| 1> | | | | have a thickness applied to make them suitable for |
| | | | rubber stamp making. |
| Have you ever wanted to avoid mass produced | | | | Complex drawing and illustrations can also be made |
| stamps and have a stamp that was totally custom | | | | into rubber stamps, these may not contain many lines |
| made? | | | | and look more like photographs. It is best to send a |
| Learn what type of artwork is suitable for rubber | | | | few different options of these to your stamp |
| stamping.Create your own images or locate clipart | | | | manufacturer, one option would be to increase the |
| that can be made into rubber stamps, learn which | | | | brightness of the image then convert the bitmap to |
| clipart file formats are best to send to rubber stamp | | | | a simple black and white image. Here it is best to |
| manufacturers. | | | | select a rubber stamp manufacturer that is familiar |
| By following a few simple guidelines you can save | | | | with these types of images, see below |
| money by creating rubber stamp artwork that a | | | | recommendations. |
| stamp manufacturer can download without any | | | | File Formats |
| design input, stamp manufacturers love it when | | | | All images that enter your computer have an |
| artwork arrives that is ready’ for | | | | extension relating to what format they are in. You |
| production. | | | | may have an image from a scan, a clipart disk or |
| You may currently be paying $12.00 for an | | | | downloaded from a clipart service. Some are .eps and |
| unmounted, mass produced stamp in the shops, | | | | .wmf files (Vector line format more common for |
| buying the same size stamp direct from a rubber | | | | logos or line drawings) and others jpeg an .gif (Bitmap |
| stamp manufacturer will be about $9.00 and be | | | | pixel photos and illustrations). |
| custom made for you! | | | | Both image formats can produce excellent stamps, |
| The following design guidelines assume that you have | | | | however simple images are always best in .eps and |
| scanned a drawing into your computer or have | | | | .wmf format to allow you to easily manipulate line |
| located a piece of artwork and imported the image. | | | | thickness in the event the lines are too thin. |
| Design Guidelines | | | | Online Clipart Services |
| The easiest stamp to make from a manufacturing | | | | There are many online clipart services that provide |
| point of view is one where the artwork has a line | | | | excellent clipart for rubber stamping, the best images |
| thickness that does not fall below the minimum | | | | are from services that are subscription based that |
| required. The minimum line thickness that is | | | | charge a yearly or per image fee. If this does not |
| recommended is 0.2mm (0.00787 inch or 0.57 point), | | | | suit and you really want to save money you should |
| if it does fall below this, the wall strength’ | | | | find out which service your rubber stamp |
| of that part of the stamp is compromised and may | | | | manufacturer belongs to, it costs nothing to search |
| become distorted. Having said this, you can convert | | | | through the clipart service that he belongs to as he |
| an image with fine lines to one suitable for stamp | | | | will be the person downloading the images. This bit of |
| making. | | | | lateral thinking and finding the right manufacturer will |
| Computer programs work with image data in a | | | | save you lots of money because you will never have |
| number of different ways, for example programs like | | | | to pay for the clipart. is one of the best services |
| CorelDraw work with both Vector images (lines) and | | | | that some manufacturers subscribe to, I estimate |
| Bitmap images (pixels), CorelDraw is also the | | | | that over 3 million images at are suitable for stamp |
| preferred program for making rubber stamps from | | | | production and they are fine with manufacturers |
| images. | | | | using the images for rubber stamps. |
| When scanning a drawing into your computer it will | | | | The craft stamp industry is very large indeed and |
| always load as a bitmap image, (a bit like a | | | | most people are still buying stamps that are mass |
| photograph in a newspaper). This can be sent directly | | | | produced because they don’t know how to |
| to a stamp manufacturer as long as it is a black and | | | | get a custom made’ stamp manufactured. |
| white scan and the line thicknesses do not fall below | | | | So if you are into card making or scrapbooking and |
| the minimum. If the lines are too thin you can | | | | want to find that special stamp’ you |
| convert the bitmap image into vector data by | | | | should find yourself a manufacturer, it doesn’t |
| applying a trace to the image. Programs that have | | | | matter where they are in the world as unmounted |
| tracing ability place a vector line around the lines or | | | | stamps are thin and lightweight and can be posted |
| can be set to follow the lines, these lines can then | | | | easily. |