screen printing and graphic design

[SinkingtheShip]

Hi,
This is my first post in this forum so I wasn't sure where I should post this.
Anyways, I just started doing graphic design for a screen printing company. Now, one of my clients has brought in a t-shirt with a design they want me to duplicate. My question is how to get the design by itself, clean and ready for print without having to worry about the t-shirt color in the background. Should I just trace it with the pen tool? If so, could I get some tips for that? I already have the image scanned in.
Thanks a lot.

[SinkingtheShip]

sorry,
I should mention that I use adobe photoshop and illustrator both cs2.

[CkretAjint]

Duplicating a design already printed? Isn't that on the illegal side???

I would scan it and trace it by hand to get the best results.

[Kool]

Pen tool is the way to go but some other designer hold the copywrite on that design so you can't just recreate it.

[Virgo Nightingale]

one of my clients has brought in a t-shirt with a design they want me to duplicate.
Sounds a might fishy...

[Danger_Mouse]

"Duplicating a design already printed? Isn't that on the illegal side???"

Only if its their own image or own/have permission.

where I use to work we had clients get us to do that all the time. client would have printed on some apparel, but be too lazy or unable to get digital file, so they bring in what last ran.

As long as it's their image its totally ok.

[CkretAjint]

"Duplicating a design already printed? Isn't that on the illegal side???"

Only if its their own image or own/have permission.

where I use to work we had clients get us to do that all the time. client would have printed on some apparel, but be too lazy or unable to get digital file, so they bring in what last ran.

As long as it's their image its totally ok.

I totally agree. But it seems odd that they don't have the art work on hand or can get a copy of it... I mean they like it so much *shrugs*

[Drawing a Blank]

...Should I just trace it with the pen tool? If so, could I get some tips for that? I already have the image scanned in.
Thanks a lot.

I am trying to understand what you need here. Do you not know how to use the pen tool in Illustrator or do you not know how to go about tracing somthing?

[Workshy]

Leaving aside the legality of this we get a lot of these at our screenprint shop.
For a one color design we would cahnge it to grey scale and play with levels to remove background color.
Import to illy.
Use auto trace.
Then use drawing tools (pen, pencil, smoother) to make nice smooth vector image.
If it is a multi color takes a bit more work but similar process really.
Have found this gives better results than using photoshop mainly because us screenprinters are all about the vector.

[Logo-Mechanix]

I totally agree. But it seems odd that they don't have the art work on hand or can get a copy of it... I mean they like it so much *shrugs*

You would be surprised by how often this happens, I get large organizations and corporations come in and all they can supply is a low res jpeg or gif and we have to recreate it. Now wether or not it's laziness or whatever. The best way I have found to do this is scan it in and trace it with the pen tool, to use auto trace and clean it up takes about the same amount of time from my experience.

[Seapony]

You would be surprised by how often this happens, I get large organizations and corporations come in and all they can supply is a low res jpeg or gif and we have to recreate it. Now wether or not it's laziness or whatever. The best way I have found to do this is scan it in and trace it with the pen tool, to use auto trace and clean it up takes about the same amount of time from my experience.

Ditto, particularly with big corporations. More often than not, they'll have a spec guide but no digital files because it was misplaced. Heck, sometimes they misplace the spec sheets, too.

Ah well, more work for me.

:D