[Blindmath] Display output from SVGDraw01 on a Duxbury embosser

[Richard Baldwin]

In an earlier message, I made the following statement:

"It is also possible to emboss the drawing on a Duxbury using QuickTac, but
there are several steps involved and it may not be feasible for a blind
person. If anyone is interested, I can write up a set of instructions."

Earlier today, someone took me up on that offer and asked that I provide the
instructions, so here goes, but it won't be pretty.

Start a new drawing in SVGDraw01.

Set the page size to 1 inch by 1 inch.

Draw some shapes such as:

rectangle
x = 1
y = 1
width = 98
height = 98
stroke width = 7
stroke opacity = 1
No fill

circle
x = 50
y = 50
radius = 40
stroke width = 7
stroke opacity = 1
black fill
fill opacity = 1

Save the drawing into an output SVG file.

Go to http://www.online-utility.org/image_converter.jsp and submit the SVG
file for conversion to BMP format. Save the BMP file that is returned.

For some reason, Quick Tac and another image program that I use won't accept
the BMP file as received from the above conversion website.

You can fix this problem by opening the file in Microsoft Windows Paint.
Edit the drawing in some minor way and save it. This should produce a file
that Quick Tac will accept. (It may not even be necessary to modify the
drawing to get a good output file.)

Download and install Quick Tac 4.0 (Beta 1)

Copy your BMP file into the QuickTac(Beta 1) folder before you start
Quick Tac running.

Start Quick Tac 4.0 running

Pull down the Tool menu in Quick Tac and select Fill

Go to the right-hand side of the Quick Tac workbench and open the Fill
Tool list box.

Select your BMP file.

Left click in the Quick Tac drawing area. The drawing area should be filled
with your image. If your image is smaller than 101x101 pixels, the image
will repeat. You can fix this by opening the BMP file in a graphics program
such as Lview Pro and re-sizing it to exactly 101x101. Don't forget to save
the modified version in the Quick Tac folder. Many image manipulation
programs are available on the web, but most of them aren't accessible. It
may be possible to re-size your drawing in Windows Paint. (I'm not very
familiar with Windows Paint and haven't tried.) The unfortunate thing is
that when Quick Tac refuses to accept the original BMP drawing, it does so
silently. There is no error message or any other kind of warning. It simply
doesn't fill the drawing area when you left click in the drawing area.

Pull down the Quick Tac File menu and select Save As....

Save the file as type SIG.

I'm led to believe that a SIG file can be displayed in graphic form on
a Duxbury embosser.

Hope this works for you.

Dick Baldwin

-- 
Richard G. Baldwin (Dick Baldwin)
Home of Baldwin's on-line Java Tutorials
http://www.DickBaldwin.com

Professor of Computer Information Technology
Austin Community College
(512) 223-4758
mailto:Baldwin at DickBaldwin.com
http://www.austincc.edu/baldwin/