Complete Guide to Trace Bitmap Inkscape 1.2 

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Watch my video on vector portraits, will work really well for that.

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Thanks, Hope your Christmas and New Year went well.

Glad to hear you found it helpful, good luck with your panda.

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Try watching this video, it goes through how to clip and mask areas of an image that you want to trace and how to use 'Make a Bitmap Copy' so that you trace just the section of the image that you want. Hope this will help Inkscape Vector Cat ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ClHwf171Ptk.html

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Thanks. on the autotrace issue, I'll have to have a look and get back to you, I know it is supposed to give better results, but on the images I have use it on, I couldn't see much difference. I'll get back to you on that one.

Sorry about that, I think it was partly due to my dodgy editing. I just used the Bezier tool to draw a shape around the bird. If you're not familiar with the Bezier tool watch this video it explains a lot. Inkscape Bezier Pen Tool ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-47h04PW32t4.html The User assisted trace is limited with regards to what it will work well on, the method of creating a clipping mask generally works better. In the video, I say to export the clipped image and import it back in again. You can just select the clipped image and go to Edit - Make a Bitmap Copy, which will do the same thing. Much easier!

SVG stands for scalable vector graphic and yes you can scale them with no loss of quality. Unlike bitmap images such as jpeg's and PNGs which are made up of dots, vector graphics are made from mathematical description of the shapes so you can scale to any size. Since svg's are not widely supported you can export you image (once you have scaled it) as a PNG - preferable over jpeg as they use lossless compression. If you import a jpeg into Inkscape and save it, it saves a vector file that contains the bitmap image, so unless you use trace bitmap or manual tracing to make a vector copy, you still won't be able to scale it without quality loss. Hopefully that helps

@@CreateForFree Thanks for the reply. I think I understand the principle, if not yet the science. I've been working with multicoloured fractals. Outputting the pngs at 300 dpi after resizing (as explained in another of your vids - thanks) to 7632 x 9810 seems to give good results, so I'm probably better off sticking with that.

I don't know how you program your milling machine, but if you can space out a number of SVGs to create the 3rd dimension then I guess its possible. The result will of cause be a series of steps. You might find these videos of interest: Simple portraits ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XHkXzOfKOqY.html Or these may be useful for different projects: Using exclusion to create interesting designs ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-h6ZcYxMSGY0.html Layered paper effect, which might work well with a CNC machine ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-PcQUsWYrJXY.html Good luck!

In the Multicolor tab of the Trace Bitamp dialog box you want to check the 'Stack' box, this will create the layered effect. You might find these videos helpful: Vector Portrait Inkscape - shows how to simplify the paths (easier to cut out) ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XHkXzOfKOqY.html Make a Solid Background in Inkscape | Offset Image - demonstrates how to fill in holes in a path ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-6L9tIxmJxWA.html

@@CreateForFree Thank You!

Sounds like a unique idea, I'm guessing you intend making one off portraits of people's pets. I don't know of a simple way to generate a segmented image, Whatever method you use, I think you are going to need to do some manual tracing/clean up. The image of the water lily on my thumbnail I chose because of the contracting colours and crisp line, with dog photos you won't have that clarity. If I was intending to make one off images to print off and stick to a piece of wood to cut out with a fretsaw, I think I'd do it partly in Inkscape - print a pale copy then draw out my cutting lines by hand (of course if you are making templates to use over and over again you could do the tracing in Inkscape) I think I'd start by adjusting the image using the filters to get the best tracing I can: Adjust your image using any of the filters - there are some useful ones in: filters - colour, such as lightness/contrast or Brilliance. When you have optimized the image for scanning, you need to make a copy(otherwise Inkscape will ignore your adjustments) Easiest way is to select you image then goto: Edit - Make Bitmap Copy To make the trace I think I would use the Multicolor - Colours, with Smooth and Stack ticked. Speckles, Smooth Corners and Optimize all set to max. You can experiment with the number of scans, but I'd keep it fairly low. Once you made a trace, you could print it off and use a marker to draw on the cutting lines or remove the fill colour and add a stroke to create a line drawing - but it will probably be more complex than expected. Good Luck! let me know how you get on

After your question I made this video showing how to make simple portraits, I thought you may find it helpful. ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-XHkXzOfKOqY.html

@@CreateForFree Wow, just back from a break and catching up. Thanks so much. I will get on with my project soon. I’d like to show the canine I’ll immortalise but can’t seem to paste her into this message. You have e mail ?

