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im working one a couple designs, mainly using photoshop 7.0, but i also have illustrator cs and corel draw 9.
the problem i keep running into is, i cant figure out how to get rid of some of the rigidness on images and text to prep it before screen printing. (ex: when i zoom in to say 200% all edges are ruff and not smooth looking)
can anyone give me a lead to finalize my designs that make them ready to print. im pretty unfamilar with the vectors although ive tried reading about rasterizing, and bitmaps, my understanding is that vectors are what you want.
Import your drawings from PS to Illustrator and run the LIVE TRACE, you may have to use the pen tool to tweek the lines, but I find if I play with the LiveTrace setting enough, I come pretty close. Do a google for LIVE TRACE VIDEO TUTORIAL, some free ones out there show how to do it quickly...
Vector is preferable, but if your artwork is high resolution (200dpi+) at actual print size it should look okay. Raster artwork will always look crappy at 200% zoom... but it's not printed at 200% it's printed at 100%, so it doesn't really matter what it looks like at 200%.
How does it look at a distance of three to five feet, printed at 100% on low resolution holding fabric? That's how it's actually going to look when printed.
Ryan while live trace will convert your image to vector there might not be a need to trace given the raster art is up to par. You mention at a zoom level of 200%, you see the pixelation?
#1 If the art is at print size
#2 At least 200 dpi (from start)
If resolution and print size are correct and the use of high mesh frames (230 possibly 196) the edges will most likely smooth out when printed.
There would be minimal distortion from the original image unlike tracing to vector's.
Vector Help 
