Hey y’all. I am looking for someone who can make a file for me. I need a nautical map of the Eastern NC coastline. Attaching a couple of pics for reference. I tried to do it myself and it didn’t go great. The board I want to do this on is acacia but I understand it will look better on a lighter wood. Trying hard to find one! Time is of the essence, her bday was today and I need to make it tomorrow. Just need a file… If anyone can help, pls shoot me a message! I need to do these tomorrow, if possible! Can’t afford to pay more than $10 for the file, I’m sorry! Appreciate any help!! Thanks
1 Like
I can only engrave, btw… no layers. No extras. Just engrave on a board. Thank you!! 
I don’t think you’re going to find anyone who can do that for you for $10.
Making maps is time consuming.
I think your best bet would be to look for a file someone is willing to sell… although I honestly don’t think you’re that likely to find that.
Other than that you might get more help from folks in learning how to make the file you’re looking for… although it sounds like you’re under some time pressure =P
Good luck!
8 Likes
I’m not asking someone to make me a map. Just convert an already made map into a file so I can engrave it.
What you’re asking is not just a simple “convert”.
I have dozens of hours invested in “converting” the best data I could find into a form suitable for engraving. It’s a private community with limited data available. I’ve made some products from it, but every time, I still find something else to tweak.
If you’re lucky, you might find a clean file that would work OK, but in-general, it takes quite some effort to modify files to make them suitable for engraving.
7 Likes
By your username I’m sure this must be you:
Two things:
One, nice site and photos.
Two, you know how much goes into post processing of a photo, and you have the skills. You’re probably as fast as anyone here, and you know that $10 is really low for that much effort.
So your best bet is definitely going to be to just do it yourself. There have been many guides as to how to prepare a pic to engrave. Check out #9:
Good luck, it’s never fun to have to rush these things.
8 Likes
Yes, that is me and thank you. I have already tried to do it myself and it didn’t turn out like I had hoped.
I know nothing about nodules, etc… so I figured this would be the place to ask. Apparently not! My apologies. What I did to engrave this map took me probably about 10 minutes. I certainly wasn’t asking anyone to spend hours on something for me for $10. People sell files for $2 all day long on Etsy. I actually thought I was being generous if someone had the know-how and was willing to help.
The difference there is many people paying 2$ each pools in a large sum of money over time. It’s also a gamble as to whether or not it becomes worth it.
Also, the quality is very hit or miss…mostly miss with those.
It’d be like a large portrait that you’ve spent time fixing focuses, blurs, color corrections, removing objects, and someone offering 10$ for it and saying, a ticket to see it in a gallery is only 10$.
As a photographer artisan, you know there’s a point when it’s no longer the time it takes to do a job but the experience someone uses to do it quickly that’s valuable.
5 Likes
This is a great place to ask!
Folks here are just trying to explain why you’re likely not going to be able to find someone to do custom design work for that rate.
One more suggestion might be to try: https://snazzymaps.com/
You can pretty quickly create a stylized version of any Google Maps view… e.g.,
Maybe that would give a good starting point.
Cheers!
8 Likes
My suggestion on how to do this is load that bitmap map into photoshop and do a color selection of the black. Then delete that (now the text is gone). Now you can use a dropper to pick up the exact yellow, and using the paintBrush set to 100% opacity, paint over the holes the text has left. There will be places where this is a pain as the letters are over some tiny detail and you’ll be zoomed in to 1600% to tweak the paint over. This last part is why nobody is doing this for cheap.
Once you have a clearance bitmap you can either engrave as a PNG (probably want it black and white where the yellow is the black) or bring into vector program of choice and trace the yellow.
This is one of those teach a man to fish situations.
Or alternately you can google and simply get a premade vector like this and crop it to your size of choice.
4 Likes
This topic was automatically closed 32 days after the last reply. New replies are no longer allowed.