Very informative, Jess! Looking forward to more.

Just a thought, maybe "Inkscape" could be a free alternative to Rapid Resizer.

Lew, my wife has used Resizer since it came out and nothing she has tried since then works as good with her stained glass workings and I think it fits with what I do just perfect....

  It seems like someone recommended Inkscape some time ago, might have been you, but either one of us see no reason to change. Thanks for the suggestion. 

  They have things pop up on the e-mail that resizer keeps adding to the program all the time and I know she has been using it almost as long as we have lived here which seems like forever...

I've got a buddy up near Kingman that routers some good sized signs and, he uses Rapid Resizer and, swears by it.

I've barely gotten into Inkscape. Man, there's a huge learning curve, there. But, I very seldom need anything that couldn't be printed full size on one or two standard sheets of paper. 

Some beautiful work there Jess.  Really glad you found your way back "home".

Lew I don't even know Rapid Resizer costs way back or now there but this is the fourth computer we have switched it over to so its not much cost for all those years..

  It looks like I might need another printer for it quit scanning pictures from Resizer but since we don't have a line getting one that will fax will be an extra cost for something I can't use.

  I have been saving three different e-mails from Resizer about items they have added and are alerting us to don't forget and try them.?

Lew it seems to me that Rapid Resizer and Inkscape do completely two different things..Inkscape has everything right there to design signs and things where Resizer takes pictures someone loads from a printer then works with those pictures...either enlarging reducing cropping and other things...... 

  Things like these pictures came from a scroll saw book. I torn out a page , put it in the printer and sent it to Resizer. Then had resizer make it the size I wanted and told resizer to make a few copies...and the printer made as many as I wanted. I always print out a few extra copies in case someone see them and request more.  I have been looking at Inkscape and even if it is free I don't think the two programs do the same thing???

Lew and Gene, since I'm rock headed look over Rapid Resizer then tell me if they are completely different .......or not.....

  Its been many years since I made a sign but Inkscape would be great if that's all I did.....

Jess,

You are absolutely correct about Inkscape being different. Rapid Resizer does one thing and does it extremely well. 

I only mentioned Inkscape because it is a free open source program. If someone wanted to enlarge a picture but didn't want to buy Rapid Resizer, they could use Inkscape for that purpose. I guess that this would be something akin to using a nuclear reactor to boil an egg 

That would be a double hot egg right?

Lew I use graph paper and a set of french curves from HL and draw out something like this and have resizer make a few copies in lots of different sizes maybe for later use. I can also stretch it or make it fatter or what ever but with Resizer I only have to mess with the graph paper just once for this type of wall plaque. Then making the trim around the outside is the easiest part . If someone needs I can show that procedure. Its only 100 bucks a minute for that. But some might have to read the instructions over and over for the thick skulls but pictures do help... Thats how I got past the reading parts!!!!

22 minutes ago, Smallpatch said:

If someone needs I can show that procedure. Its only 100 bucks a minute for that

You're never gonna get rich at that rate 

I can see where the Rapid Resizer is much easier to use. WHat type of scanner do you have??

For what you do, Rapid Resizer is the way to go. Inkscape is way more than you need. 

If you are talking about a printer, I use the almost as cheap as they have, right now it is a HP 4640 I think they are called, all in one.  But since we don't have a land line  the fax in a printer is not needed. We haven't even went to a wireless model printer yet. Wife used a $20.00 Canon model but it doesn't have a slot for the camera card. I think some of the cheaper models uses a camera card extension which has to be bought seperate if it is a real cheap model. The Resize does the enlarging and reducing so I don't need that in a printer.

  All I need in a printer is one that will load my camera pictures and send to Rapid Resizer. If you don't get Rapid Resizer you will need a printer that enlarges and reduces. Most of my clock picture I make pattern out of comes from the internet so if thats what you want to do, the people selling the printers should help direct you that direction. Ink is a big cost for a printer and the Inks with the XL at the end of the numbers is higher priced but will last a very long time and worth the extra cost and will be less down time changing them.. You certainly don't need a laser printer or I don't and a wireless in not necessary and the speed of printing lots of copies is not necessary.. And doing lots of copies real quick is not needed so what you got left is a cheap printer that will copy and scan whats saved on your computer. 

Right Gene and if a person don't use things loaded on his computer then it just makes things go slower for the machine has to take time to load and un load those things.

4 hours ago, Smallpatch said:

If you are talking about a printer

I think I understand. You draw the picture on graph paper then photograph it. After that you transfer the images from the camera card to the computer. Resize it to your needs with Rapid Resizer and then print it.

I used to use an inkjet printer but rarely printed in color. Often times the cartridges dried up before they ran out of ink. Switched to a monochrome laser printer. The cartridge is about the same costs as the full set of ink cartridges but it lasts much, much longer.

No if you draw something out put that in the printer and scan it to Rapid Resizer. No need to take a picture of it. And if you are needing to print something that turns it in to a pattern, no need to print in color. Black patterns are great. What ever you put in rapid resizer it will be in there till you need it again unless you remove it.. It can be resized and kept that size along with the original size.

  If I resize it larger to become a pattern to glue on the wood I make at least 2 copies, one for a pattern to put on the wood and the other is for references as I am carving or coloring the stuff or what ever and usually make at least 4 copies and file two away if someday I want to make more of what ever I don't have to go back to the printer or the computer to make copies again... they are in the file cabinet.

  When I need different dials for another clock and want it different, I keep looking on the web then send it to resizer and if I want to turn one into a wood dial and make it oval all this I do with resizer as a pattern I mean.. I don't ever go by a standard size of anything. What I go by is the wood I am gluing together with biscuits and how long it turns out to be when run through the drum sander is how big I make the patterns. I am frugal for I don't waste anything.. The pattern is made as big as I can get it so that wood won't be wasted on each end....I done forgot your question!!

I just realized why I have to have a printer with a slot for the camera card. The last computer was a refurbished one from Walmart. It was an older model that didn't have a card slot, probably an antique model, otherwise the printer I have has to print, scan and copy.. The refurbished computer I think we bought in 2010?  My memory refuses to even try the hard things like my birthday or where I'm going when in the car and behind the wheel..  And wife sits over there and says things like well are you ever going to back out of the garage or just sit there humming and bouncing up and down in the seat. Thats funny, for I do remember I got those people at walmart down to 110 dollars on the refurb puter...minus the screen.

I think I forgot. Gene Howe If I need a mirror image or need to flip one Rapid Resizer does it. this is why I questioned your telling someone how its done a while ago...At the time it seemed rather out dated. Sorry I sounded blunt even more so after I reread what I posted..

Not a problem, Jesse. I still find myself reaching for the floor shift every once in a while.  

On ‎8‎/‎20‎/‎2018 at 9:34 AM, lew said:

Jess,

You are absolutely correct about Inkscape being different. Rapid Resizer does one thing and does it extremely well. 

 

I only mentioned Inkscape because it is a free open source program. If someone wanted to enlarge a picture but didn't want to buy Rapid Resizer, they could use Inkscape for that purpose. I guess that this would be something akin to using a nuclear reactor to boil an egg 

I've never tried Rapid Resizer because I'm cheap.  Just ask my wife. 

I'm still using an older version of GIMP. 

Doesn't everyone cook with one of those nuclear reactors? 

41 minutes ago, Larry Buskirk said:

Doesn't everyone cook with one of those nuclear reactors?