Quality Lost through Exporting

**The Orange** · #1 02-07-2009, 09:49 AM

Man! I've been designing models for Sci-Fi like crazy! Yet, every time I finish the designing phase, I go through the exporting phase I lose my confidence. My question is...

Is there a technique or option to continally keep almost the same quality I get in Pepakura. Is there a product I should buy first? I really wanna start texturing my things without losing quality!

Thanks

**PaperMakeiT** · #2 02-07-2009, 11:35 AM

My tech is to "print" to a pdf file with something like PrimoPdf (freeware). It is quite easy to choose the quality: you can print at 300dpi or even to 12000dpi. After that you have only to import the pdf in your preferred image editor.

**n810** · #3 02-07-2009, 01:49 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PaperMakeiT

My tech is to "print" to a pdf file with something like PrimoPdf (freeware). It is quite easy to choose the quality: you can print at 300dpi or even to 12000dpi. After that you have only to import the pdf in your preferred image editor.

Thats exactly what I was going to reccomend. I hav a copy of Acrobat Distiller from work and printing to PDF works great.

If you need help with it, you can always email me the PDO and I'll do the convert for you and send it all back.

**The Orange** · #4 02-07-2009, 02:29 PM

Papermakeit: I used Primopdf Freeware, at first the quality was pretty crisp when I set it to 600 dpi. After a while of using it, the pieces started to blur, badly. As in badly, I mean the outlines. When I attempted to testbuild with the textures it looked like dirt :( [I can show pictures if you guys would like to see how bad it is.]

However, does exporting through paint vector programs also bring down the quality? That might be my problem too. I print at 600 dpi, export to GIMP to open the pdf, then to Paint to texture.

Thanks n810, I really do appreciate the help, but I'd like to try do all my designing/testing. Plus, I may be constantly PMing or emailing you to convert something and you may get annoyed.

So, Acrobat Distiller, I think I'll try to find some Acrobat products today at Staples. At luck, I hope I find something :-X

**PaperMakeiT** · #5 02-07-2009, 04:19 PM

It sounds weird that something is working well and then suddenly not. Try to check the resolution each time you print to pdf. Look at also at printing options in Pepakura: you can set several things there.

The quality remains the same along the chain pepakura -> pdf -> gimp -> paint.

Pepakura has a limited size to textures, check if you are going over it. Try also to export only the outlines and then add the textures directly in Gimp (I do this).

**The Orange** · #6 02-07-2009, 09:32 PM

I've been doing what you've listed. :-\ It's actually been a while, about 2 months ago, I tried exporting some templates, and they had bad qualitiy. My problem is the lines, I don't want to spend over an hour trying to go over them.

I'll try again but alter some options.

**PaperMakeiT** · #7 02-08-2009, 03:55 AM

If you want you can send me the file and I see where the problem is. Then you can do it by yourself.

**nothing** · #8 02-08-2009, 08:17 PM

ive had this problem to so any step by step instruction would help a couple of us.

**Barry** · #9 02-08-2009, 09:04 PM

pepakura prints very well so I use rubbish paper and scan it into the paint package it's crude but effective.

**nothing** · #10 02-09-2009, 11:54 AM

what file format is prefered for making the textures?