Fix the graphics

If your work includes preparing vector graphics for production, you know that it can take several hours.

Imagaro professional Z turns the imported bitmap graphics into vector graphics. This is called auto tracing and the resulting objects are built from lines and curves. Imagaro Z can do much more than this. To get the graphics into perfect shape, you can restore common shapes to their original look.

Imagaro professional Z has a set of tools that will turn graphics into its original shape. The FontEye™ tool can recognize typefaces and turn your texts into the correct font. The result can't become any better than that. Even rectangles, circles, ellipses and triangles becomes perfect with one click. Another great function is that you can copy the shape from one object to others by just clicking them. Rotation and size are calculated automatically.

Another issue that usually creates a problem in logos and other graphics is outline effects. When you vectorize a text with an outline, it usually does not look good when you take a closer look at it. And when you replace the text with the correct font using the FontEye™ tool, the contour effect will look as if it was hand made. In Imagaro professional Z you can re-calculate the outline by selecting the text and then clicking the Show outline button. The software automatically calculates the distance for the outline and when you click apply the traced contour is replaced with a perfectly calculated outline. Some shapes can't be restored to their original shape because they are hand drawn or come from some clip art graphics. If there are any flaws in these objects you most probably can fix them with the clean-up tool in Imagaro professional Z.

Get better tracing results

When you trace a bitmap image it is converted to shapes consisting of curves and lines. To get good looking and easy to edit graphics it is important that the lines, curves and corners are placed in the right places.

A curve or a line is defined by a starting point and an endpoint, these points are called nodes. A curve also has two handles which determine the start and end direction of the curve. When a professional artist draws shapes he places nodes and handles in a certain way to get objects with the right look that are easy to control. Nodes should be placed in every corner and in every maxinum point of a curve, and at the maximum points the handles should be placed absolutely horizontal or vertical. You can look at any typeface to see for yourself that professional graphics are built this way.

How to get perfect outlines

Inlines/outlines and other contour effects are very common in logos and other graphics. When you vectorize a logo the text and the outline are traced separately. This means that they will not become parallell.

When you use the FontEye™ tool to find the font and replace the text, the text will become perfect but the outline will look even worse now that the text has the right look. There is only one way to fix this and it is to recalculate the contour effect. In Imagaro professional Z you only need to select the text and then click "Preview contour". The software automatically calculates the distance for the outline and draws a preview on top of the traced contour. You now only have to click the apply button to remove the old outline and replace it with a new contour created from the text which has the right typeface.

Finding the font when the text is curved

How many times have you asked yourself: What font is this? Imagaro professional Z can help you to identify the font in almost all situations. Even when the text is arced or aligned to a curve this program will identify the typrface.

When you want to identify a curved, arced or tilted text you use the same procedure as when you identify the font of any normal text with one small difference. You must set the rotation angle for the letters. Just hold down the SHIFT-key and click and drag to set the rotation for every letter in the text. When you have done this you only need to click the "Find" button to see what font it is.

Tools that will clean up the nodes

Imagaro professional Z has several tools that will clean up poor looking logos and other graphics.

Sometimes when a logo is vectorized, you will discover that some parts of the image looks good while others don't. Usually large objects have a nice look while smaller objects tend to look rougher. In Imagaro professional Z you have the option to re-trace selected objects with new settings. You can for example use higher accuracy on smaller objects.

Imagaro professional Z has tools that will restore common shapes, texts, repeated shapes and outline effects to their original look, but sometimes you have hand drawn shapes and clip-art that needs to be fixed. For this purpose Imagaro professional Z has a clean-up tool which will fix flaws and smothen out rough looking objects.

Another way to smoothen graphics is to remove and adjust nodes and handles with the node editing tool. This will take much longer time but on the other hand you are completely in control of the graphics. Imagaro professional Z has a few node editing features which can help you if you want to edit the graphics manually.

Identify the typeface

Have you ever had a text where you can't figure out which typeface it is? After hours of searching, you still don't have a clue. You are not alone. Everyone working with graphics has this problem.

Now you don't have to look any further than in your Imagaro professional Z software. The program can identify more than 70,000 typefaces. In a minute you will know exactly which font it is and you can be 100% sure that the correct font is found since it is projected on top of your text so that you can see that it is an exact match.

