Illustrator to Omega (vinyl)

[Will Hobbs]

Has anyone run into problems with outlined fonts not cutting right from Omega? Any tips? Also, has anyone heard of a plug-in for exporting directly to vinyl?

[Will Hobbs]

[JasonSmith]

What kind of problems are you seeing?

[JasonSmith]

You know about consolidating all of your strokes and fills, if there is anything overlapping, the vinyl cutter will cut both the top element and bottom element.

[Will Hobbs]

Well... when we outline fonts in Illustrator, and cut them from Omega (in vinyl), they come out choppy-- uneven widths and splits on their horizontal axis. Is there a way to fix this, or is it inherent with the outlining process? I know it does fine if you hand vector with just a few points... but who has time for a whole page? Any ideas???

[Tim J Anderson]

I use an old progam from Flexi, called Flexicut and have had no real problems with Illustrator files, which is all I use. It is a bridge program and requires a dongle.

I have found 2 programs that are supposed to let you cut directly from Illustrator.

? Magisign - magisign.com ? CoCut - unleash.com/sd/cocutmac.html

I would be interested to know how well they work.

With your problems of horizontal splits, did you make sure that you don't have Illustrator set to " split long paths"

[Will Hobbs]

I appreciate your help guys... I'm new to the vinyl business. My coworkers say that the machine needs servicing, too, and that might be a problem with the actual plotter. Thanks! Hopefully we'll get it...

[James E. Talmage]

I also use Flexicut with no problems (although I usually export the AI
files from FH because FH's multipage capability is a big productivity
boost for this kind of work).

For what it's worth, Roland's ColorChoice software also imports and cuts
AI paths fine.

> when we outline fonts in Illustrator, and cut them from Omega (in vinyl),

> they come out choppy--uneven widths and splits on their horizontal axis.

Can you describe your workflow, step-by-step? I'm not familiar with
Omega. Is that the cutting software which sends data to your cutter?
I've often seen the kind of crummy shapes you describe from local sign
shops. It generally results from them unnecessarily "re-inventing the
wheel" by "digitizing" the artwork which is already vector and already
optimized for cutting. In fact, the recurring problem was one of the
main factors which caused me to go ahead and get a cutter of my own.

It sounds as if your software may be doing some kind of autotracing
(perhaps of the EPS preview image) to get paths of its own native
format, rather than directly using the AI paths.

JET

[Greg Cotter]

Will, are you trying to cut vinyl for signage applications?

I have experience with a highly competant plug in for ai9 that controls a wide variety of vinyl plotters.

I can provide more infor if this is your concern.

Please advise,
Greg.

[James E. Talmage]

> I have experience with a highly competant plug in for ai9 that controls a
> wide variety of vinyl plotters.

I'm all ears, Greg.

I'm still using an ancient copy of FlexiCut on an old Mac connected to
my Roland cutter, because sign stuff is an occasional use for me, not a
matter of constant production. I'm unwilling to pay $2000 for a current
cutting software serving a very vertical market, and basically paying to
redundantly replicate what I can do in AI or FH anyway.

So if you know of a decent, affordable, and straightforward plug-in that
simply sends the paths to the cutter, I'd like to hear about it.

JET

[JasonSmith]

me 3.

[Philippe JACQUES]

Look at http://www.magisign.com <http://www.magisign.com>
This plug-in drives more than 350 cutting plotter to produce vinyl letters and logos from Adobe Illustrator

[Unknown]

Pssssshhhh...those prices are ridiculous.

[Philippe JACQUES]

What do you mean by ridiculous ?

Compare the price of MagiSign to the common price of a signmaking software ! Some exceed 2000 USD ! We are here in a niche market, never forget it ! You will make fast money with this kind of tool and those who follow NCS frm 1996 know we care to evolve year after yearů

Just take a look on the plug-in market : how many companies have been there like us from 1995 ? The common price of plug-in does not allow this market to surviveand many disappear without any updates !

And for those who don't want to pay to acceed to some technologies, SignofNCS, our first product, is freeware nowů

[Unknown]

Now that we know that you're affiliated with the company that has authored those plugins, Philippe, I can understand your defense of the pricing. And your Freeware is all well and good...too bad it only works with ancient versions of Illustrator.

For JET or anyone else who would only need it on a rare occasion, it IS a little pricey.

