I need some advice on the best software for a simple graphic project.


TheQuestForChaos

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I don't do any graphic editing in any way right now. And I have very little time to learn complex apps right now. And I can't justify any major investment(might be investing in the OPT team). So I am seeing if anyone here can help me figure out the best solution for my project.


I am looking to make simple templates for cutting gemstones. I want some easy way to play with simple shapes like squares and circles, being able to truncate them and skew them, and blend them, then scale them and be able to spit them out in a manner that can be printed on a standard sheet of sticker paper. Then I will stick that onto a sheet of plastic and carefully cut it out with a knife... I wish I had a cnc router...


Some examples of shapes I would like to template.


(these are example I pulled quickly, they are not my work, and I do not plan to copy their designs, these are for example use only, I have a slew of my own shapes)


designer cut3.jpg


designer cut.jpg


designer cut2.jpg


And a standard template (the thing I want to make)


template 2.jpg


Also is there an easy way to pull the outline shape from the cabs in the pictures?


I would really appreciate the help of someone who knows way more about graphics then I. There should be a lot of those people hanging out in this forum.


I was playing with Gimp. But the learning curve is a little steep right now, unless someone knows a video that will make me smack my head.


I am looking for a program that is almost no more then a toy or novelty. Stupid simple.


If Milkshake is reading this(I figure eventually he will) I think you profile pic is a very interesting piece of pop art. I would have continued the discussion in the other forum, but I didn't want to clutter it anymore then I already have.
 
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That image magic does seem like a neat solution. Seems a little intensive for a learning curve. If I don't find a smoother solution by the time I need to be doing this, it looks like it will work great for a few of the steps. The montage feature would work great for template layout. Actually on further reading this thing seems to be able to do just about anything I need... hmm... crazy stuff... I may just have to figure this one out... Thanks Pickle.


Just read a bit of this:


http://www.imagemagick.org/Usage/morphology/


I think I will feel like I am trying to figure out Dwarf Fortress for the first time, all over again...


(for those who haven't played, It is worth learning how to play, you just have to have a great deal of time on your hands)
 
What you described looks more like you need a vector graphics editor, I'd propose Inkscape, but I'm not sure it's easy to use (for me, any graphic editor is complicated)
 
Hoodoo I have read a little on vector drawing I will check out inkscape in a sec.


And thanks for offer on a deal but I doubt paying for any adobe product even at a deal from their price is a little to pricey to be legitimizing for what looks to me like a simple task... That company seems to want crazy money for everything they make.
 
Hoodoo I have read a little on vector drawing I will check out inkscape in a sec.


And thanks for offer on a deal but I doubt paying for any adobe product even at a deal from their price is a little to pricey to be legitimizing for what looks to me like a simple task... That company seems to want crazy money for everything they make.

I really don't think you understand just how good of a deal this is. The price is a steal! ;)
 
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BlueProtoman, youve been warned of this several times by now, please stop
 
What am I doing? Have I said anything offensive? I'm just looking to help a fellow man save some money.
 
I appreciate your offer. It is very kind. In this case I do need to agree with DaMummy and Gruso. It is dangerous to for the Open Pandora boards to be openly discussing open distribution of copyrighted works. We should all be sensitive to the effects on the communities reputation in relationship to these types of topics.


I view it like the topics of drug and alcohol use/abuse for an individual. Everyone has the right to take that risk, but if the right words, meet the wrong ear, many people can get hurt. Breaking down to respect. I mean, you wouldn't blurt out how good a bag you just got in the middle of a family restaurant so every one can hear(unless you live in very select places in the world, and even then I don't think it is tasteful)...
 
What am I doing? Have I said anything offensive? I'm just looking to help a fellow man save some money.
Piracy is illegal, facilitating it on these boards is illegal. If you have an argument, I'm sure the German courts would love to hear it. A blind eye is turned when it comes to helping people set up emulation, as long as it's done via PM. Commercial graphics software is waaay over the line though.


Aside from that, it's kind of insulting. People know about that stuff and how to get it, if they choose. They've known for decades. Nobody needs to be informed. Even my sister torrents now, and she doesn't even know what a Windows is.


No more, please. :)
 
A vector graphics editor would be ideal for what you want to do. They do have somewhat of a learning curve though.


This Wikipedia page (http://en.wikipedia....raphics_editors) lists several free and commercial editors.


I think Inkscape can also trace bitmaps (so you can get the outline shape). I could be wrong though I haven't used it in quite a while.
 
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It sounds like you want somethinglike a vector graphics editor for smooth curves. Unfortunatly I've only used Adobe products at school (so glad they started to teach this stuff in high school though), I use gimp at home for basic work and it is not too hard, you should be able to learn it with the help of some tutorial, though I agree the learning curve is steeping with GIMP then Adobe products, but you get what you pay for sometimes.
 
You can easily do what you want here with Inkscape. Get it. Use it.
 
Thank you all. I am currently playing and comparing, Inkscape, imagemagick, and Serif, I am leaning toward paying the $100 for Serif, actually they have a deal for $60 in the free version. They have an amazing library of tutorial videos, and the GUI seems to function very cleanly. On top of it all they have some great shape creation tools.


Imagemagic has huge libraries of custom plug ins and coding, it seems massively powerful, but the learning curve is rather large.


Inkscape seems to walk the middle.
 
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