The PDF Manual.
Modified: November 19, 2016
Right-click here to download it.

Desktop Insight is now free!

Download it from the Files panel in your Insight-live.com account (it costs $15 for 6 months access). Current downloads only include the program file, starter recipe, materials, overrides data is built in. It functions as level 2, without need of a key. No features have been removed. It will never expire.

Do you really need Desktop Insight now that Insight-live is here?

No. Insight-live has a much broader scope and is far superior, it is the future (it still does the chemistry but is much more about data and access-from-anywhere). We still support desktop Insight for users who need to convert data for import to insight-live or who must work off-line.

Desktop Insight is About 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.

• Fix problems like crazing, blistering, pinholing, settling, gelling, clouding, leaching, crawling, marking, scratching, powdering.
• Substitute frits or incorporate better, cheaper materials, replace no-longer-available ones (all while maintaining the same chemistry).
• Adjust melting temperature, gloss, surface character, color.
• Identify weaknesses in glazes to avoid problems.
• Create and optimize base glazes to work with difficult colors or stains and for special effects dependent on opacification, crystallization or variegation.
• Create glazes from scratch and use your own native materials in the highest possible percentage.

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.

A desktop application for Windows, Linux, Macintosh that you download and install.

• Insight is a classic glaze chemistry calculator
  It interactively converts recipes to formulas and back. The main Insight window shows side-by-side recipes and their formulas, you can make chemistry changes to one while comparing it with the other.
• Insight is also a library and a teacher
  It puts at your fingertips a huge amount of information to help you learn the principles of glaze chemistry and it teaches you how to adjust, fix and formulate glazes.
• It is a database
  You can store all your recipes, picture, material information where you can easily find it.
• It is a problem solver
  Using our videos, instructional and reference materials and our personal help you can solve problems like crazing, leaching, crawling, pinholing, blistering, etc.

Insight was first released in 1979 and has been used world wide since. It is an excellent teaching tool for demonstrating the principles of formula/analysis/unity, limit formulas, LOI, and material-oxide relationships.

Overwhelmed by glaze chemistry? Try starting here.

What People Have Said

"Your program will take me leaps ahead in understanding how all these chemicals work to form a stable glaze. I cannot thank you enough. I am ready to make this "leap" into the world of glaze calculations. I have longed to understand glaze formualtion and until now I have been unable to find a way to learn it. Most teachers here, really do not care about the whys and the chemistry behind it. I am really so excited to be beginning this process. Thanks so much for all of your hard work, I greatly appreciate what you and Ron are doing."

"I enjoy the power of this program... Fantastic job. Thanks"

""I was so glad to know your Website several days ago. I thought that you did a great thing for ceramic community.""

"I have a large experience in characterization of ceramic materials ... development of glazes and pigments (several publications in renowned magazines and encyclopedias) ... I find the website, the database and the software of Digitalfire very good and I would like to offer my help as a consultant or editor."

"Thanks for making a nice program and having a nice website."

"...BTW, both the software and the manual are wonderful!"