[Philippe JACQUES]

Are you just aware of the price of a cutting plotters ? Commonly people who buy one does not buy for use it on rare ocasion ! And graphic studio which buy one plotter are commonly aware of the time/cost it requires to cut… and weed vinyl.

A Omega cutting plotter cost around $1,899.00 in USA. An entry level plotter from Summa Inc., for instance, cost the same 2000 USD. (http://www.summadirect.com/us/merchant.mv?Screen=CTGY&Category_Code=CUT).

NCS MagiSign drives not only those entry level models, but also 350 models, including far more expensive plotters like Zund flatbed models http://www.zund.com/plotter/englisch/indexe.htm) <http://www.zund.com/plotter/englisch/indexe.htm)> or Aristo one (http://www.aristo.de).

Compare the combo "Illustrator/MagiSign" to dedicated sign software, check how reliable and bug-free is this solution and you will understand why many of our customers don't consider it as an exceptionaly priced, I mean low priced solution !

Philippe JACQUES
New Ceres Solution

[Unknown]

Sell, baby, sell!!!

;o)

[Thurgood]

To be fair Phosphor someone did ask about a software for under $2000. That's how much they were willing to pay up to and if that is the price of such software, then it sounds reasonable.

I wouldn't know about such plotters or the drivers but Philippe
need not be so defensive as Phosphor was playing devil's advocate.

Phosphoe, you were just playing the role?

[Unknown]

Wade...

JET only stated that he has already laid out the money for a Roland cutter that he drives with an old copy of FlexiCut.

The context in which he mentions $2000 says that he doesn't want to pay that much for updated software, especially if it also has drawing tools similar to AI or Freehand. Those tools in expensive, proprietary software are redundant if one already owns a dedicated vector drawing application. Granted, free (for a plugin the will only work with Illustrator up to version 7) or $700 (for the most up-to-date version) IS cheaper than some of the proprietary software I've looked at, but is it worth it if you're only going to use it once or twice over the next year or two?

MagiSign does look like nice software, but would you call it inexpensive?

Would you spend the money for a brand new version of Photoshop if all you were ever going to do is clear up Red-Eye once a year after taking pictures at your child's birthday party? Maybe...if you had that kind of disposable income. The smart consumer would buy Elements.

It's all relative. I think JET and Will want the equivalent of Elements.

[James E. Talmage]

>For JET or anyone else who would only need it on a rare occasion, it IS
a
> little pricey.

Well, my use is far from "rare." It is just not constant.

> Are you just aware of the price of a cutting plotters ? Commonly people
> who buy one does not buy for use it
> on rare ocasion !

Philippe, I appreciate the heads up about your product. I am well aware
of the prices of plotter/cutters. They are quite reasonable. So to my
mind, this argument actually runs counter to justifying the price of a
3rd party
plug-in which costs more than the host program itself and over 25% the
cost of the device. AI/FH/CV/CD users are not shy about spending twice
the cost of a decent plotter on a color laser printer or medium-format
inkjet, the use of which is mostly considered "cost of doing business".
So what keeps many more of them from exploring the potential profit of a
$2000 vinyl cutter? I think it is largely the lack of simple, sensible,
and straightforward driver software which lets the user use whatever
mainstream design software he wants being included with the device.

For a case-in-point; I spent $5000 on one of the (also grossly
overpriced) Roland PC-12 printer/cutters. This device will be hard
pressed to ever pay for itself as it is. I bit the bullet and bought it
because I wanted it for a few recurring specialty projects and to
supplement a few other display projects. Still, had it not come with the
necessary software, I simply would not have bought it.

> And graphic studio which buy one plotter are commonly aware of the time/
> cost it requires to cut… and weed vinyl.

I am also well acquainted with those costs. But neither argument has
anything to do with the appropriate pricing of the software being
discussed. The fact that I can build a $200,000 house with a $10 hammer
would not move me to pay $400 for the hammer. And by what logic would
the fact that I am aware of the time/cost required to cut the wood
justify a too-high price to have it delivered?

Philippe, I'm sure your company is worthy of its hire, and I certainly
don't begrudge you charging whatever your target market will bear (I
do). But I would think myself squarely amid that target market, and
frankly, do find $600 for a 3rd party Illustrator plug-in prohibitive.

Granted, I have not tried your software. The price keeps me from even
doing that because I know what I need it to do, and am not willing to
pay that price for that need.

