Learn how to use free and open source graphic design software like Inkscape and GIMP.
I'm Nick Saporito; graphic designer, educator, and the creator of Logos By Nick. All of my lessons are reinforced by 10 years of experience working with thousands of clients as a freelance logo and branding designer.
Unlock your creative potential with my extensive library of Inkscape and GIMP tutorials where you'll learn everything from logo design, desktop publishing, user interface design, branding design, and more. Each lesson includes step-by-step instructions with voice narration.
Great one! As a little suggestion, the blue ball could maybe have an extra layer with shadow gradients for a darker shade in the below part. Love how easy you make this look. Thanks for the video, again!
Thanks to you, I use inkscape a lot in the maker space I work at. I always recomend you channel to our students and users. I was a bit surprised you didn't mention outline overlay as a way to identify vector from everything else. clearly, the cricut program only understands vectors and that's easy to see in inkscape with outline overlay. cmd+5 or ctrl+5
I don't have cricut but I have a brother scan n cut. It's similar to cricut . I can save a file in inkscape but when I open it in canvas workspace it's not the same size. Do you know how I can fix that issue ?
I convert rasterized line art for circuit using inkspace, it usually goes alright. However there are times when inkspace creates what I’d describe as partial nodes. They don’t act like normal nodes and when circuit encounters them it stops the cutting path. It’s very annoying when you’re weeding around tiny objects and the cut path ends and you accidentally strip out a small object. Other times the cut ends and that area of vinyl will tear because of these partial nodes. Sometimes I can join two of them into a normal node but usually I have to create whole node on either side then delete the half node. N complex images with thousands of nodes, it’s not easy to review each node to see where the problems are. It would be useful to get a tip/trick to select all nodes and convert them to whole nodes without monkeying the image up too much. Or, to set trace bitmap so it doesn’t create these annoying half nodes.
Thank you Nick for sparking my interest to learn! I began because I have a Cricut and I wanted to create my own simple designs. Saw one of your videos and I was hooked. You are a great teacher!
Nick - this generally applies to laser cutter/CNC software as well. Also applies if converting to DXF to import into 2D/3D CAD software. If importing into Autodesk Fusion 360, Fusion will import Inkscape files directly without exporting out as a "vanilla" SVG. Patterns! If the pattern is vector based it can be done without converting to bmp. It is complicated but doable.
Thanks for this posting! I just had this problem a couple of weeks ago. I started working with Inkscape for just this reason, to make images to import into Design Space. Thanks to you and several others on RU-vid for the tutorials. Most of the original images I import are raster. This, my first imported SVG, that included some text and text on a path. The same thing happened to me as you said in your video. Design Space didn’t import the text. I even formatted the text as Cricut listed on their own website and the text imported, but it was distorted. I opened a bug ticket with their IT team and they asked me for the SVG file so they could work on the problem. I’ve heard nothing but crickets 😂 from them since. Greatly enjoying your videos. Keep up the good work 👍🏻Thanks! 💕
For patterns . you dont need to scale your objects to get high quality bimpa copy . Just go to preferences - imported images and set export dpi to 300dpi(600 for very small objects). you can besicaly use this trick for every scenario in this video
Thank you so much for another great video. I wrote you a few years ago (maybe a bit longer, pre-Covid) about doing some line art tutorials & videos especially for folks using vinyl cutters. People were starting to copy your videos & build channels based on them like crazy at the time. I knew the craft cutting market was huge & I used your videos to help me in Silhouette Studio, which at the time was far more sophisticated & more like inkscape & paid software than Cricut Design Space. Also, having been a carpenter/cabinet maker, before I got sick, i knew CNC machines and laser engravers were getting affordable; i figured learning in 2D was going to be easier for those folks too. I even uses your tutorials then open in 2D Silhouette Studio, then convert to 3D in their software for 3D printing. So. You see, I thought there was a huge need for tutorials, like yours, for crafters. The craft tutorials weren’t really teaching the users a skill, just showing them cheats or hacks to get the job done. You were great & replied by sending me links to many -many videos you’d already made that were flat designs that could be cut by color as easily as printed , as well as all of the offset & tool tutorials you’ve made for Inkscape & gimp. I was already hooked on your videos and recommending them to crafters, but your kind response encouraged me to complete my first project. Which meant finally opening the boxes on my Silhouette Portrait & Cricut machines I’d purchased years before. I did a portrait using the technique you used with the parrot. It came out great & I cut using 13 differently colored Heat Transfer Vinyls, I felt so pleased. I have many medical limitations and admit i am not retaining the information well since I often have long spans of months and months that