Digitizing your own stained glass patterns

If you look around you, pretty much anything can be a candidate for conversion into a stained glass piece. All you will need to make a pattern will be a computer, a scanner and some relatively inexpensive software such as Paint Shop Pro or Photoshop Elements. One other source of possible patterns are images that you find on the internet.

Keeping yourself out of a copyright lawsuit
If you draw something original, you can digitize it without any concerns. Make sure to keep all of the original artwork including early comps and/or drawings to prove that you did, in fact, create the art yourself. You may find that somebody created something very similar to your project and then threatens you with a lawsuit. By keeping all of your original art, you can help establish the original nature of your work. Remember, anybody can sue anybody else for anything they want, but you can dissuade them from pursuing a lawsuit by offering them, or their attorney, evidence of your original creation. This may or may not be enough to get them to drop a suit, but it is the least you should do to prepare for any legal action.

Also, if you purchase a license to digitize artwork from an original artist, make sure to keep the contract and proof of purchase in a safe place. Many artists or licensing companies will provide you with a written contract establishing your rights to re-use their art. Make sure to read it carefully especially if you plan to sell any of your finished glass pieces.

Scanning artwork
Freestanding scanners that you connect to your computers have been available relatively cheaply for many years now. You can find them for around $100 at most office supply stores or electronic retailers. Recently, manufacturers have been making the so-called all-in-one printers which, in addition to a printer and fax, also includes a decent scanner. These will work perfectly for most projects you want to make.

Most of the newer all-in-one printers will have quality software that you can launch from your computer so that you can control the scan right from your desktop and do some minor adjustments to the object before it has been scanned. Probably the most important setting is the resolution. If you want the image you are scanning to be exactly as it will be in real life, meaning if it is 10 inch square object, and you want it to remain 10 inches square, you must set the resolution properly. On a Macintosh, one inch equals 72 dpi (dots per inch), but on a PC, one inch equals 96 dpi, so to keep the proper size for your computer, make sure to set the resolution for 72 dpi on a Mac and to 96 dpi on a PC.

A quality scanner will allow you to save the scan in many formats, I suggest that you save it as a JPEG (also referred to as a JPG), but if that option is not available a TIFF will do. Once the scan has been saved, you can create your own pattern using the information found in our "Creating Stained Glass Designs" article.