Graphic technique

[Darren Null]

I had a line drawing to do...a coloured line drawing. It was quite a complex one, so tracing it in Corel or Illustrator would be hopelessly inadequate. The Inkscape trace -with everything turned up to 11- would just about do it, but a vector file of that complexity would just blow Corel up.

And then it occured to me. Trace it in Inkscape, then transfer it via a BITMAP to Corel. A PNG in this case. Knocked the colour out and traced it at the same time with an adequate amount of detail. Quick too- it's a one-step process.

I've since tried doing the same thing with photos too- it's no Photograv and the results are somewhat stylised, but there's a level of detail that's perfectly acceptable for -say- memorial photographs on marble.

Here's how that particular job turned out. It's the cartoon in the middle...the frame was added clipart. I think I'm going to be doing this again.

[Scott Shepherd]

Darren, any reason you don't go from Inkscape directly to the laser?

[Darren Null]

Inkscape seems to be a little more processor-intensive than Coreldraw. My current laser laptop has a heat-death problem, so at the moment I just fire it up for long enough to send the work (that I've done on another computer) to the laser and turn it off again.
So I've not tried printing straight from Inkscape. As far as I know, it'll work fine.

[Dave Johnson29]

My current laser laptop has a heat-death problem

Hi Darrin,

A little off topic but can you hear the fan or fans running in the laptop?

Try vacuuming out the inlets to the fans(s) they can get really clogged with dust.

Failing that you may want to try removing the top cover (plastic locks in slots) and keyboard (usually only 2 screws) and see if you can find the fan(s) and make sure they are clear of debris on the outlet side.

[Darren Null]

Thanks. The laptop was stolen a while ago...I got it back, but the arsehat who stole it managed to strip the heads of all the screws underneath (where the fans are accessed). I've hoovered the fans as hard as I dare from outside. So I think I'm stuck with it unless I think of something. I even tried superglueing a screwdriver to what's left of one of the screws, but no dice.

Fans run. So it's probably bunged up.

[Dave Johnson29]

Fans run. So it's probably bunged up.

Bummer, ah well, it was worth mentioning.

Have you tried cutting flat-blade screwdriver slots with a diamond blade on a mandrel in a Dremel? You may scar some plastic but it usually works for me.

This one...

http://tinyurl.com/6klma6

[EDIT]
If you don't have a Dremel, Harbor Freight have a look alike for about 10-bucks.
[/EDIT]

[Darren Null]

Good plan. I'll give that a go. Or a variant thereof - the screws are sunk into quite deep pits. I may be able to construct wobbly flat-head grooves with my 'dentistry' bit though.