Coral Draw 4 Vs Photograv

[Tim Landrum]

I'm brand new to this whole thing and want to know if you need both to photo etching on marble or is one better than the other? Thanks

[Gary Hair]

Although you can do image manipulation in Corel similar to what PhotoGrav can do, you will save lots of time and frustration if you use PhotoGrav. It really depends on the quantity of images you will be engraving, once in a while is ok with Corel, but if you plan on doing more than a few then it will be much faster and more consistent to use PhotoGrav. Oh, I'm assuming you meant X4 (14), not 4...

[Dan Hintz]

And I prefer to work exclusively in CorelDraw and Paint.NET... never saw a need for Photograv once I understood what needed to happen with the pics.

[Mike Null]

I don't do a lot of photos but Corel PhotoPaint works just fine for those that I do.

[AL Ursich]

And I prefer to work exclusively in CorelDraw and Paint.NET... never saw a need for Photograv once I understood what needed to happen with the pics.

Dan,

Do tell... Tell us more..... in another post..

AL

[Martin Boekers]

I have posted this many times, it is very useful for engraving photos. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yllZTBA0HO0&feature=related There is soooo much stuff on YouTube about engraving, so many don't make use of this tool. I do use PhotoGrav from time to time, its quick and easy.... The main thing is that when doing any of these methods is to make sure you image is to size, resolution and orientation. Changing any of these after converting will degrade the final image.

[Dan Hintz]

Dan,

Do tell... Tell us more..... in another post..

AL

What's to tell? Rodney's macro is a great starting point, and beyond that it's a little manual tweaking of settings. I like to add in a fadeout to images (usually circles or ellipses for head shots) so the edges aren't harsh... now that I'm keeping it on a separate layer, I simply drag the control points to size to the image and that art is done. I usually have to sharpen (not always), but that's an interactive slider. Contrast is typically the worst part of the lot, and is the one that takes the most time on bad images. When I have to start lassoing parts of an image so I can adjust contrast just in that part, then the process often becomes more annoying than it's worth (like a white wedding dress taken against a white background). If I think I have to spend more than about 10 minutes on an image, I tend to pass on it.

[Ben Dalton]

I do a lot of granite engraving, and I love Photograv. Probably the biggest selling point for our company is that photograv gives you a simulated image of what the engraving will actually look like, as there is quite a difference between the actual photo and the finished product. Our customers really like being able to get a "simulation" image to approve before engraving, so photograv is worth using. Mostly your quality will come down to how you process the photo before converting it to a one bit image, regardless of whether you do it through photograv, corel, or photoshop. It's all about contrast, and how good the original picture is (although I have to say you can do some pretty amazing stuff with photoshop and a crummy image...the more you play around with your software, the better you'll be at getting good results)!

[Tim Landrum]

Thanks everyone for the info

[Tim Bateson]

You failed to indicate which laser you are using. This makes a big difference as with Epilog, the use of PhotoGrav is optional, but not required. The cost vs what is does is hard to justify on a machine who's driver (with some photo prep) does just as good of job.

[Bill Cunningham]

If your using 'real' marble and not the granite that lasersketch calls marble, you need only to use the photograph setting in the eplilog driver. Real marble is totally goof proof. You hit it hard, and slow, you can even hit it a second time and it gets even whiter. Note that marble turns 'white' granite turns grey. If it reacts to acid (even 5% vinegar ) it's marble, if not it's granite. Marble should not be used outside. The LaserSketch marble (granite) is great for photos. Use high speed/low power.