I simply need a current-version solution to continue to accomplish the
same thing I do with FlexiCut 4.6 on a down-tasked PowerComputing Mac
running OS8.6. It IS ridiculous to have to spend the same amount of money
(and more) all over again just to continue with my current capabilities
under a current OS.

This situation is typical of those in which OSX represents a practical
downgrade to me. Unless I want to run in Classic emulation mode (I
don't), OSX will cost me the loss of important tools including FlexiCut,
Streamline, Dimensions, and Fontographer. For the thousands of dollars
we spend each year on gigaflop computers and graphics software, the
bottom line is, we often get less of the functionality we have depended
upon for years, (and still don't gain the ability to, for example, define
an ellipse as sensibly as a $5.95 plastic template or the ability to add
page 2 to an illustration project.) ;-)

Anyway, my post was in response to Greg, who wrote:

> I have experience with a highly competant plug in for ai9 that controls a
> wide variety of vinyl plotters.

> I can provide more infor if this is your concern.

So Greg, is MagiSign the plug-in to which you referred?

JET

[Greg Cotter]

We run Magisign and we produce a lot of signs.

When we needed a Mac - plotter driver only solution, Magisign was the only thing on the block.

We didn't want to pay the relatively high price either. But, since we do a great deal of signage, it was recouped quickly.

Simply ask yourself how much it will cost to outsource/do other way, and do an ROI on the 'high' price tag.

But I can tell you this as an end user - it flat out works, is rock solid and does everything it says it can do. I highly recommend it and it's price for those that need it / have no other choice.

Supply met demand, and we are better for it.

Hope this info helps.
Greg.

[Thurgood]

Phophor your thoughts on this matter are well stated and make sense, and perhaps the price is high, I don't know.

I thought that it should not be shot down so fast and that Philippe should not present his argument in such a defensive way as you were just trying to get the developer to see that to many this would be a high price.

If I was still designed signage I might find this of interest and I wanted to know more about it. So I didn't want the thread to die.

But I did notice that they update their software.

And of course people who use the plotter cutters and the this software are using it to, well, sell a product. I guess to make a profit, just like Philippe.

And Gregs information is very helpful. I wonder if you could use these plotter cutters to make fine art pieces.

I just did a painting were I created a frisket that I hand cut but it would probably have been done better this way.

Hey, you're charging way to much.

[James E. Talmage]

> 'Course the applications for "artsy" commercial work are manifold.

Example: Think of the posterized artwork that you see on the sides of
U-Haul trailers; pictures of everything from sailboats to sports
figures. All made from areas of flat colors. That kind of thing is
perfectly appropriate for drawing in AI with Brushes, and then cutting
from individual vinyl colors, rather than printing on full-color large
format printers. The results are often more vibrant and more color-fast
durable for extended times because the color is in the vinyl, not just
laid on top of it.

But while doing the artwork with freestyle Brush strokes in AI is quick
and fun, the work of then making the quickly-done artwork ready for
cutting can be a REAL drawn-out affair. The flattening enhancements I'm
talking about would fix all that.

JET

[James E. Talmage]

> I wonder if you could use these plotter cutters to make fine art
> pieces.

Sure. I remember seeing some rather large work at the local Museum of
Arts and Sciences that were painted, but would have been better done
with vinyl. 'Course the applications for "artsy" commercial work are manifold.

> I just did a painting were I created a frisket that I hand cut but it
> would probably have been done better this way.

Yep. Spray masks are another good and frequent use for knife plotters.
There are special low-tack vinyls made just for that purpose.

This is why I wish alot of other users would give some thought to the
merit of a "WYSIWYG flattening" feature in AI. It would work like
Flatten Transparency, but with these three changes:

1) It would work on 100% Opacity objects, just as it does on 99% Opacity.

2) It would not only automatically do the punch functions to remove
underlying parts, but would also automatically merge (or union)
contiguous same-colored areas.

3) It would provide a setting for overlap between different colored areas.

With the proliferation of features like Brushes and Symbols, we are now
creating drawings with many many more overlapping objects than before.
These features are a great time-saver for print-oriented work. But their
use is often prohibited for artwork which will be cut from vinyl because
of the incredible amount of tedious clean-up one has to do to get rid of
the hidden paths, merge contiguous areas, and build appropriate overlaps
(which serve the same purpose as traps in vinyl work).

