# How do I prepare an image for contour cutting on Illustrator9.0 or Coreldraw12



## chipperg (Mar 10, 2008)

I'm not sure my previous post said what I wanted it to.
I create artwork on Adobe Illustrator which I now want to print onto subliflock and then contour cut.
What do I have to do to my image to make it ready to cut the outline?
Please help me.


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## helix-2000 (Nov 6, 2007)

What type of cutter are you using?


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## chipperg (Mar 10, 2008)

I got the cutter from ebay. It's called cutok and has laser registration. The software is called cutok master.
I know it's hardly a known cutter but it's worked very well for text and shapes drawn in it's own software.


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## helix-2000 (Nov 6, 2007)

Sorry. Have not heard of CuTok Master. Hopefully someone else in the group will be able to provide the answer to your question. Is there not any directions with the software that talks about contour cutting?


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## qnerve (Dec 12, 2007)

chipperg said:


> I'm not sure my previous post said what I wanted it to.
> I create artwork on Adobe Illustrator which I now want to print onto subliflock and then contour cut.
> What do I have to do to my image to make it ready to cut the outline?
> Please help me.


Make another layer in illustrator on top of your drawing. Rename it to "outline".

Then with the pen tool trace the outline of the image. Making sure you're still on the "outline" layer.

Close the path, choose "no" color, for both fill and outline.

Hide the main image you just traced. 

You're now just left with the outline.

Save as EPS file, open it with Corel. Choose hairline.

Print, then Print with preview, place the outline upper left corner (in my opinion.)

then press the print button.

I don't know how you would place the printed image onto your plotter though.

That should help a little though. Don't commit to the steps above until you've tweaked them, is my recommendation.


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## chipperg (Mar 10, 2008)

Briiliant, thanks Rene. I shall give that a go and let you know if I have success.
And also thank you for your responses Carl. As I said, the cutter came from ebay and came with little instruction for the Cutok software.
Is there a way of getting an outline of an image without having to trace it as some of mine are quite tricky?


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## qnerve (Dec 12, 2007)

chipperg said:


> Briiliant, thanks Rene. I shall give that a go and let you know if I have success.
> And also thank you for your responses Carl. As I said, the cutter came from ebay and came with little instruction for the Cutok software.
> Is there a way of getting an outline of an image without having to trace it as some of mine are quite tricky?


Well, I would need to know if your image, within illustrator, is in an "expanded" state? (I'm assuming it's a vector.)

or are the paths not merged yet?


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## qnerve (Dec 12, 2007)

chipperg said:


> Briiliant, thanks Rene. I shall give that a go and let you know if I have success.
> And also thank you for your responses Carl. As I said, the cutter came from ebay and came with little instruction for the Cutok software.
> Is there a way of getting an outline of an image without having to trace it as some of mine are quite tricky?



Well, try this: Assuming your work is expanded (if not, select all and expand it, then merge it with the pathfinder tool, under the "windows" menu.)

Make a square with fill and outline on. Give it a color so that you can see it. Arrange and send it to back.

Select all.

In the pathfinder click divide.

then ungroup, while all is selected.

then select on an empty space so that nothing is selected.

then start selecting every object that pertains to the image and delete them. (save a previous version of your image.)

You'll be left with the square and the outline within that square.

Select it (the square) and turn fill and outline 'off'. You won't see anything until you select all (ctl - a) 

With the square selected right click and choose 'release compound path'.

select the outer outline of the square and delete it. 

You should now be left with only the outline of your image.

To open it with corel from there, save as eps.



Mess with that.


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