Sorry for the very slow response, I'd love to see it, you could send it to create-for-free@outlook.com. (thought I'd better check I could remember the password for it - then completely forgot)

Sounds like a glitch, when I've had problems like that I've uninstalled and reinstall Inkscape to hopefully fix the problem. Lets us know how you get on

I recently cleared my inkscape and went to the 132 type. I still don't see how it used to look like but I have a window at the side which says trace bitmap. I guess i am getting warmer!@@CreateForFree

OK ,thanks to you tube I see how this works. I think I am good now . Thanks again for responding.

Sorry for the late response. Perhaps the image is cut into section in the pdf, one way around this is to make a bitmap copy of the sections you want to convert to a vector. If you want your bitmap copy to be a high resolution you can got to Edit - Preferences - Imported Images and set the Create - make bitmap copy resolution to say 300 dpi (print quality) Then select all the sections of the pdf that you want to create a copy of and go to Edit - Make a bitmap copy. You should then have a png copy that you can use Trace Bitmap on. You may find the elements of the pdf are grouped together so you may need to ungroup a few time so you can select only the parts that you want to copy.

I should think the single scan, edge detection could work - thats what I used to create the flower on the thumbnail, I did adjust the brightness and contrast (then exported it and imported back in, as trace bitmap looks at the original image). If you have an outline, the fill tool would work. the other option is to trace by hand using the bezier tool. These videos might help: Paint bucket /fill tool - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-oTzKShUhYa8.html ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-bh_9LmHMZoI.html Bezier and nodes tool - ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-47h04PW32t4.html

Thanks so much! Keep the videos coming for KDP purposes. We can’t all afford expensive design programs so learning inkscape techniques is massive help! Cheers

I'm not a mac user but from what I've read there are a few issues running Inkscape on Ventura. It might be worth searching online to see if anyone else has come up with a workaround. Sorry I couldn't be more help

Think there’s a warning on the download page saying Ventura has issues and not to download v1.2 if you are beyond Mac Monterey version.

Assista esse vídeo, está em inglês mas você deve conseguir acompanhar o que ele faz para traduzir as legendas ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-ZnoxutAvyaI.html

I did speed up the video when I applied the trace, so it did take longer than in the video. I haven't used any specific settings. I do make sure no other programs are running. And if my computer starts running slow, I back up all my files and wipe my computer back to factory settings and reinstall the software I'm using. Does take a little time but it does tend to get everything running at full speed again.

@@CreateForFree thank You for the answer 🙂 keep up the good work with Inkscape tutorials - this is my favorite graphics application and I do with it just about everything I need 😁

Not something that I am familliar with but this website explains how to convert to g code using Inkscape. mellowpine.com/cnc/how-to-convert-svg-to-g-code/#:~:text=The%20G%2Dcode%20extension%20can,into%20a%20G%2Dcode%20file.

@@CreateForFree thnks for the reply

Don't add .txt to the end, just right click on the svg file and 'open with' notepad, you can then edit the file.

I just created a shape (path) using the bezier pen tool that covered the holes, then with both paths selected I used Path - Union to combine the two paths which fills in the holes.

You're right, assisted trace would have worked well for the balloon example (I think that is what I originally downloaded it for), it would have been better to use a different image with a more complex background. Depending on the image, 'assisted trace' often removes sections of the image that you want to keep, and tracing the whole image and not just the section you want, creates a lot of work for you and the computer. There is also likely to be a broader range of colours in the whole image, so the section you want to use is going to have a reduced colour palette. I wanted to demonstrate how you can trace only the section that you want to use. Sorry for the confusion.

Sorry, I'm not on Fiverr, thanks for the comment

Oh!

The different layer in a trace are actually individual path stacked up on a single layer. Sorry if I didn't make that clear (You can think of a layer as a sheet of glass and paths like cut out paper shapes laid on top - you can move the individual shape and change the order they are stacked in at any time) when you make a trace, the paths will be grouped together so you can move them around like a single object, if you merged them together they would become a single path(shape) so if the image you traced was a rectangle you would end up with a plain coloured rectangle. Every element in a vector graphic is a stand alone path with it's own mathematical description, which is why you can scale a vector graphic to any size with no loss of quality, where as a bitmap image like a photo or a digital painting made using a software package such as GIMP, Photoshop or Krita is just made up of a collection of coloured dots or pixels, allowing you to flatten or merge layer - but if you scale it, there will be a loss of quality. Both vector and bitmap images have their pros and cons, hope that helps

Pixel art is a very specific function that not many people are going to use, so I focused on the more widely used elements.

Sorry it was too quick, I'll bear that in mind in the future.