The above modest tweaks of the flattening features would make the use of
Brushes and Symbols a major boon to those of us who need to not only put
that cartoon in a brochure, but also cut it out of vinyl.

JET

[Philippe JACQUES]

By the way, you will be able to produce lot of letterhead, signage, paintings, etc… There are thousand of applications of vinyl in a city. Just look around you how many logos and letters are produced on how many various support which are not printed but glued or painted…

What is incredible is that many signmakers are still scanning and vectorising logo's that were originally produced by graphic studio's with Adobe Illustrator to input them in their system. And don't believe I'm exagerating…

[Philippe JACQUES]

• Pathfinder-> Merge. Go back to each color/layer. Hide all the other layers, select all visible items and apply this pathfinder. It will concatenate your colored area in a single piece of vinyl everytime it will be possible
• Now, -oh, yes, sorry, it's an advertising for my product from here : select the result, define the output scale in the MagiSign palette and click on "Send" button. Define the amount of copies, some plotter setup like speed, pressure, etc and go : it's done. Repeat the same with other colors.

[Philippe JACQUES]

Those tools are very helpful in this process :

• Object-Expand : allows to extract Characters, symbols, brushes and strokes from any complex artwork. Just repeat it until you reach the basic level of your art. Start always to clean your artwork by this command (which is i.e. faster than Path Oultine stroke as it does more than one action in one command)

• Select all the artwork and apply "Pathfinder->Trim". It will remove any overlapping area from your art
• Select ->Same fill : allows to select all object of the same fill color. Selet one object of one color and apply this command. Once all the object of one color are selected, create a new layer and move the selected items to this layer (just drag the small dot at the right of the name of the selected layers from one line to another). Repeat the same for all the colors. It will be easier to play with colors later

[Philippe JACQUES]

Hi Jet,

I approve your opinions expressed above (- humm, all but price ! -)

Let me remind people here that Illustrator features are helpful at various level of this tedious job of cleaning artwork. The rules is that you must always keep in mind that a cutting tool will follow your paths. So if two paths intersects, you will obtain two pieces of vinyl, what's a nightmare to manipulate. At the opposite, a cutter can't reproduce patterns or bitmap artworks. You have to remove those parts of your logos and trying to reproduce all in terms of flat areas.

[Unknown]

Originally posted by Phillipe Jacques:

"What is incredible is that many signmakers are still scanning and vectorising logo's that were originally produced by graphic studio's with Adobe Illustrator to input them in their system. And don't believe I'm exagerating…"

Signmakers aren't the only ones. Ask any graphic artist who has been asked to repurpose a logo that was obviously done originally as vectors.

Client: "All I have is this brochure...can't you just scan the logo from there to use on the billboard?"

All of us: "If you need me, I'll be down at the bar....."

[Unknown]

Ooooooooo......Belgian beer.......oooooooooooooo.

Love that stuff......

[Philippe JACQUES]

You said : "i'll be down at the bar"…

Hmm, normal, we have excellent beers here in Belgium ! It helps to keep cool !

[JasonSmith]

Triple Grimburgen!!!! (I KNOW i didnt spell that right - or did I?)

[James E. Talmage]

> What is incredible is that many signmakers are still scanning and
> vectorising logo's that were originally
> produced by graphic studio's with Adobe Illustrator to input them in their
> system. And don't believe I'm
> exagerating…

That is true. Although I kinda "grew up" in the sign trade before the
advent of plotter cutters, and therefore wanted to get into vinyl
anyway, one of the largest factors which caused me to get a cutter was
the frequency with which what you allude to occurred.

A client pays me good money for a proper logo design. He needs a sign. I
painstakingly prepare the file appropriately for cutting and send it to
the sign company he has contracted with. The sign guy opens the EPS or
AI file in CorelDraw, prints it, scans the print and then runs a sloppy
auto trace tool on it to "vectorize" what was already optimized vector
paths to begin with. The results are, well...you can imagine.

As Philippe says, this is a very frequent practice. So I bought a cutter
and turned a chronic problem into a profit center.

JET

[James E. Talmage]

> we have excellent beers here in Belgium !

You also have a pretty darn good Trials rider (Crosset). I scored him in
section 15 at round 8 of the US Nationals in Tennessee last Sunday. I
think he won both days.

