Vectoraster

Manual

Manual

© Copyright 2009 Lost Minds www.lostminds.com 1

 Vectoraster
Manual

Introduction
Vectoraster is an application that allows
you to create raster patterns in vector-based
formats from an existing bitmap image.
The resulting raster can then be exported
to a file (EPS, PDF or TIFF) or copied
straight into most layout and vector graphics
software.
The rasters can be generated in different
distribution patterns and the individual
points can be of many different shapes to
suit any purpose.
Bitmap Vector raster

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Contents
Source images 1
Primary and secondary image 1
Measurement 1
Raster points 2
Size 2
Shape 2
Transform 2
Color 3
Point types 3
Raster patterns 5
Spacing 5
Transform 5
Distortion 5
Color 5
Raster types 6
Display 7
Primary display settings 7
Draft mode 7
Saving and Loading 8
Embedding 8
Exporting 9
Copying to the clipboard 9
File export 9
Export raster size 9
Batch export 10
Shareware 11
Example raster 1 12
Example raster 2 13
Example raster 3 14
Example raster 4 15
Distribution 16
Credits 16
Version history 17

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Source images
Primary and secondary
image
The first thing you need to specify when
creating a new raster is a primary source
image.
This is the image that will be used as the
base for the raster and it is set using the
“Source images” panel.
There are several ways to set a source
image:
-- Press browse and select an
image file on your hard drive.
-- Drag and drop an image or image file
into the image-well on the panel.
-- Paste in an image from the clipboard
using the menu item “Paste as Source
Image” in the Edit menu.
-- In Mac OS X 10.4 and later you can also
cut and paste images from the image-
wells directly.

If you select a QuickTime compatible movie

file you can also select a frame in the movie
to use as a source image.
You can also set a secondary source image.
This image can then be used if you want
to use color and weight-information from
different images.
At any time you can choose to change a
source image without affecting any other
settings.
Measurement
Here you control what is measured in what
image to set the size of the raster points.
You can choose between a wide range of
data from each of the source images as well
as random values.
The “Invert” option inverts the measured
value effectively inverting the raster.
The “Local average” option generates a
measured value by calculating a average of
several local points. This makes the raster
smoother.

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Raster points
The shape of the points in the raster is
defined in the “Raster points” panel.
There are four tabs with different types of
point shape settings:

Size
In this tab you set the min and max size of
the points in the raster. The settings here are
common for all point types.
The units correspond to one pixel in
the primary source image, but they are
converted to either mm or points in exported
rasters according to what preference is set
of export units.
If the “Incremental point size” option is
selected you can set a number of size steps
to use.

Shape
In this tab you can change various shape
parameters that are specific for each point
type, so the content of this tab changes a lot.
For more information about these settings,
see the point types section below.

Transform
In this tab you can apply various
transformations to the individual points.
Rotation sets the angle each point is rotated
around its center. You can also add a
random value to each point to have them
rotated randomly or add the raster rotation
to align the points to the rotation of the
raster pattern.
The aspect ratio setting controls the height/
width ratio of each point. The “Vary aspect
ratio” option sets the aspect ratio as a
function of the point size.

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Color
In this tab you specify what color the raster
points will be by using the sliders to set a
mix between three sources:
Single color
A single color that you can set using the
color well next to the slider
Primary source image
The color of the pixel corresponding the
point in the primary source image.
Secondary source image
The color of the pixel corresponding the
point in the secondary source image.

Point types
Circle
A circular point. There are no shape settings
for this point type.
Box
A square box. There are no shape settings
for this point type.
Polygon and Rounded polygon
A polygon with equal length sides. In the
shape settings you can control the number
of edges and rounding of the edges for the
rounded type. The Random edges-option
makes the number of edges random from
point to point, based on the base edge
number.
Contracting shape
Same as rounded polygon but with an
additional option to have the sides contract
towards the center.
Random shape
A random rounded shape for each individual
point. You can control the amount of
rounding, contraction as well as the average
number of edges.

