The Gold Method?

[Jeffrey Dewing]

I was reading thing in this sight, and someone mentioned searching the Gold Method. When I did this I found myself reading good things about this method or program, but all the stuff I was reading was from 2008. It also seems that it wasn't made to work with Corel. I have Corel X7, the $500 dollar disk, with a speedy 300 laser. Although I'm coming up with some good pics engraved on many different sub-straights I was just wondering if this program is still around, and if not, what other options are there besides photograv. Not that I have any problems with photograve, I just don't want to drop $500 frog skins right now... Epilog just came out with or has something called One Touch for $270 green backs that looked interesting. Any feedback from the folks from the Creek on this subject would be great! Thanks Jeff.:D

[Bert Kemp]

read my second to last post to Junior

[Chris J Anderson]

Hi Jeffrey,
I use ULS 1 Touch Laser Photo, and its pretty good for a quick result.
Especially because you can set it for different materials.

When I get a photo, I...
1- Cut the background out in Corelpaint, using Cutout lab.
2- Import the file into 1Touch.
3- Set the correct size in 1Touch.
4- Process the file.
5- Save it.
6- Import the processed file into corel, and manually erase any background if necessary.

Hope this helps in some way.

[Mayo Pardo]

Jeffrey if you have the Trotec Speedy 300, Job Control software has a photo mode. Have you tried it?

[Scott Shepherd]

Jeffrey if you have the Trotec Speedy 300, Job Control software has a photo mode. Have you tried it?

That thing does an EXCELLENT job. You really don't need the Gold Method or Photograve. Just print it with the photo mode turned on.

[Jeffrey Dewing]

OK, I've tried it with the photo mode and it works but what do I need to do to prep the photo before that mode? Should I Resample, Contrast Enhance, Unsharpen Mask, Greyscale or Black & White it? Just curious what this does that I don't have to. I was at a funeral all day and have only had a chance to try this photo mode once. Can I just import a photo and send it to the laser and run it? Any advice before I start burning up stalk would be great! Thank you folks for all your help and advice.

[Scott Shepherd]

OK, I've tried it with the photo mode and it works but what do I need to do to prep the photo before that mode? Should I Resample, Contrast Enhance, Unsharpen Mask, Greyscale or Black & White it? Just curious what this does that I don't have to. I was at a funeral all day and have only had a chance to try this photo mode once. Can I just import a photo and send it to the laser and run it? Any advice before I start burning up stalk would be great! Thank you folks for all your help and advice.

You don't really need to do anything, but if you wanted to do anything, you might adjust the contrast a little. What I found with it was that the power settings are super critical in engraving photos. You can have it perfect and then use too much power and it'll make the image look like it wasn't processed right, or you can have too little power and it'll look wrong too. It's a delicate balance but once you get it dialed in, it'll look great.

[Jeffrey Dewing]

306787This is just junk wood I had around, so I'll bet it looks much better on something finished. The detail is amazing! I can hardly wait to try it on glass! Once again, lousy picture, and lousy wood. Let me poat the original pic.

[Scott Shepherd]

Turn the power up or the speed down. You might also adjust the contrast to where the photo looks "flat" and doesn't have a lot of contrast. What the laser wants isn't what your eyes want. Get rid of dark blacks and bright whites if you can. It should look really flat.

[Jeffrey Dewing]

It won't let me post the original pic. Thanks again for the advise, Bert, Chris, Mayo & Scott. You folks have been a lot of help! This Trotec just keeps on surprising me with good things!!!

[Jeffrey Dewing]

Turn the power up or the speed down. You might also adjust the contrast to where the photo looks "flat" and doesn't have a lot of contrast. What the laser wants isn't what your eyes want. Get rid of dark blacks and bright whites if you can. It should look really flat.
Thanks Scott!