JET

[Renny Smith]

Forgot to add:

Retail price when I bought it in '92 was $500, and it's paid for itself hundreds of times over, since the only options for vinyl at that time were DOS platform. (remember them?)

[Renny Smith]

I have been using a program called SignPost for 10 years and it's a very simple driver. Open AI files from within SP and cut. That's about all it does but it does that wonderfully.

I think it's no longer published; you might be able to find a copy floating around out there somewhere, though.

RS

[Thurgood]

Jet thanks for your thoughts on this this is something I might do one day and if so I'll be back with lots of questions and I will probably be looking at Philippe's software as well. And after the last post it would seem the price is the price.

[Tricia Tahara]

Wow! I had no idea there were so many sign people (like me) in this forum.
Back to Will's original question - what kind problems do you have cutting outlined fonts with Omega? What plotter are you running? I've used Gerber software for 10+ years, and the problems one encounters with Omega are unique to it. The import filters for Illustrator files are not as good as they were with Graphics Advantage6.x. I was at a large sign shop in NYC where we beta tested Omega. The Illustrator import (and export) filter was a definite problem. We decided to install Omega on 2 work stations and all the rest continued to run GA 6.x. If you give me an idea of what's happening to your fonts, I may be able to help.

I am now in Los Angeles, CA (I got engaged) working in a situation with more print work (I did the large format printing as well in the NYC sign shop). No one here knows anything about vinyl and not a lot about Illustrator and the software they have to drive a Graphtec plotter is Flexi-Sign Pro. We also have an amazing Zund L-3000 plotter/cutter/router that runs with MGE eye-cut software. Needless to say, where I have always been a heavy Illustrator user, it is now virtually the only application I have that has the flexibility to do what I need to do. The things that JET mentions as added features would also send me into a deleriously happy state.

A lot of what I do is print & die cut, and I usually use an Illustrator file for both the print and cut.

Anyway, tell me all, and I'll tell you what I know, although it may all be useless info.

Tricia

[Philippe JACQUES]

Graphtec ? I confirm you could drive it directly from Adobe Illustrator using MagiSign (or using our freeware SignofNCS from older versions of AI).

Zund? As cutter, no problems too.
But MagiSign don't print.

I keep at your disposal if ever any interest to evaluate the demo you could download from our website.

[Richard BRackin]

Tricia -
---I had no idea there were so many sign people in this forum---

It looks like we're everywhere. There's not much other software to do what we do.
Interestingly enough, we have zund L3000's and M1600's running I-cut and run FlexiSign Pro with 48" Western Graphtec cutters. We use Omega, a gerber edge, and a little HS-15 plus sprocket cutter, too.

They don't make a better vinyl cutter than Western Graphtec. We have had some in operation 7 - 10 hours a day for over twelve years and never gone down.

We use i-cut for cutting our digital and screen prints.
All I-cut will import is .ai files (up to v8)

Small world

Richard

[Tricia Tahara]

Richard, it warms my heart to read about someone who knows what a Gerber edge is! Where are you?

Also, Will Hobbs, what happened to you?

Tricia

[Richard BRackin]

Tricia, we are in Alabama, our home office is in Atlanta. We beta tested FlexiSignPRO 6 through 6.6 and our suggestions finally made it to 7. I just finished an install on our PCs today.

That little Gerber Edge is a fantastic machine.

Richard

[James E. Talmage]

> Richard, it warms my heart to read about someone who knows what a Gerber
> edge is!

I know what a Gerber Edge is, too. ;-)

I bought the Roland PC12 to do much the same thing. It's limited to 13"
material and not as heavy-duty, but alot less expensive than an Edge,
and the end result is about the same. It holds 9 ribbon colors at once,
so you don't do as much swapping--although the ribbons don't last long, either.

It comes with a RIP that can be selected at the Chooser level using the
AdobePS driver and then used through the normal Print dialog. (At least
that's how it's *supposed* to work).

JET

[Philippe JACQUES]

Hi !

Any opinion about the Summa DC 3 ?
A great competitor for Gerber Edge, isn'it ?

This 36" inch termal printer — outdoor durable thermal transfer printing that doesn't need lamination — integrates contour cutting !

Print process color images onto premium 3M® vinyl for just $2.29 a square foot — finished and ready-to-install following Summa.