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Character / Text
Use characters from any installed font as
raster points. You specify a set of characters
using the character set field. You can also
use the “All letters” option to use all letters
in the English alphabet as character set.
You can use the characters in the set in
three different ways, controlled by the mode
menu. You can either loop through the
letters in order to get a text-like appearance
of the raster or use the characters of the set
in a random order. Finally you can also use
the entire character set for each point.
Custom shape
Import a custom graphics file to use for the
points. You can either use vector formats
like PDF or EPS or you can use a bitmap
image.
If the bitmap has an alpha-channel it will be
used as a mask, otherwise the darkness will
be used to control transparency.
Line raster
Instead of generating a raster with a lot of
individual points this “point type” generates
lines connecting the points with varying
width depending to the point size.
Because this mode is a little different than
the other point types it does not have any
transform options, and it does not work with
the random raster pattern types.

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 Vectoraster
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Raster patterns
The pattern of the raster is defined in the
“Raster pattern” panel.
There are four tabs with different types of
raster pattern settings:

Spacing
Here you control the spacing of the points in
the raster pattern.
You can either set the horisontal and vertical
spacing individually or check the “use
horisontal spacing” to use the same spacing
for both.
While the two spacing settings are labeled
horisontal and vertical they should actually
be seen as a first and second direction. For
example in a radial raster they represent
radial and circumference distance.

Transform
Here you control basic transformation of the
entire raster pattern, rotation and offset.
To offset the raster you can also click
and drag in the raster window. To quickly
re-center the raster use the re-center button.

Distortion
To make a more interesting raster pattern
you can apply various distortions to the
pattern. The distortion types that are
available are: Twist, Bulge, Wave and Split.
For each you can control the strength of the
distortion and the size.

Color
In the last tab you control the color of the
background. You can also chose not to use
any background.

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Raster types
Straight grid
A grid with the points in straight rows.
Alternating grid
A more compact pattern where every other
row is shifted.
Radial
The points are arranged in a circular pattern
around a center point.
Random
Points are distributed at random.
(Line rasters cannot be generated with this
raster type.)
Varied density
Points are distributed at random, but with
higher frequency in darker areas.
(Line rasters cannot be generated with this
raster type.)

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Display
Primary display settings
The basic display settings are located at the
bottom of the main window.
The main control of this panel is the display
slider. It controls how much of the raster
and source image are shown. This does
not affect the exported raster, it’s only for
practical reasons while you’re working with
the raster.
The panel also offers a zoom menu that
allows you to zoom in. While you are
zoomed in you can hold space and click and
drag in the image to pan around. Next to the
zoom menu there is a fit-button that zooms
the image to fit in the current window size.
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Vectoraster
Manual
In the Display menu in the menu bar there
are a few more display-settings:
Auto regenerate
Turns on and off auto regenerating of the
raster after you’ve made a change. If you’re
working with very large rasters you can turn
this off and manually choose Regenerate to
update the raster.
Draft mode
When draft mode is turned on the raster is
drawn in a faster but less accurate way. It
doesn’t affect exported rasters, but speeds
up things while you’re working.
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Manual

Saving and Loading

To save or open a previously saved
Vectoraster document, just use the Save and
Open commands in the File menu.
The files saved by Vectoraster use an
internal format and are of the type
“.VRaster”. This file cannot be used by any
other applications and is only for use by
Vectoraster.

Embedding
When saving a document the source
image(s) and custom point image data is
embedded into the VRaster file, so you do
not need to keep the original source image
file once you have saved the Vectoraster
document.
However, font data is not embedded in the
file, so in order to display character/text
rasters correctly in Vectoraster when you
open a saved VRaster file you need to have
the font installed.

