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A couple questions about Graphic Tracer

GTracer

New Member
Boudica, You say that you are here for "educational purposes"... would you like to share an online session together? I would like to see if I can change your mind. ;)
 

Boudica

I'm here for Educational Purposes
Boudica, You say that you are here for "educational purposes"... would you like to share an online session together? I would like to see if I can change your mind. ;)
Actually, this is what I use most of the time now. learned about it here, and it really is awesome. Waaaaaay better than your software. sorry
 

GTracer

New Member
A short message to all Graphic Tracer "naysayers".
"Old dogs can learn new tricks!" I am approaching my 72nd birthday, and have been working with computer graphics for close to 40 years. I have been in the sign business for 35 years, and have owned my own shop since early 90's. At one time or another, I have used various versions of most of the popular programs in the industry, and have spent a lot of money on things that really didn't work very well... including employees. Bottom line, software is like an employee... it has to make or save you more time and money than it cost to stay on the payroll. It must be worth the investment. In my humble opinion, there is no other program that I know of that compares to Graphic Tracer in what it does.

With that said, every program has it's limitations. That is why I typically carry more than one tool in my toolbox.

Here are a few questions for each of you...
1. What is your program of choice for cleaning up graphics?
2. Do you clean up graphics in house, outsource it and pay somebody else to fix it, send the customer away and tell them to come back when they have better art, or just run with the art the customer gave you?
3. How much time per month do you spend fixing poor quality art or trying to identify a particular font?
4. Does cleaning up poor quality customer art ultimately cost you money or make you money?
5. How much time would need to be saved or production increase per month would have to occur in your shop to be worth a $10/month investment?

Graphic Tracer was developed as a cleanup utility, to enhance the capabilities of other design programs. It was independently reviewed and won a best product award at SGIA/Printing United.

"The program that works the best is the one that you know" is generally a true statement. However, a person with a basic understanding in how to use Graphic Tracer can frequently "blow the socks off" of a "seasoned" illustrator or CorelDraw pro in cleaning up many images. If you don't believe me?
Contact me and we will set up a live demonstration. See for yourself how easy it is to use, and how much time can actually be saved.

Yes, Old dogs can learn new tricks!
 

drvinyl

New Member
Most logos these days are pretty basic, using corels pen tool i can usually hand draw most logos within 10 minutes using the minimal amount of points.

Yes i know the pen tool is weird but spend some time with it, get a feel for it, its so worth it.
 

GTracer

New Member
Actually, this is what I use most of the time now. learned about it here, and it really is awesome. Waaaaaay better than your software. sorry
Actually, this is what I use most of the time now. learned about it here, and it really is awesome. Waaaaaay better than your software. sorry
It depends on the quality of graphic that you need. That is a nice AI tool, and I can certainly see a place for it. However, it does not produce "original quality" graphics... at least not yet. I often want/need a higher quality image than much of what I am seeing from the samples I just tried. Thanks for sharing.
 

GTracer

New Member
It depends on the quality of graphic that you need. That is a nice AI tool, and I can certainly see a place for it. However, it does not produce "original quality" graphics... at least not yet. I often want/need a higher quality image than much of what I am seeing from the samples I just tried. Thanks for sharing. I am attaching a fairly simple logo for you. Is the AI tool is waaaaay better on something like this? Like I said, everything has it's limitations. Takes me a couple of minutes with Graphic Tracer... I can know what fonts were used in the graphic and it will be perfect! I do see a place for the AI tool, but it won't replace Graphic Tracer in my tool box.
 

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GTracer

New Member
Most logos these days are pretty basic, using corels pen tool i can usually hand draw most logos within 10 minutes using the minimal amount of points.

Yes i know the pen tool is weird but spend some time with it, get a feel for it, its so worth it.
I understand... I was doing demonstrations of Graphic Tracer at a tradeshow a while back and had the attached logo on my screen. I asked a guy who was passing by how long it would take him to clean up this logo, and he told me he could do it in 10 minutes using CorelDraw. I said, "I have CorelDraw on my computer and $50 in my wallet that says you can't do it in 10 minutes... would you like to try?" He replied "Sure", so I laid $50 on the table and turned him loose. After 10 minutes, he was almost done cleaning up the word "TINY". At the rate he was going, his 10 minutes was going to be more like 45 minutes to an hour. I put the $50 back in my wallet and said, "Now would like to see how Graphic Tracer works?" And it took me approx 2 minutes to make the entire logo perfect. That's quite a savings on just one job. Next time you have a graphic design or logo to cleanup, check the time you start and the time you actually finish. Be sure to include any time spent identifying and installing fonts. You might be surprised at how much preparing graphics for production is actually costing your business. Feel free to contact me if you would like a live demonstration.
 

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drvinyl

New Member
it auto-traces mostly fine, I'd just clean up the text which would probably take around 10-15 cleaning up and just auto-generate a new contour and tweak it where necessary

its mainly text anyway not a logo
 
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