How To Recreate PF Artwork using Photoshop (PS) and Illustrator (AI) the Atari_Daze way

Most of what I’m going to cover is covered by VID1900 in his awesome and lengthy restoration topic but I figured I’d post my method for this in a single topic.
Over the past couple of restoration projects, I’ll be approached by a Pinsider asking how I did this or that, I felt if one person asked, there might be a couple more interested. So here is one way to do this.
I’m a complete amateur who does not use these tools daily. Thus, there are likely more efficient, better ways to go about this. This guide assumes one has the basic knowledge set for scanning and editing images and is using Photoshop and Illustrator.
This guide is for insert text and keylines but the principles would hold true for graphics also, those would be just a little more involved.
We start with a scan of the insert we wish to work on. This one is in black and white, but one could work in color.

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Once the scan is cleaned up, i.e. the surrounding areas are trimmed out, I create the keyline. I typically completely re-create a keylin based on the scan, starting with just finding a brush tip slightly wider than the scan. In this case, a 12.

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Now simply draw your keyline with the pen tool. Make multiple points at which you can make the rounded corners using the convert point tool, and then stroke your path. The example below shows but a few of the points, but it should provide enough guide to finish going around the shape and creating the new line. I’m working from an example I have long finished so I will be ‘fast forwarding’ in many cases.

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What comes next is where Vid would say, separates the men from the boys. Could one use this to print waterslide decals, sure, but often w/o the next steps in AI, the output could be choppy, grainy and downright ugly. Here is where Illustrator comes to use. (it might be able to be used to create these shapes and things but again my limited level of knowledge has had me develop the method in which I’m illustrating)
Save the .psd and open it in AI. Then TRACE the image, this converts the file to vector format.
Once traced, EXPAND the image.
Then you can separate each line by UNGROUP.
Once un-grouped, each line, arc and curve etc can be smoothed for that perfect finish that the scan could not achieve.
Using the DIRECT SELECTION TOOL, one can see all the little points that are currently making up your shape before using the smooth tool. Again, THIS example was already smoothed once so it is essentially already done.

Once smoothed to personal satisfaction, I will save the .ai file and then export back to a PSD file.
This will allow me to use it back in PS and scale it w/o problems.

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Once the shape is done, I can focus on the TEXT, this gets fun! (no, not really)
Font matching: There are online tools and even a built-in tool in Photoshop that might help, my experience is that trial and error proves more accurate. I’m not going to go through the entire process of the trial and error just know I start at the top of the loaded fonts and then just go one by one until I find as close a match as possible.

For this example, it seemed that SWISS 721 was a close match. From there, I simply play with the text height, width, spacing, orientation etc until I’ve fine tuned the loaded font to match the desired result.
This example shows the final adjustments had a 20pt size, spacing was 60, height of 85%, width of 95%, color black obviously.
Ok, once I’m happy with the font, it’s time to take it back to AI.

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Using the same methods as above, save as .psd, trace, expand ungroup etc, we can see the font becomes fouled!

WTF, it was created in PS and then imported into AI, both Adobe products but alas, it now no longer passes muster. So, I no longer go through this step, I go to my process below:

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Again, perhaps there are better ways to do this, but I’m not that smart. SO, I simply RETYPE my text matching the formatting I found in PS, in this case, vertical text, Swiss 721, 20PT, 85% high and so on.

Save file as .ai, export as .psd or .png. Dealer choice.
NOW we can open the files in PS and finally make our waterslide decal for this ONE.
This is also where if the text or image was to be used to cut a template via your Cameo or Cricut, we would export as a .dxf file that the cutter could directly open. (Topic already covered elsewhere on Pinside)
Use the keyline image for others of the same size, reconstruct your text on other inserts and then put the two layers together in PS for export of a .png file for your sheet of water slides.

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That’s all there is to it. Feel free to ask any questions about the process I may have skipped over. Feel free to make suggestions on how to more efficiently use these two tools. I’ve highlighted how to do this with pay tools like PS and AI. You may have free tools you use that can be explained by those folks that have them.
Happy Restoring

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Well the seller of paper I was using appears to not be selling anymore.
ebay.com link: str
I'll be trying more sources on the next project.
As far a printing, after ruining multiple sheets of the stuff with the printer I had (nice little Samsung color laser) I just started taking my stuff to FedEx Office.
Color runs like $1.00 / sheet and black is like $0.18 or something ridiculous like that.
I think the repository idea was killed before by the copyright snipers.

As I mentioned, I simply dunno how.
I've spent hours and hours learning this method. I'm sure one day I'll figure out more tools in AI but hey, it works.

I use the preloaded fonts in PS. Then the various characteristics are adjusted to match the original font.
You may have to Youtube tutorials on how to use PS, that is what I do when I don't know how to do something in that often complex tool.