Customer Reviews

Calligraphic Ornaments CD-ROM and Book (Dover Electronic Clip Art)

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4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(1)
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1 star:		(1)

 

 

The ornamentation is very nice but something anyone buying any of the Dover Electronic Clip Art series books should take into account is that they are not actual clip art items. Dover has just scanned the art and put it on a CD, the items are not scalable or changeable in a usual clip art format. It is very helpful to have the images already scanned but if you want true clip art, this book is not for you.

Buyers shoud be aware that this book has the same content as an earlier Dover book,Ready-to-Use Calligraphic Ornaments by Kiyoshi Takahashi. This is better becuase it comes with a CD, but it is the same collection of images.

The .eps format dissapointed me...like other reviewers, I was hoping vor vector based images. I did have good results with Illustrator CS2's live trace tool. I turned the images into plain linework, then added the thick/thin look of calligraphy by applying Illustrator's calligraphic brushes. A bit if work, but the results are nice.

And unfortunately I was looking for true clip art! However, I must say that the ornaments presented are truly stunning, and can easily be used in paper crafting of any kind. I used this book to create labels for gifts and to address holiday envelopes. I am a novice desktop publisher and was not disappointed.

Cris Cunningham

I must say I am glad that I read the other reviews so that I was prepared when I purchased this item. It is a bit misleading that the CD contains files in EPS format because they act just like a placed image in Illustrator. HOWEVER, with a program like Adobe Streamline, the images are absolutely GORGEOUS. I highly recommend this item along with Streamline. In the end, the quality workmanship of a Dover book is found in this product.

When i first saw this book, i was very excited because it said that i had .eps files, which to me, mean vector, easy to use etc. These files are all raster, thus if you are seeking full vector, you might need to order a copy of Adobe Streamline and covert these. Big disappointment.

joshua
(...)

I should have read the other reviews.
These designs are simply scanned from a printed version. They are not vector.
The result is very poor quality - rough lines, occasionally broken lines, fuzzy, whatever the scan picked up or missed.
What irritates me is that the cover is uses many of these designs and they are far sharper than any I can get, and I thought that was what I was getting.
OK for playing around, but useless for professional work.