Re: [Gimp-user] enhance logo for large print

[Steve Kinney <admin pilobilus net>]

On 12/24/2015 10:43 AM, Jernej Simončič wrote:
> On Wed, 23 Dec 2015 09:10:26 +0100, carvar wrote:
>
> > > Ask whoever designed the logo to give you the original vector file.
> > Big help :)
>
> I'm serious - the only way to "enhance" it is to redraw it, and it's
> probably cheaper to just ask the designer for the original.

Jernej is right:  A logo "wants to be" a vector graphic file,
because over its lifespan it may be used in many contexts (four
color printing, offset printing, silk screen, laser engraving,
etc.), and at many scales (anything from package labelling to book
covers to outdoor signs).  A vector file such as an SVG one can be
scaled, rotated, etc. as needed and just "dropped into" any other
art in progress, or supplied to any shop from a printer to a sign
maker for use by them.

Whoever originally created the logo "should have" given the source
file(s) to the logo's owner; it is possible that the client was
given these files and promptly lost them.  It may not be too late to
find those files, or find whoever made the logo and ask for a copy
of it.

Failing that, I would import the image into Inksacpe and use it as a
guide to create a vector copy.  This amounts to "tracing" the
available image using closed Bezier curves, then filling the closed
curves with gradients in colors picked from the sample image.  Once
finished delete the bitmap image, save the file in SVG format, and
the logo problem is solved "for all time", or at least until the
client loses it again.

You could do essentially the same thing in the GIMP, using the Paths
tool set to re-create the logo on layers above the bitmap image you
have in hand.  Again, you would be creating closed curves and
filling them with gradients.  But the resulting source file would
not be nearly as "universal" for future applications as an SVG file
made with Inkscape.

I recently did something similar for a friend who was rebuilding
some old machine tools, reconstructing the original labels from the
best available photographs.  This screen shot somewhat illustrates
the process in progress:

http://pilobilus.net/xfer/vector-tracing.png

:o)