Conquer the Glaze Dragon With INSIGHT Glaze Chemistry Software
The PDF Manual.
Modified: November 21, 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 have to tell you that this program is really really fabulous! I thank you very much for putting it together and making it available. I had set up a little Excel program to figure the flux unity and Si:Al stuff, but it was cumbersome and lacked all the wonderful data you have put into INSIGHT."

"I owe you a thank you for creating such a good product. It really is impressive how much info you have available on materials and general clay and glaze topics. So, Thanks! "

"I am having a great time with your software, thanks for writing it, by the way. I am a ceramic chemist and technician; I have just left a wage job in industry to begin consulting. I have used Insight before and it is my favorite glaze calc program. I have a similar personal mission to raise the general level of ceramic knowledge and expertise both in the academic and industrial worlds, and I have always appreciated the free share of knowledge that the digitalfire website is built around."

"My hope is that you live long and prosper. I want Insight forever."

"I have been doing research for a safety manual for our college ceramics department for several days. Finding your site has been a God-send-Thank you!"

"I think your program will help me to develop glazes I can be proud to use. I was very impressed with my trial of your product and even more impressed with your customer service. Receiving your message this morning serendipitously happened as I sat down to comb the Web for advice."


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