Things to Remember When Designing a Stamp

This is a quick checklist for anyone who wants to make a stamp. This can be applied to people making a self-inking stamp, wood mount stamp or seal. If you have a logo in mind, select the parts of the logo that give it its basic shape. For example, if the logo is illustrated like a bow and arrow with a blue background. Delete the blue background and make the box and arrow black. If the logo is text, make the text black. If the logo is a picture or image. Convert the file into a vector drawing. This depends on the image of the logo, there are two ways to do this.

Drawing the Image:

• Lock the image in place to keep it from moving.
• Draw on top of the image with the anchor pen tool. Edit the drawing with the anchor points to make the drawing more precise.
• Use the new pen drawing for the stamp. Only draw with one colour for you to know what the stamp is going to look like.

Image Trace the Logo:

• Select the image.
• Go to Windows>Image Trace. Select Preview in the corner of Image Trace to show you what the logo might look like.
• You can go to preset values under Preset. The Black and White preset is a suggested value to choose from. Open the advanced tools and edit the Paths, Corners and Noise for the logo.
• Just remember to select the following to keep it easy:
  Method: Abutting (Create Cutting Paths)
  Create: Fills Checked Off
  Options: Snap Curves To Lines and Ignore White
• On the toolbar at the top, select Expand. This will convert the logo into a vector object.
• Afterwards, you can edit what can be used for the stamp. By either selecting the anchors you want to delete by using Select Anchor and Delete or the Eraser Tool.