| Here are the materials that we can cut stencils from: |
| |
| Mylar - 0.19mm thick for application with spray paint, roller or stencil brush. Mylar is a flexible material that can be used over and over again and is resistant to most chemicals. |
| |
Polypropylene
| 0.8mm - for application with paint roller or stencil brush. |
| |
| 1.2mm - for application with spray paint |
|
| 2mm - for outdoor stencilling with line marking equipment |
Polypropylene is a semi-rigid material that can be used over and over again and is resistant to most chemicals. |
| |
| Depending on your artwork we'll advise what material would be most suitable. Using our own stencilized Helvetica font we can cut text as small as 25mm high in Polypropylene and Mylar. This equates approprimately to a 100pt Arial font in size. Text smaller than this will be too small to make into a stencil. |
| |
| Artwork requirements for stencil cutting: |
| |
|
Converting designs to stencils is a specialized craft (for which our design team has had 10 years experience). To ensure a satisfactory, functional product outcome we need to undertake all design work in-house. If a design has already been ‘stencillized’ by the customer and we find after cutting that it is not stable, additional design charges will apply to amend the design, and there will be a charge for the unsatisfactory stencil.
If you have existing artwork please email the artwork to us as a vector graphic (basically a "line drawing"). You can create a vector graphic by saving your artwork in the following way:
|
| |
|
Adobe Illustrator:
File, Save As..., Save as type: Acrobat PDF
|
| |
|
CorelDRAW:
File, Export, Save as type: EPS (in the checkbox "Export text as" choose "Curves")
|
| |
| You can tell whether your artwork is a vector graphic by clicking on "Wireframe" view in your artwork program. If it is a vector image it will show up as lines however if it is a bitmap image it will not change. Below are examples of vector and bitmap images. |
| |
 |
 |
| Vector images are created as collections of lines rather than as patterns of individual dots or pixels. If the graphic was created in programs such as Adobe Illustrator or CorelDRAW they will be vector images and will be suitable for cutting as stencils. |
| |
 |
 |
| Bitmap images are made up of dots (pixels). They look fine to the eye but in reality are blurry and when enlarged the design will not be exact with jagged and wobbly lines. Images that have been scanned or are transferred from a digital camera are bitmaps and are not suitable for cutting by a stencil machine. File formats that contain bitmap images include JPG, GIF & TIF |
| |
Converting to a stencil design
As most business names & logos were not originally designed as stencils there will usually be some modifications required. Any object that contains an enclosed portion such as the letters "O" & "D" will need to have bridges inserted to prevent the middle portion from falling out - see the example of the letter "O" below.
|
| |
 Regular font |
 Stencil font |
| If it is possible for the artwork to be supplied to us in a stencil format and as a vector image the cost to you will be much less. However if this isn't possible we can still create a stencil for you, it will just take a little extra time and money to convert bitmap images to vector graphics (scanning and redrawing images) and to convert images to a stencil design (inserting bridges into words and graphics). |
| |
| Email artwork to: sales@stencilgallery.com |
