set has a chip with light blue spots. I guess I'll take a closer look.
Click to expand...
Do NOT use the CPC design tool as any reference.
 

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