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Exporting
To use the raster you have created you need
to export it to a format other applications
can use.
Copying to the clipboard
The easiest way is to copy the raster onto
the clipboard by using the “Copy Vector-
Raster” item in the Edit menu. This will
copy the raster data to the clipboard. In the
preferences dialog you can set what format
the clipboard data should be. The default is
PDF and EPS.
There is a bug in Adobe Illustrator CS2 and
CS3 that sometimes prevents you to paste in
PDF data from other applications. If you are
having this problem, try this:
-- In Illustrator, copy any object inside an
open Illustrator document.
-- Quit and restart Illustrator.
-- You should now be able to paste in things
from Vectoraster and other applications
into Illustrator.
© Copyright 2009 Lost Minds www.lostminds.com
Vectoraster
Manual
File export
You can save the raster in vector format as
an EPS or PDF-file that can be imported
into most vector illustration packages.
You can also generate a bitmap TIFF image
of the raster. All these option are found in
the File menu.
Export raster size
The size of the exported raster is dependent
on two things. First the size of the primary
source image, second the export units
used. You can set what units to use in the
preferences dialog. If you for example use
millimeters a 100x100 pixel source image
the result will be a 100x100mm raster.
9

Batch export
The batch export panel, accessible from
the Batch Process menu, allows you to
automatically apply the current vectoraster
to a series of source images.
In the panel you can first define input
options, choose either to use frames in a
QuickTime compatible video file, or use all
image files in a selected directory.
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Vectoraster
Manual
In the output portion of the dialog you
set where the output will be stored. You
can also choose the size and format of
the output. You can either save the output
as numbered vector files in EPS or PDF
format, TIFF-bitmap images or you
can render the exported rasters into a
QuickTime movie file.
10

Shareware
This software is shareware. That means that
you can try it out for free, but if you like
it you should pay for it. Until you register
and pay for the application points will be
missing from all exported rasters.
The price is $20 and payment is handled
online via the secure servers of Kagi. You
can pay with credit card, paypal, wire
transfer or check.
© Copyright 2009 Lost Minds www.lostminds.com
Vectoraster
Manual
To register go to www.lostminds.com and
click “registration”.
You will then be directed to Kagi, the
company that handles our payments. They
can offer secure online payments and accept
just about any form of payment.
After you have paid you will receive a code
via e-mail that allows you to unlock the
software and use it without limitations.
Your payment is vital as it will enable us to
continue improving this product and make
other great applications in the future.
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 Vectoraster
Manual

Example raster 1
Basic straight grid raster with circle points, with a slight twist distortion added to make it a little
more interesting. (Sample file included: “Twisted Dot.VRaster”)

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Example raster 2
Line raster with a wave distortion. (Sample file included: “Line raster Darwin.VRaster”)

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Example raster 3
Random blob point shapes in a varied density distribution, color mix using primary source color.
(Sample file included: “Varied Density Chili.VRaster”)

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 Vectoraster
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Example raster 4
A straight raster using character point shapes and a character set containing the lyrics of
“Crossroad blues” drawn in order. To get light points on a dark background the primary image
darkness measurement is inverted. The color is a mix of orange and the primary source image
color. (Sample file included: “Text raster Robert.VRaster”)

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 Vectoraster
Manual

Distribution
This application is distributed as shareware.
As such you are free to distributed the
unregistered version as long as you
distribute the entire package with this
manual, the online registration link and the
sample files are included with it. However,
it would be nice if you dropped me a line to
tell me about it.
If you wish to distribute the application
commercially or if you have some other
question you can reach me at:
lars.gafvert (at) lostminds.com
You can always find the latest version of
Vectoraster and our other products at:
http://www.lostminds.com

Credits
Concept and programming
-- Lars Gäfvert

Testing
-- Jorge Pérez Boeneker
-- Francis Glebas
-- Andrew Lilleyman
-- Benjamin Schudel
-- Jonas Svensson
-- Nenke van Wermeskerken