Imagaro professional Z tells you which typeface it is and if you own it the program can tel you exactly where it is stored. The software keeps track of all your fonts, even the ones that aren't installed in your computer. Just let Imagaro Professional Z scan through all of your font collections when you install the software.

If you don't have a font, Imagaro professional Z can suggest other fonts which looks the same or almost the same. There are lots of fonts that are very similar from differenrt manufacturers. You can save money when the software suggests similar looking fonts that you own or can be downloaded for free. More than 8,000 fonts in the FontEye databases can be downloded for free.

Imagaro professional Z can identify the typeface even if the text is bent, rotated, stretched or compressed. Even script fonts or other texts where letters are connected can be identified.

Even tweaked texts

Now you know that Imagaro professional Z can identify more than 70,000 fonts from leading typeface manufacturers all over the world plus all the typeface collections you own yourself which can be scanned by the software plus all the fonts you have installed in your computer. But it doesn't stop there!

A truly amazing part about Imagaro professional Z, it can recognize the font even if the text is stretched, compressed, arced or aligned to a curve. Even script texts where the letters are connected can be recognized. Even when the text is so distorted that no one can say what font it is, Imagaro professional Z can. The software also tells you exactly how much the text is stretched or compressed. This allows you to create new texts with the exact same look even when the original text is tweaked.

Restore texts

A scanned text or the text in a small logo taken from the Internet is practically useless when you need to enlarge it. To get good looking scalable texts you'll need to replace the texts with the correct font.

Imagaro professional Z has not only the ability to recognize fonts, it can also replace scanned or imported texts with the right typeface. This means that the texts become regenerated as they once were created. Even if the texts have been stretched out, are compressed, arced or aligned to a curve you can use this program to get perfect texts.

Imagaro professional Z can identify more than 70,000 fonts and when the font is identified, you only need to click the Replace button to turn the text into the correct typeface. You must naturally own the font to use this function. However if you don't own it, Imagaro professional Z can also show you if you own other fonts which looks almost the same. Many fonts are very similar but have different font names when they come from different type foundries.

Keep track of all fonts

Do you know exactly which fonts you own? Do you have fonts which are similar to other typefaces that you can use instead? Do you know where you can buy and download missing fonts in seconds?

Imagaro professional Z answers all of these questions in only a few seconds. You can enter a font name into the program or a part of it and Imagaro professional Z will instanly show you what the font looks like and tell you if you own it. If you dont have the typeface, the program can suggest similar fonts that you own, which can be used instead. The application draws the suggested font on top of the original typeface so that you can be absolutely sure that the fonts look the same. Even when you have used Imagaro professional Z to identify a font, the program can tell you if you own another similar typeface.

Sometimes you might not have a font or a typeface which looks the same. In this case, Imagaro professional Z lets you search several different font sites on the Internet directly from within the program. When the software has found the typeface, you can directly download the font from the selected site. More than 8,000 of the fonts can be downloaded and used for free. It has never been easier to keep track of the fonts you own and all others too.

A better way to node edit

When you have traced a color logo, the different color fields are traced edge to edge so that no gaps or overlaps are created in the image. But when you start editing the graphics you will get gaps or overlaps everytime you try to change something in the image. This means that you have to edit the other object to close the gap and it is almost impossible to get perfect edge to edge graphics again.

In Imagaro professional Z the nodes of the different objects are connected. So when you move one of them the other object will change automatically so that no gap appears. It doesen't matter what kind of editings you do, the graphics will remain tight edge to edge.

If you want to node edit the traditional way in Imagaro professional Z and separate the objects, just press the ALT-key when you edit and the borders between the colors will become separated.

Identify the typeface in script texts

In some texts, the letters are connected. This happens when a script font is used or when two characters are too closely kerned. In either case Imagaro professional Z can tell you what typeface it is.

When you identify a font with Imagaro professional Z you must type in the same text as the one you have selected in the graphics and then you must connect the correct objects in the graphics with the correct character in the text. This becomes a problem when several characters are connected so that it is impossible to select only one letter. The solution is to connect all the connected letters to a group of characters. When you have connected the letters correctly you just click "Find" and in just a few seconds Imagaro professional Z will tell you which font it is.