Help explain this embroidery result?

[engineer]

For better or for worse, I decided to try out Vistaprint for a single white polo shirt for me with our logo (see my avatar, less the green background) on the left breast. I and my co-workers are pleased with it, however they prefer a black shirt.

So I ordered one more for a co-worker, black with the logo colors reversed (white KGA) ... this time Vistaprint filled in the negative space G with black thread, instead of just omitting thread altogether. Why did they do that?

Unfortunately I can't seem to determine for sure exactly which files I uploaded to their site. Not sure if I sent .AI files, or .PNG, or 1 of each (which is prob the case - I def was doing some guessing on the 1st one, & still some guessing on the 2nd one)

Did I "flatten" (whatever that means)? Or not flatten?? (when I should have)

Help! Thank you!

[garricks]

Originally Posted by engineer

Unfortunately I can't seem to determine for sure exactly which files I uploaded to their site. Not sure if I sent .AI files, or .PNG, or 1 of each (which is prob the case - I def was doing some guessing on the 1st one, & still some guessing on the 2nd one)

Did I "flatten" (whatever that means)? Or not flatten?? (when I should have)

Tough love here, dude.

If YOU don't know what you did or didn't do, how the pancake are WE supposed to know?

[Buda]

In embroidery, your black is considered on. Your negative space is considered off. So if you embroider black onto a white shirt, it looks correct. But if you decide to inverse the colours, you also need to inverse the artwork.

Think of it as using a stencil or a rubber stamp. If you ink up the stencil black onto a white wall it looks fine. But if you use the same stencil on a black wall and spray white paint onto it, it's going to look inverted.

[garricks]

And while I'm all ranty, THIS is EXACTLY why I work with local printers and suppliers instead of some nameless, faceless internets site.

I have a rep. Someone I can call and talk to, yell at, and threaten to maim, by name. Someine I can ask what happened when something goes wrong, and someone I can call BEFORE I set up the job to find out HOW I should set it up.

THAT is a PROFESSIONAL graphic designer's workflow.

Thus endeth the rant.

[Buda]

Well, yeah. You cannot replace a real printer relationship.

[engineer]

Originally Posted by garricks

Tough love here, dude.

If YOU don't know what you did or didn't do, how the pancake are WE supposed to know?

I thought there might be something in what I posted that would be an obvious giveaway as to what I did wrong, possibly without you knowing whether I uploaded an .AI or .PNG file. I was wrong.

[spacecadetglows]

i agree with the others, but you can always call a vistaprint representative or shoot an e-mail. you might not get an informative response, but it's worth a shot. it does seem odd.

my understanding is they embroidered the white (positive space) correctly but ALSO embroidered the black (negative space) of the file?

make sure the negative space of the G isn't actually a positive space in your original files.

[engineer]

Originally Posted by Buda

In embroidery, your black is considered on. Your negative space is considered off. So if you embroider black onto a white shirt, it looks correct. But if you decide to inverse the colours, you also need to inverse the artwork.

Think of it as using a stencil or a rubber stamp. If you ink up the stencil black onto a white wall it looks fine. But if you use the same stencil on a black wall and spray white paint onto it, it's going to look inverted.

My .AI file has no graphics at all where the negative space G is. So, I "think" it seems reasonable that no thread should be embroidered there, regardless of colors ... ?

In other words, when I changed the black KGA to white, I still had no graphic object where the negative space G is.

Now ... if I did upload a .PNG file (still trying to determine that; I apologize for not knowing yet), could it be that Vistaprint decided to determine the bounds of my negative space G all on their own? The left and right sides are obvious since there is a K to the left and an A to the right, but it appears that they decided on their own to stop the top & bottom of the black negative space G filler thread even with the top & bottom of the K and A, which is OK, and logical ... but of course we want no thread in the G at all.

[engineer]

Originally Posted by spacecadetglows

i agree with the others, but you can always call a vistaprint representative or shoot an e-mail. you might not get an informative response, but it's worth a shot. it does seem odd.

my understanding is they embroidered the white (positive space) correctly but ALSO embroidered the black (negative space) of the file?

Correct. They did that on the black shirt. Whereas they did not do that on the white shirt.

Originally Posted by spacecadetglows

make sure the negative space of the G isn't actually a positive space in your original files.

There is no graphical object where the negative space G exists.

[Designia]

I don't know if the file format matters because they will convert it to an embroidery file format such as .sew.