More about it is now published on http://www.durachrome.com/dc3.html) <http://www.durachrome.com/dc3.html)>

[Jim P Doggett]

Thanks for the plug Philippe!

Best Regards,

Jim Doggett
Summa

PS: dc3.summadirect.com <http://dc3.summadirect.com> also links to Summa DC3 info

[Richard BRackin]

We almost bought a Gerber Maxx, which is a larger Gerber Edge 'till we saw the banding (and how slow it was).

With the Edge, you can use their Spectratone SPOT colors as well as the process colors. The edge doesn't need laminating and contour cutting is done with our Gerber HS 15 plus.

Richard

[Tricia Tahara]

Oh, I am indeed among friends! JET, Richard, everybody - keep on posting stuff for us sign folk.

(Hi Jim - it's Tricia from NYC)

Take care,
Tricia

[Philippe JACQUES]

Sure, Richard,

I know what's a Gerber Edge or Max.

I know how good are those products. But my long experience of this industry lead me to measure the plus and minus of any models.

In terms of termal printing, don't you believe the advantages are today to the DC3 against its competitor ?

[Richard BRackin]

Maybe it is better, Philippe. I cannot make an opinion on that machine because I just don't know about it that well. I am sure it is very good.
I visited the web site that you posted.
If they made one of these that printed 48 inches wide, we probably would have bought one back when we were looking.
We got over 20 thousand smackeroos in the Gerber Edge (11.8 inch print width), Omega Software, Dell NT Workstation, and HS 15+ cutter. :).
The machine paid for itself it's first year. I can't say that it would for other people, but we bought the machine to print one job, and fell in love with the little guy.

I believe the DC3 has the advantage of size for sure.

Richard

[Jim P Doggett]

Hi Richard:

It's true that our print speed calculations are based on 100% coverage. But we do that because full coverage is the slowest printing method. The head moves faster in the up position. So if coverage is less than 100% of one or more colors, the print speed increases.

In short, our print speed specs are worst case. And they're based on actual image area, as is the width designation of the printer (darn near ... The 36" Summa DC3 prints 35.8 inches of usable image area ... 36.2 inches if you include the registration marks; we don't).

I do agree with you on the size advantage (thanks!). But I'd add that Summa DC3's greatest advantage is automation. It prints, or prints and cuts, automatically ... up to 447 square feet between media changes (actual image area). You could run it 24/7 with minimal labor.

Since larger jobs are seldom impulse buys, big fleet markings can be run overnight and installed the next morning. Or if someone walks in and just needs a logo on the door of their pickup, about the time you finish typing up the invoice, the job is done -- printed, contour-cut and ready to transfer.

Best Regards,

Jim
Summa

Oops ... one more nice advantage, considering where we are. The DC3 RIP handles Illustrator files ... no importing into a separate design program.

[Richard BRackin]

The DC3 RIP handles Illustrator files ... no importing into a separate design program.

I'll give you that one.
The Gerber Omega software is probably the most un-intuitive piece of software ever written. I wish they would farm that job out to someone besides whoever is doing it now.

I know the advertised square footage per hour vs. realized square footage per hour has always been a sore spot with people who buy speed demons, only to find out they are not quite as fast in the real world.

For example, we have one machine that is capable of 2000 square feet per hour, but it is recommended that we run it slower. Yes, it can and has run that fast, but at a sacrifice to quality.

Assuming your machine is not like the others, I commend you on being able to produce a machine that actually does what the sales guys say it will do. :)

The same goes for another group of machines we have. They list at 'x' square feet per hour at a certain setting, but it actually is at great cost to quality, and running at that speed can actually cause the heads to dry out.

I know square feet per hour is a sales tool about like MHz on a computer. That's all people understand, I guess, and that's what the purchaser mainly uses to determine whether a certain digital printer is worth buying.

I reiterate that we might have bought one when we were looking for thermal printers if it printed on 48" stock. That's the standard stock width offered by the big vinyl manufacturer(s).

I have no doubt this is a fine machine. Square feet per hour is just a sore spot with me because I have to deliver on these numbers --you guys-- put out there and many times it Just Ain't So

Regards
Richard

[Philippe JACQUES]

produce a machine that actually does what the sales guys say it will do. :)

Richard,
There is just a problem : this feature is reported to be a Microsoft exclusive patent ! :) Nobody else would be authorised to include it in its products !

For the rest thanks for your remarks. I quite understand your choice.