Touching on Tactile Graphics
By Lucia H., VAVF TG Skills Consultant
I surely have missed you all during our virtual time. I hope we can soon look at tactile graphics IN PERSON! Meanwhile, I have been busy with several TG projects.
One of projects is comparing the same tactile graphic produced by different production methods including a variety of graphics embossers and several capsule papers and fusers. I will have some examples to show in person when we are together again.
During this process, I have spent significant time communicating with different high resolution braille embosser companies. One of them is Humanware, who sells all of the current generation Enabling Technologies embossers capable of producing tactile graphics (Juliet 120, Romeo 60, and Phoenix). They will be phasing out the Phoenix Embosser and have several for sale at a reduced price of $2700.00. If you are interested, contact Kevin Hughes, West Region Manager, Humanware at 800-722-3393 ext. 260.
If you are looking for a more robust software program than whatever comes with your brand of embosser, consider TactileView Design Software ($295.00). It works with all embossers currently sold in the US market (Enabling, Index, ViewPlus, and Irie). It was developed in the Netherlands by a blind engineer and is mostly accessible. It has a wide range of features and is much more robust than the free versions of software*. It does not have many of the features found in CorelDraw, Adobe, etc., that we don’t need for tactile graphics, such as a large library of colors, fonts, and fill patterns. It is sold in the US by Irie-AT in Oregon and by Brailler Depot in New Jersey.
A webinar/tutorial for TactileView is being developed. Stay tuned!
Tactile Graphics questions? Contact Lucia!
*Firebird software comes free with all Enabling embossers, but the most recent version 31 has been very problematic. It is not clear if/when Firebird will be updated.
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