© Copyright 2009 Lost Minds www.lostminds.com 16


Version history
Version 3.5.0 - 2009-11-30
-- Added batch processing tool.
-- Added movie frame import.
-- Added Box point shape.
-- Added the random edge number option
for the polygon point shapes.
-- Added lossless LZW-compression to
exported TIFF-files.
-- Fixed some interface quirks in Mac OS
X 10.6.
Version 3.0.1 - 2009-06-19
-- Vectoraster now properly adds the right
file extension in save dialogs.
-- Made the interface fields more
responsive.
-- Added a help menu item to open the
manual.
Version 3.0.0 - 2009-03-24
-- Line raster mode to generate proper line
rasters.
-- New character point modes to select
characters from a defined set, loop
through a string or use an entire string as
a point.
-- Separate horisontal and vertical raster
spacing setting.
-- Incremental point size option to use a
set number of point sizes instead of the
default linear distribution.
-- Improved point rotation control.
-- Better control of “Random shape” points,
previously know as “Random blob”.
-- Remodeled user interface with separate
source image, point and pattern panels.
© Copyright 2009 Lost Minds www.lostminds.com
Vectoraster
Manual
-- Moved display slider and zoom controls
to the bottom of the main window and
fixed zoom centering.
-- Option to include source image in
exported rasters.
-- Improved manual.
-- Fixed problems with open paths in
exported rasters with rounded point
shapes.
-- Fixed random value measurement.
-- Fixed problem with aspect ratio of
custom point shapes.
-- Fixed problem selecting font family
members for character point shape type
under OS X 10.5.
Version 2.1.2 - 2008-02-17
-- Fixes to various things that were broken
in version 2.1.1
-- Restored real-time raster regeneration.
-- Better support for the special character
panel.
Version 2.1.1 - 2008-02-09
-- Fixed crash under Mac OS X 10.5.
-- You can now abort slow raster
regenerations.
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Version 2.1.0 - 2008-01-10 -- Lots of small bugs fixed.

-- A new raster distortion feature allows
you to twist and deform the raster Version 1.1.2 - 2006-09-09
patterns.
-- Fixed bug caused by duplicate fonts.
-- Adjustments to make the interface more
-- Correct pixel sizes for source images at
responsive.
non-72dpi resolutions.
-- Source image data is now compressed
-- Fixed source colors for images with
making saved .VRaster files much
alpha channels on Mac OS X < 10.4
smaller.
-- Better handling of corrupted files.
Version 1.1.1 - 2006-08-30
-- Point shape aspect-ratio parameter
Version 2.0.1 - 2007-10-01 introduced.
-- You can now apply color to custom
-- Polygon shapes are now properly closed
bitmap shapes.
in exported rasters.
-- Improved random blobs shape, now you
-- Removed extra points from exported
can adjust contraction and smoothing of
character rasters.
the blobs.
-- All color picker modes are now
-- Undo now works for the color wells.
supported.
-- A bunch of small fixes.

Version 1.1.0 - 2006-08-22

Version 2.0.0 - 2007-08-14 -- Vectoraster now requires Mac OS X 10.3
-- Custom point shape. Use any image file or later.
as raster points.
-- Varied density distribution introduced.
-- Secondary source image for color or
-- Character point type now supports all
point size.
members of each font family.
-- Source color mixing sliders.
-- CMYK-channel measurement.
-- Preference to use points or millimeters as
-- Reworked random blob points and
units for exported rasters.
random distribution.
-- Character point type can now use a
-- Some minor bugs fixed.
random character.
-- Display menu with options to render
rasters in draft mode and to turn off Version 1.0.1 - 2006-08-03
raster auto regeneration. -- Fixed bug with missing controls under
-- Export to PDF added. Mac OS X 10.3.
-- Export to TIFF added.
-- New option to control if the raster should Version 1.0.0 - 2006-07-29
have a background color. -- Initial release.
-- Preference to copy vector-rasters as PDF,
EPS or both.

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