EngraveSoft

[Neal Schlee]

Is anyone familiar with this software? Bought or used it?
Looks like it's aimed more towards graphic artists & illustrators. Spendy too!

Neal
Lasertech Alaska

[Doug Griffith]

Also add in the cost of the Cintiq tablet they're using!!!

[Larry Bratton]

Looks pretty neat but that $1000.00 price tag is a bummer! I reckon everything to be relative though..if you spent $1k on this, could you expect to enhance your product offering?

[Dan Hintz]

Painter (formerly known as Fractal Design Painter, and most recently owned by Corel) would do this for 1/3rd the price, as well as give you thousands of options more. Since The program has fallen by the wayside, I think you can even get a free copy of a version from a few years ago (should still run on XP).

I just checked and Corel is still selling this under the name Painter X for $419 (possibly cheaper on the net).

[Neal Schlee]

I see you can qualify for the Painter X upgade ($219) if you own CD X3 or X4 and there's a free trial too!

Neal
Lasertech Alaska

[Larry Bratton]

Hummm..I own Painter...think I'll take a look at that. I've been using it for working on color photos to make them into "paintings". It works good but has a pretty steep learning curve.

[Dan Hintz]

I picked up a copy when it was first introduced as Fractal Design Painter and was still owned by the original Fractal Design Studios... purchased it at its introduction at SIGGRAPH (in '94?). LOVED it, but haven't had much opportunity to play with it for quite some time. I have often considered picking up a pressure tablet and getting the latest version, but too many other things to play with.

[Steve Clarkson]

Here you go Frank....

BTW.....does anyone use Painter? I have it, but don't know how to use it. I know that it will "paint" or sketch a photo right before your eyes.....but can it be engraved?

[Frank Corker]

Yes it can be engraved but it is horrendously priced I think. I just wanted to read it again. Thanks for your trouble.

[Larry Bratton]

Steve:
Output is a bitmap in Corel- RIF extension. It imports into Corel Draw and is like any other bitmap as far as engraving goes.

[Anthony Scira]

Am I missing something ? Looks like the price for the program is only 99 dollars.

[Steve Clarkson]

Steve:
Output is a bitmap in Corel- RIF extension. It imports into Corel Draw and is like any other bitmap as far as engraving goes.

Thanks Larry

[Doug Griffith]

I see 99 as well.

I think the key feature of the software is being able to control the direction of the strokes. Photoshop and a good tablet could do very similar using brush angle, weight, and fade. It would be very time consuming though.

Cheers,
Doug

[Dan Hintz]

Steve,

I used Painter when it was initially announced at SIGGRAPH (graphics conference) in the early 90's(?) and still owned by Fractal Design. I was so stunned by its natural media capabilities I purchased a copy on the spot. Unfortunately I haven't touched it in years, though I have been tempted to use my original serial # and try to update it through Corel (it may be too old at this point to qualify).

As far as the laser is concerned, the final image is going to be no different than any other bitmap created in your favorite brand of raster graphics package. Where Painter comes into play is how that image is created. Painter allows you to edit/create your image in such a way as to mimic natural media, particularly when used with a pressure-sensitive tablet. For example, if you lay down a stroke using the charcoal tool, it looks just as if you took a charcoal stick to a piece of art paper, with the line thickening/darkening as you press harder on the tablet, and the edges fading into dots (larger, then smaller as you move away from the center of the line). And just as with real charcoal, you can brush over it with your watercolor brush and it will look as if you really added water to the charcoal by diffusing it and spreading it out on the page.

One warning... if you don't have any natural talent, the package will not magically give it to you any more than other software packages will. Yes, it has "wizards", plug-ins, and one-click effects which can do some amazing things, but in the end you still have to be capable of putting all of the elements together in a cohesive package. If you're quite capable of using PhotoShop to create amazing photos, you'll have similar luck using Painter after a bit of practice.

Considering what substrates most of our lasering goes onto and the fact that it's a B/W or grayscale process, I see Painter as having limited use. The pen & ink, charcoal, and other grayscale drawing styles would be notable exceptions.

EDIT: I suppose if I had reread the older posts in this thread before responding again I would have noticed my earlier posts covered the history of Painter

[Steve Clarkson]

--------------->>>>>>>> Absolutely NO talent here!!!!!!!!

I figured since I have the Wacom tablet and the Painter software, that I could magically make some photos into pencil drawings with a click of a button.............

Thanks for saving me a few hours of trying!!!!!!