Those of you with tactile embossers would know how difficult it is to produce tactile images that are usable. Even if you have something like the tiger that supports variable dot height, you simply can’t take any ordinary image and send it to the printer. Yes, the image will be printed but what you will see is tactile mush.

You can get usable output but most approaches require human intervention. Automated methods are still under development.

I was trying to find a solution to this problem this afternoon. Most of my work is based on Prof Richard G Baldwin’s work in this area. I was trying to see if I could create usable tactile images without having to write any additional code. Yes, I am lazy. Thus far, what I have found is that you can use the sharpening affect in image editing programs such as irfan view to create quick and dirty tactile images. All you do is to open the image in an editor like irfan view, apply the sharpening filter or effect and then print the image.

I have tested this with a few samples and it has worked. I am not saying that this is the way create tactile images but it is one possible approach.