photo cutting software

[Andrew Ritchie]

Any software with a trace facility built in, look at the Adobe Creative Suite or Corel X3 both claim to have the best auto trace to date on the market, Ive tried both and they do work well to an extent, but you can’t beat a vector file thats been recreated by hand/ redrawn.

SignLab and FlexiSign also have this function but its not as tweakable as the Live Trace in Illustrator or X3.

But be aware that the trace result can leave thousands of cut lines, so be prepared 😉

Andy 😎

[Paul.Hill]

Hi Andrew thanks for that but i was thinking more along the lines of the fotocut element in cocut i’m sure either flexi sign or sign lab had a thing like that ?

[John Childs]

Hi Paul.

I know exactly what you mean – like the lines on a black and white telly with the lines varying in thickness to give the appropriate bright or dark areas.

I had such a piece of software years ago, I think it was called Photocut and, I might be wrong here, but I seem to recall it was sold by Wissen.

We only used it the once but got a stunning effect on the rear doors of a Transit. I would have thought that, in this age of digital print and wraps, such a thing would be obsolete but it just goes to show that you never know when somebody will want something retro.

Good luck.

[Peter Shaw]

John is on the ball again. Wissen did sell a stand alone package and it was also incorporated into their X1 signmaking (DOS) package.

There is also the same function in our Signlab V5 found on the scan tools button and called Photo Machine. I don’t know if its in later versions.

Peter

[John Childs]

Plan B.

Andromeda Software do a thing called Cutline, which is a plug-in for Photoshop, and will produce the effect you are after. I’m not sure that you can convert it to a cuttable vector but, if not, you could print onto white vinyl.

http://www.andromeda.com/main/cutline.php

[Chris Stansfield]

photoshop (or other photo editing software) has the abiliy to create halftone lines.

convert to bitmap, but select halftone screen and choose the option – line.

takes a little pracise to get the right result, but traces pretty well afterwards

[Alan Drury]

Signlab definitely does it, I have used it and it works well, not sure about stand alone progs though.
Alan D

[Rod Young]

quote Paul Hill:

Hi does anyone know of a stand alone photo cutting software you the the one that turns a photo into lots of little lines so you can cut it in vinyl

quote John Childs:

I know exactly what you mean – like the lines on a black and white telly with the lines varying in thickness to give the appropriate bright or dark areas.

quote pshaw:

There is also the same function in our Signlab V5 found on the scan tools button and called Photo Machine. I don’t know if its in later versions.

Yes, in SignLab the feature that Paul is looking for is called "PhotoMachine." From an original image, PhotoMachine will create a series of vectors that vary by the lightness/darkness in the original image.

1. From the left-hand toolbar, choose Scan Tools >> PhotoMachine.
2. In the SmartBar, choose ImageCut from the drop list.
3. Indicate the orientation of the cut lines.
4. Indicate the number of cut lines.
5. Click Apply, and you will have output ready vectors for cutting.

For you EngraveLab users, PhotoMachine has a slew of additional styles that are useful for etching patterns on metal plate (e.g., wiggle, square, rain, 3D, etc.).

Cheers,

Rod at CADlink

[Phil Halling]

——————————————————————————–

John is on the ball again. Wissen did sell a stand alone package and it was also incorporated into their X1 signmaking (DOS) package.

Good god I thought I was the only one who used X1 that brings back memories, and as for the photocut part I think I used it twice – the one time a lorry driver brought in, shall we say a lads mag, and wanted a picture for the back of his cab. Well we cut it and to my surprise there was far too much detail enhanced so we just put it up at the back of the workshop.

[Rodney Gold]

I just did a project for an art student where we had to cut vinyl masks for blasting pics of ppl shagging in cars on a cars windows , like you were looking into a car and could see the ppl inside having it off.
We started out with a picture and converted it to a 1/2 tone black and white bitmap with a VERY gross screen and used a round 1/2 tone pattern (used Corel X3 for this bitmaps/mode /baack and white)
We didnt want any single dot to be LESS than 3mm in diameter as it would be difficult to cut and weed.
Once we hot the bitmap to the state we wanted , we used Corel X3’s line art trace and fiddled with detail and smoothing and traced the dots etc. We used the outline of the trace as the cut file.
The panels took forever to cut and thank g-d we didnt have to weed it as there were many entities in the cut file.
Our biggest problem was the order the machine was cutting the dots in , it was jumping around all over the place cutting one here and one there etc and the material was feeding back and forth. The biggest panel was 1.45m x 700mm and it took 2 hours.

[John Childs]

That sounds like fun Rodney. Got any photos?

I think the difference between dedicated software like PhotoCut, as opposed to something that just adds half tone effects, is that, although it still took ages to cut, and my Transit took a couple of hours as well, the programme made a point of ONLY cutting lines with no breaks. That made weeding a breeze. Just grab a handful and pull and it all came away in one piece. One Transit rear door, about 2000 x 800mm, could be weeded in about a minute.

[Rodney Gold]

On reading this thread , I did realise it would probably have been easier to use my signlab and photocut for this job , but the customer wanted a dot type 1/2 tone and didnt really want the detail too high.
I havent got pics as all I did was cut the vinyl , I refused to weed or apply it
The job was acutally a pain in the ass as the gal didnt have money and I quoted on time in respect of a small test piece. so I lost money on the job , but wrote it off to my social contribution in terms of struggling "artists"
It was for an exhibition of what ppl use cars for and I thought it quite appropriate – Im sure most of us have at least canoodeled or bonked in a car.

[Brian Maher]

signlab photo machine is good for this, just watch the thickness and amount of the lines in the image,it also take a long time to cut an image so dont’ do one on a busy day 😉

back some time ago someone posted a topic about a font "pottyos"
which when used with a downloadable progam and a few simple adjustments turned a photo into dots…larga and small…giving a nice effect… cant recall the name of the program but it was a simple enough job…

sorry cant be more help…

brian

[SumRandi]

I have found a way to create a perfect fotocut in Corel 12 and earlier. But with the Corel X3 it doesn’t work anymore.
If anyone wants, just ask.
It’s a bit of work, but it works on every picture I tried, with great effects.

[Peter Shaw]

Yikes! This is a trip down memory lane.

Wissen X1…….

Bonking in cars …… !!!

[John Childs]

quote pshaw:

Bonking in cars …… !!!

My favourite – the Wolseley 18/85S

I think the leather must have had an effect on her!

Happy days 😀

[Phil Halling]

Morris 1000 traveller – more room for manoevers :lol1: