This is EXACTLY what i am after thanks, i will definitely now look into doing it this way.

This was done with Corel, manually not using autotrace. I saw where paintbrush responded to someone on another thread answering a Corel question and mentioned that he uses X6, I am a cheapskate and am still using X5 and I don't know how many Corel users are hooked on CC and hang out here but you can at least get some help and time saving tips from us if you decide to go that route. It's not a cheap program but for vector graphics it is a damn good one.
After you complete your drawing just scale it to the size you want and export it. You can export starting with an AI all the way to a WMF and just about everything in between so whatever format your engraver is looking for should be in there somewhere. What would really be awesome is if your engraver could read the native CDR, you would be in fat city.
If you want to try it let me know and I will draw the whole COA for you, shouldn't take more than an hour and a half or so.

Decided to take a few minutes break from working on the new website and add some to it to give you a little more idea. Didn't put a lot into the crowns though. And the shrubbery will be a little more time consuming. Your semi retired I AM retired, I have the time, I don't worry about what time it is I worry about what day it is, senior shopping days are on Tuesday.....................

http://www.rvaddicts.com/stuff/viv-2.gif http://www.rvaddicts.com/stuff/viv-3.gif

Bob that is brilliant, but dont do any more to it, I have engraved that ring already, thanks to Eric doing it a different way

This however is vastly better,

its hard often to get accross what is required, you seem to have got it spot on

Attached is the one i am working on at present, though in this instance i have tried to trace from a photo of a wax impression.

Trying to convert this into black on white (instead of grey on a smokey messy background) will give me the same headache

This looks good. I guess it all depends on the kind of detail you need to make the ring. Photshop Elements doesn't seem to have the ability to pick the lines up and make them straight as Corel. I only took 1 min to do this so maybe 2 mins. it would be twice as good.LOL

Thank you Eric, why oh why i cant do it

Do you have Photoshop? if so which version?

v 7.0

I really have tried, for hours and hours, my memory just cant cope with all those options.

this is why i am a fan of VSD, etc simple for me to use.

hows this for made with VSD
http://www.deloreanjewellery.co.uk/files/IMG_491.jpg

seems daft i can do that but not a simple edit

And from that the laser engraver made this

http://www.deloreanjewellery.co.uk/engravedsignetrings/ccdata/images/imageMain_85_1023.jpg

Difference between Photoshop and Corel is the approach, Photoshop, or any graphics program takes the image and manipulates the pixels, you still have a bunch of little square dots, in Corel the image is completely redrawn using vector, basically mathematical equations, that say the line starts here and it ends here and this is what it does between those two points. Apples and oranges.

Like Eric said, it really depends on what you want or need to get out of it.

If you have version 7 or 7.01 you should be able to produce the same results that Eric did, might just take a few more steps to get there.
On the other hand you have Photoshop, what Eric is talking about is Photoshop Elements, a lot easier program to learn and use than full blown Photoshop but yet extremely powerful in its own right.

Are you having fun yet.......................

BTW the Mason ring came out awesome !!