I have a design that we are using for a screen-printed T-shirt for my
company.  The design is basically all done, except for an effect. 
Essentially, we are wanting the screen printing to look weathered or
distressed.  For example, here is a shirt that American Eagle sells
that has the "look" we are looking for:
http://www.bestsharing.com/files/ms001132512/1199_2455_100.jpg.html
Our design is nothing like theirs, but the distressed look is the
same.  So, in any event, I have the design all done in Illustrator,
but I have been unable to find an effect or filter that could do this
weathering for me.  Is there a way to do this that I don't know about
or maybe someone else has a filter that I could use.  Any help is
appreciated!

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 27 Sep 2006 13:21 PDT

Howdy tnsdan-ga,

Could you please look at the following two tutorials and see if that answers
your question.  If it does, please tell me and I will post it as such.

"Creating in Illustrator CS2 Tips - Vintage Texture Effect"
http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/1278/1/Creating-in-Illustrator-CS2-Tips---Vintage-Texture-Effect

"Tip: The Worn/Weathered/Stamped Look"
http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed/archives/how_to_create_a.cfm

Thanks! denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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Request for Question Clarification by denco-ga on 27 Sep 2006 13:36 PDT

There are also these.

"Distressed Designs for T-Shirts"
http://www.screenweb.com/index.php/channel/3/id/2976

"Distressed Patterns"
http://experts.about.com/q/Adobe-Illustrator-1027/Distressed-Patterns-1.htm

"Grunge Construction"
http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=127

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

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Clarification of Question by tnsdan-ga on 27 Sep 2006 17:20 PDT

I think I can make that work.  Too bad there isn't an off the shelf
pattern or effect that can do it automatically.  Nonetheless, go ahead
and post as the answer, as this is definitely doable.

Thanks so much!

Howdy tnsdan-ga,

Much thanks for accepting this as the answer to your question.

On further searching, I think I have found that "off the shelf" solution that
you want, courtesy of the U.S. Screen Print and Inkjet Technology website.

"Distressed Images With Corel, Photoshop, and Illustrator"
http://www.screenprinters.net/downloads/overlays.php

"Adobe Illustrator
- Go to EDIT - PLACE, and then select the distress.tif file.
- Move tif to cover graphic.
- By default, tif will open with a fill color of black. Change the fill to
white, or any non-printing color.
- To change the look you can distort the file, rotate it, use multiple copies,
etc, etc."

As they put it, "That's it!"

The "distress.tif" file they mention above can actually be one of four (Very
Fine, Fine, Medium and Large) image files that simulate a distressed look, and
can be downloaded from the above website's downloads page.
http://screenprinters.net/downloads/

"Just when we thought the Distressed Look would go away, it seems to be bigger
than ever. It has gone from Main Street stores like Old Navy, The Gap and
Abercrombie to your average customer and school asking for it. These four
Overlay files give you a variety of random distressing to the image."

All four image files and the "README" file can downloaded from this link.
http://www.screenprinters.net/downloads/Distressed.zip

Here are the links already mentioned, with a couple more that I found.

AdobeTutorialz - "Creating in Illustrator CS2 Tips - Vintage Texture Effect"
http://www.adobetutorialz.com/articles/1278/1/Creating-in-Illustrator-CS2-Tips---Vintage-Texture-Effect

FontShop - "Tip: The Worn/Weathered/Stamped Look"
http://www.fontshop.com/fontfeed/archives/how_to_create_a.cfm

ScreenWeb - "Distressed Designs for T-Shirts"
http://www.screenweb.com/index.php/channel/3/id/2976

About.com - "Distressed Patterns"
http://experts.about.com/q/Adobe-Illustrator-1027/Distressed-Patterns-1.htm

iStock - "Grunge Construction"
http://www.istockphoto.com/article_view.php?ID=127

Virginia Tech - Technology Education Program - "Paths of Least Resistance"
http://teched.vt.edu/gcc/HTML/VirtualTextbook/PDFs/AdobeTutorialsPDFs/Illustrator/IllustratorPathLeastResist.pdf

If you have FontLab in addition to Illustrator, there is this.

U.K. Computer Arts - "Distress your fonts"
http://www.computerarts.co.uk/tutorials/2d__and__photoshop/distress_your_fonts

If you need any clarification, please feel free to ask.


Search strategy:

Google search on: weathered OR distress OR distressed Illustrator
://www.google.com/search?q=weathered+OR+distress+OR+distressed+Illustrator

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Thanks so much for the extra work it took to find the off the shelf
answer for me.  One of the many reasons I love GA!

My pleasure tnsdan-ga, and much thanks for the 5 star rating and generous tip.

Glad to have been of service.

Looking Forward, denco-ga - Google Answers Researcher

Print using a laser printer and 'melt' it on (obv. got 2 print the
image flipped) if done right you should end up with a weathered look
due to the nature of the printer.

NB. same tech. used for producing pCB's