The Bottom Line
If you own a computer vector illustration program combined with a photo editing program, you will be able to use the new Vector Design Series from Dover Publications to full effect. Basic tutorials to help you achieve the effects shown in the included full color gallery are given in each book. The tutorial information is the same, but the examples are taken from the files in a particular collection. These new books allow artists to fully use and modify the 200 plus illustrations provided and the included textures are used to show the wide variety of modifications possible.
Pros
- Two hundred pieces of royalty free art in vector format, available in EPS, SVG and JPEG's
- Six different jpeg textures in four separate colors each are given for use as fills.
- Basic set of tutorials on working with vectors in Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop
- Many of the vector designs are showcased in a gallery with full color illustrations.
- Designs range from simple traditional Victorian windows to modern and some Tiffany designs.
Cons
- Need to have a program capable of using vector illustrations (Like Adobe illustrator or Corel Draw)
- Best use only possible if you also have photo editing software - Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro.
- Need a computer with enough ram to handle the size of files you intend to create.
- No information on designing stained glass to help you adapt images or learn better use of glass.
Description
- Wide range of samples, includes various periods, shapes and sizes. Designs are easily scaled to different sizes.
- Good basic tutorials on using the textures supplied with the vectors to produce results as shown in the galleries.
- Tutorials are based on Adobe Illustrator and Adobe Photoshop (Mackintosh CS2 version).
- Illustrations can only be used with vector and photo editing programs.
- Vector designs can be scaled easily with no loss of resolution, unlike earlier Dover Collections.
- Vector files available in SVG and EPS formats, lines are clear and the number of points has been simplified.
- Books are more expensive than other Dover collections, but are more easily adapted to a wider range and size of projects.
- Included textures extend the range of projects and help you create very realistic results similar to the gallery examples.
- Larger projects, with more detailed designs will take a lot of work (and computer ram) to fill.
- 128 page paperback with cd. ISBN - 13 978-0-486-99024 8 ISBN 10 0-486-99024-9
Guide Review - Dover Vector Design Book for Royalty Free Stained Glass Designs
Dover Publications new series of cds and books featuring royalty free vector images are designed to allow artists access to classic Dover designs in a modifiable form for private or commercial projects. By supplying the files as vectors, Dover makes the art scalable to very large sizes without loss of detail, and also allows artists to control individual lines and fill colors more easily than with previous Dover collections.
The illustrations are taken from those in Dover's other collections. Classic Stained Glass Vector Design has designs of classic Victorian windows, Edwardian and McIntosh designs, as well as some Tiffany style landscape windows and more modern designs. They are as useful for designing tiny dollhouse windows as they are for making full scale mock-ups of large glass projects, or for adapting the designs to a wide range of other projects (quilts for example).
The cd includes six different standard stained glass patterns, two smoke patterns, two swirl or marble like patterns and two clear glass textures in jpeg format. These textures are supplied in four unique color mixes for each texture, and can be adjusted with color controls in photo editing software to produce a wide range of authentic glass patterns as fills for the vector window designs. This gives a beginning glass designer a means of experimenting with glass types and patterns to learn how to best use textured and highly patterned opaque glass in window designs and allows custom designs.
Using These Books
You must own and be be familiar with vector drawing programs (such as Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw or Microsoft Expression Suite) in order to use the EPS and SVG files supplied on the CD. If you want to use the supplied texture files you will also need to own and be familiar with photo editing software (Adobe Photoshop or Paint Shop Pro for example).
Price $30 - $50.