I am not up to practicing. *However, thanks to the consistency in your methods from video to video, it makes it easy for me to get back at it and caught back up when my health cooperates. I am glad to see a video really directed at the vinyl cutting audience, I will be sharing this video like crazy! For a lot of the crafters I know, like myself, it is not easy learning any software. I hated seeing friends and family focusing on the machine software and learning how to only do tasks in it, instead of learning the Inkscape environment where they could do so much more as their interest in graphic art increased, and afterwards be immediately comfortable in many other graphic and photo softwares as well. I would love to see some videos of text techniques that definitely would NOT work with vinyl, but as a “Print- to- cut” tutorial video for vinyl crafters. I use the offset techniques I learned in your videos now, for “Print-to- cut “ crafting with my vinyl machines and a printer with sublimation ink to print the text. I am currently trying hard to get the gold text right from your tutorial right, for this purpose. Tests show it prints great, thanks. But crafters could definitely use some better print-to-cut tutorials, as it is not always obvious to them the many ways your tutorials can help,p them in their craft. I am sorry this is so long. I have just been wanting for years to thank you for such a huge contribution to the world. Thank you for your vast library of tutorials. Not sure I can say you’ve taught an old dog a new trick; but you have shown this old dog that she can follow a recipe and get great results, from the right teacher. (I wish I could find a sketch-up teacher as good Lol. But I have used your gimp tutorials to make woodworking plan mock-ups. ) I could never really express to you just how greatful I am to you for providing an entertaining and enjoyable medium for the mental excersise I need. I can only imagine how much work goes into producing these tutorials. Thank You! ~🛠️Lisa♿️
Brilliant! Inkscape truly can be used in many ways. Earlier I saw people used it for embroidery and now for Cricut, I hope there is a new video list out all the possible applications.
I'll have to check your backlog, but adding a comment here for engagement anyways: do you have a similar video for Inkscape to GlowForge laser cutters?
In Lasergrbl, If you set the Inkscape Document scaling to 1 px per user unit in document properties - it will import correctly into Lasergrbl software. Might work for GlowForge as well. If it does, save that as a template or default. You have to do this before any design work. For existing designs, just copy/paste the design into the new document using the template. Then change the dimensions to match the original. Very common problem with exporting SVGs to other design software.
It's the software that comes with a Cricut cutting machine - a device for cutting out shapes from various materials such as paper, vinyl, card, etc. Popular with crafters
3 дня назад
@@billps34 Any idea if they are compatible with Linux? (KDE)
I use a Silhouette, I dont think there are as many issues with the transfer, just the size, I think you can download their program without having to buy a unit.
The basic free version of Silhouette Studio does'n import svg files, you can use only their own format studio3. It must be upgraded at least to paid Designer version to open svg.
One quick note. These same issues apply for anyone using a laser cutter/engraver and importing their Inkscape designs into something like LightBurn (except for the tri-color object, obviously). It might help if you add that to your description, because I've had to fight through these same issues before when it comes to laser cutting and engraving. Great informative video, and I might actually plug in the Cricut I got like a year and a half ago.
Hey Nick. Thank you for the great videos, especially this one for Cricut users. One issue I find, Cricut wants to change the sizes of shapes imported, as SVGs. Are there settings in both Inkscape and Affinity Designer which keeps the shape sizes from changing when uploading to Cricut Design Space (DS)? Usually DS makes everything smaller.
@@LogosByNick I design pop-up cards in Inkscape, the template usually includes many parts in one file, placed on one page, no special effects, just lines and shapes. And sometimes after opening the svg file in Design Space most of the parts have the right size but one of them is huuuge. Or some random parts become tiny. There're many Reddit threads (r\Cricut) about this issue, this seems to be one of many Cricut software bugs.
@@LogosByNick It might be a bug in Cricut, I use a Brother Scan&Cut myself which has always worked well. But for getting better sizes you can do a couple of things (feel free to make a video) firstly open a document template in px mode, most templates will be in mm with a scale of 3.77x and removing this scaling factor can remove one complexity. See the document properties from what the scaling factor really is for the document. Inches are stored in px in inkscape I believe. The other thing to remember about scaling is that Inkscape uses the w3c recommended 96dpi, but older svg readers expect to see 72dpi causing a x0.75 scaling factor. The last thing is transformations. We expect svg readers to cope with matrix transforms correctly, but if the software is bad, then applying the transforms by ungrouping objects can help a lot too.
If you set the Document scaling to 1 px per user unit in document properties - it will import correctly into Design Space. Save that as a template or default.
