I stumbled across a new online tool (or rather suite of tools) today called Rapid Resizer that has a lot to offer the digital diecutting community, although we do not seem to be its market. Here are a few of the things I discovered I could accomplish online there for free (at least for now):
Free Online Raster to Vector Converter
All of our cutting programs can do their own autotraces now (wouldn’t it have been nice to have this when they didn’t!?) but Rapid Resizer offers a few tricks that your cutting software may not. Taking a .jpg input from your hard drive (.png did not work for me) it can return PDF, SVG. DXF, EPS or AI output. The really cool thing, though, is the option to centerline trace. This will be especially useful to those who do not have MTC with its stellar “font thinning” function. For example, Silhouette Studio users can input a line drawing or text and get a single stroke DXF file in return that will be be much easier to work with for drawing with pens or for rhinestone work. For example, Doodling Debbie over at Paper Pulse converted one of her favorite fonts, which she shares.
Wordle lovers can instantly turn their screen captures into a vector PDF with this, but they will lose the colors as this only returns black and white vectors.
This tool will be helpful for converting photos to cutting files for vinyl cutting, etching and stencils. Input your photo and choose manual, then adjust the slider to get the contrast you like. Then right click to save the new image or try the options under “save to any size”>preview to see if that gives you a better and/or larger image. You will most likely still need to smooth and remove some detail to make good cutfiles, but this may give you a good start, especially if you aren’t handy with Photoshop. Update: For this application, also see Stencilizer.
My Stampmaker friends will find this especially useful because after the photo is converted to black and white, a click of the invert button makes it ready to import into your stamp layout.
Other tools at this site include Free Online Stencil Maker , an online text layout tool with adjustable arching,
Print Patterns to Any Size, Convert PDF to Image (not working for me yet) and Save Ink Printing PDFs. The tools can be used together or separately.
There are also premium features on the site, and developer Patrick Roberts has generously offered my readers a free week if you’d like to explore those. Your free week will start as soon as you click here.
As for me, I still do most of my designing/converting in Inkscape with a little help from Photoshop but I love scouting new web apps. Will be interesting to see how this one evolves.
Sounds interesting… I’m going to check this out now. Thanks!!
Thank you for sharing this. I’ve been using Illustrator but it never does a goo job on the fonts and I end up spending a lot of time on one word. I’, so grateful to be getting your posts by email. This way I don’t miss any of the many good things you find and generously share. xxx-Debbie
Thanks for the info. I went there but all I see is for sale not free. Am I looking in the right place?
No, Cheryl, you must not be looking in the right place. Stay on the pages linked here without clicking the buy button and try the tools. All the things I mention in the post I was able to accomplish at no charge. I think you only need to pay if you want to download patterns enlarged to more than one page.
Thank you so much for this Kay. I have learned so much from you abut all this and the cricut things longer ago! Everyone that I know that buys a diecutter machine gets sent to your site and your Youtube videos for the best and quckest lessons. I am in awe of all the things you find and teach us! THANK YOU, Cheryl
Kay, you find the most interesting stuff to play with. I’m still playing with it, like you some work and some don’t but it may be me.
Thanks for the new toy.
Kay, I’m very interested in the single font conversion capabilities. I played an little and don’t understand how to make it work. Could you maybe give a little bit more information on converting regular fonts to single line. Thanks for all the neat stuff you find for us and for all your help!