I am surprised that not more people do. It is a powerful vector program. I use its vectorizing feature fairly often. And it has an interesting tool to manipulate letterforms called spiro spline. It's also open architecture and a free download. I am forcing myself to use it more and more.
I find it a little odd that it is so rarely mentioned when discussing drawing programs.
Posted by DianeBalch (Member # 1301) on :
It is a great program. we used it for a few years until we bought Aspire, to use with our Shopbot, for 3-d routing.
I believe it was a free program to download.
Diane
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
they also have a cutting d/l for it. i still cant get it to work(((( i have been a "cut from corel"guy since 92(corel 3)when the desktop construction area was only 30" X 30". so changing programs even if its free.......not worht the effort to me. i have it loaded on here, played with it a little but when i need to "produce" its corel......
Posted by John Moritz (Member # 34341) on :
I have been using Inkscape for converting bitmaps to vectors for a few years now. It's autotrace feature is far superior to Corel. I have never used any of it's other features, but I can say I've seen quite a few very nice examples of beautiful vector artwork created with it.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
A few years back, I taught an art class to a weekly meeting of home school students. I wanted them to be able to express and publish their artwork in a number of ways, including vector files. In order that the software be available to all students, I chose Inkscape, and made myself learn it. Now I use it all the time. The reason I don't mention it here is that I thought Corel draw was an advertiser, and I didn't want to infringe on the situation. I must say, I really like Corel Draw.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
A note: I cut directly from Inkscape, just like from Corel; In Corel, an important factor is to have all lines set to hair width, in Inkscape I use .4 of one pixel width. Another thing, somehow, the Inkscape driver picked up on the default Roland PNC 1100 cut length of 62 inches, and won't let that number go. I've tried every process of elimination and every work around I can think of, but it doesn't help. I can cut less that 62 inches without problems, but not over. So this is a warning; if you're cutting directly from Inkscape, do a test first, don't ruin an expensive piece of vinyl. I've tried the support forums; but they weren't very interested in the problem; I guess they're not populated by many sign people.
Posted by old paint (Member # 549) on :
they have a specific driver forcutting from inkscape i have it as InkCut-1.0.tar.gz but my computer dont know what the hell to do with it)))
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
Joe, I might be stating the obvious, but I'm pretty sure that Inkcut is for Linux, hence the 'tar.gz'. That's a compressed Linux file.
Posted by James Donahue (Member # 3624) on :
Joe, I might be stating the obvious, but I'm pretty sure that Inkcut is for Linux, hence the 'tar.gz'. That's a compressed Linux file.
Posted by Ian Stewart-Koster (Member # 3500) on :
Thanks, James - that's good info!
Posted by Brad Ferguson (Member # 33) on :
quote: I taught an art class to a weekly meeting of home school students
A perfect way to learn it, for the motivation it provides. For me, it's always about the motivation. I've never been an "action Jackson," and I envy those who are.
I seem too content to sip scotch and watch others perform great things.
