Adobe Illustrator add-on gives design preview

Image Paint, from Amazon Canvas, is a new software program for designing and producing wood inlay and marquetry features. The add-on for the graphics editing program, Adobe Illustrator, provides an accurate rendering of the final design along with the ability to make changes, according to its developer.

“Typically when a woodworker or artist creates a piece of marquetry or other furniture inlay product, it’s difficult to design and actually see the end product before cutting. I developed this for people to design and apply wood images to see what it looks like before cutting them,” Amazon Canvas founder Vincent Doan says.

Doan has been a software/hardware engineer for more than 20 years. He’s also a woodworker who grew frustrated with wasting time and material on his marquetry projects. He formed Amazon Canvas in 2010 and debuted Image Paint at the 2015 AWFS.

“When I started doing marquetry I didn’t have any software so I had to do it by hand and was very unsatisfied with the result. I wanted to place a shape on a particular location on my work and it was very difficult without software. You have to imagine how to do it in your head and if there’s a mistake, you need to cut all over again. You waste material and never get what you want. This (software) gives you the ability to visualize the finished product before the product is built,” Doan says.

The software is available in two versions:

Image Paint Design Pro allows the user to “paint” vector shapes with JPEG images, selected from a library. The shapes can be moved or rotated anywhere on the image and previewed instantly.

Image Paint Production Pro also generates tool paths for CNC manufacturing.

The two versions sell for $259 and $499, respectively.

For information, visit www.amazoncanvas.com.

This article originally appeared in the April 2016 issue.