F.A.Q.

Can you show me the right and wrong way to create die struck art?

When using Illustrator, it's important to press Ctrl+Y, which will change your view from Preview Mode to Outline Mode (press Ctrl+Y again to toggle back to Preview Mode.) This will show you the underlying structure of your art, which is what we use when machining your die.


	In this example art, it becomes obvious in Preview Mode that there are several issues. First, there is no separation between the colors. As no metal borders have been designed into the art, there is no way to separate the colors from each other. Also, the text is in a serif font and is too small and detailed to be made into pockets where white or black enamel could be used to fill in color.

	When we look at the art in Outline Mode, we see that in addition to issues above, there is also a problem with overlapping lines at the top and bottom of the hockey sticks.

	When overlapping lines are corrected, the Preview Mode image looks no different from before.

	However, it is clear from the Outline Mode view that much work has been done to eliminate the overlapping areas. But there is still much work to be done to create a die from this art. The fonts will need to be changed to make the text work in a die, and borders need to be created between all colors.

	Finally, we have an example of this art having been fully corrected in its design in order to be die struck. As you can see, the font is less detailed and is now raised metal instead of colored enamel fill. And there are now pockets for each color and borders between different colors.

	Here, you see the final art in Outline Mode, showing the end result of all of the work.