Conquer the Glaze Dragon With INSIGHT Glaze Chemistry Software
The PDF Manual.
Modified: November 20, 2021

Desktop Insight is now free!

Download it from the Files panel in your Insight-live.com account or from the home page at https://digitalfire.com (current downloads only include the program file, manual, starter recipe, materials - overrides data is built in).

Desktop Insight is legacy, we had to move on-line

We moved functionality to a private account at Insight-Live.com - because people now expect to get at their data from any device anywhere. And for our survival. Ceramic lab work is much bigger than glaze chemistry, it is a physical world where testing, observation, record-keeping are vital. Insight-Live is about maintaining that data. Its recipes share pictures, they have firing schedules, notes, development history, testing data, links, they belong to projects. And they accumulate into the thousands and are easy to find and compare.

Importing Desktop Insight recipes into your Insight-Live.com account

Desktop Insight, by default, opens and saves recipes to its INSIGHTDATA.DB recipe database file (that file is in your documents/insight folder, it can be uploaded and imported into Insight-live). If Desktop Insight does not find the INSIGHTDATA.DB file on startup, it imports, into its database, all the recipe files (e.g. RCP, RCX) it finds in your documents/insight/recipe folder (it does not erase the original files, but no longer uses them). From then on, when you choose File -> Open (not File -> Open File System) you open recipes from its database (using the Recipe Database Window). When you Save you save to the database. See page 94 of the manual for more information.

Why is Insight-Live so much different to use than Desktop Insight?

Because you have to be able to compare ten recipes side-by-side. For physics as well as chemistry. And people need to be able to find thousands on any device from anywhere.

Desktop Insight focusses solely on glaze chemistry

Insight FAQ

There is a direct relationship between the way ceramic glazes fire and their chemistry. Insight is a calculation tool anyone can use to learn and harness the power of glaze chemistry.

Without glaze chemistry you'll never really have control and you could be a slave to your suppliers or the trafficing in recipes that never work.

Overwhelmed by glaze chemistry? Try starting here.

What People Have Said

"I am really pleased with your new software! I love Insight!! "

"I was at the wonderful workshop that Ron Roy held this weekend in Ottawa and am interested in purchasing insight based on his presentation. I understand you have very graciously offered us a 60% discount and I thank you very much. I thought your program was wonderful. I am looking forward to purchasing it and using it with (some) confidence. As Ron said, you have got to use it or lose it!"

"I think I have always been a bit of an emissary for Insight, on Clayart and elsewhere, and will continue to do so. I have always preferred Insight over the other glaze-calc programs, and I enjoy teaching it to my students and seeing the way it helps open up the world of technical ceramics."

"We are now learning how to use your program in class. It is very interesting and we students are just amazed at what you have accomplished. Last week, I brought one of my cone 6 glaze recipes into class and we put it through your program. Thanks to all of your work we were able to easily make some adjustments. I will be test firing the new recipes soon. I am really excited and thank you very much."

"I've recently purchased your software, and am totally blown away by the completeness of the package. The tutorial is incredible, I've learned so much from it already! This will be invaluable to me; glazes have always been somewhat mysterious, and I've relied far too heavily on the Kiln Gods. I'm looking forward to completing the tutorial and start experimenting.... As to the software, as an old Foxpro programmer myself, I can appreciate what it took to do what you did."

"Your program Insight has been responsible for me spending way more time in front of a computer than I could have ever imagined. Thanks to you I now have a tool that gives me a better understanding of what is going on with my glazes. I have always enjoyed mucking around with glazes, now I'm in danger of becoming a glaze geek!"


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