Help making image a svg

General discussion about Inkscape
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Mallorey
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:56 am

Help making image a svg

Post by Mallorey »

I am trying to figure out this whole inkscape thing and I am failing miserably!

Can someone please tell me step by step how to make just the Santa in this image an SVG cut for the Cricut?

http://www.vectorjungle.com/2008/12/christmas-icons/

Thanks!
gj1
Posts: 4465
Joined: Mon Oct 12, 2009 5:01 am

Re: Help making image a svg

Post by gj1 »

Hello and welcome to the board.

I am not fully qualified in INK for trace but this is what I do when I try it. Maybe someone else will come along and help you more, also.

I save the picture .jpg to my desktop.
I open Inkscape and drag the picture in on the left side of the mat.
I put a box around the image and got PATH TRACE BMP
A box comes up and I leave the settings as default and click update and ok.

I close the box with the x in the upper right corner.

Now there is a vector on top of the image and I pull it off onto the mat.
Then I go up to VIEW...Display Mode...Outline
The original will disappear and that is okay.

Then, I got to PATH and Break Apart...you will get a bunch of boxes around everything.
Click off to the right and the click back on to the mat anywhere.

You can then begin to take apart the image as you want to do so.

When finished Save your work and give it a name and go to View and Normal and you should see your image as you want it.

That is what I know about Inkscape...not much really...but there are tutorials in the Help section of the program and there are many tutorials that you can search and find.

Good Luck.
sstehman
Posts: 1964
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:29 pm
Location: Sandy in PA (PC&MAC,Inkscape .48, SCAL2,eClips, eCAL)

Re: Help making image a svg

Post by sstehman »

That was a terrific explanation. I will add this bit.

After you make the initial trace and drag it over on the mat, I then make a duplicate of the traced image so if I mess up, I have another one ready to go.

I also do not close my screen that I used to do the original trace (when doing path - trace bitmap) in case I need to adjust the settings a little from the default to get a better trace. I minimize it so I can bring it up and do another trace easily.
Sandy in PA
Mallorey
Posts: 6
Joined: Wed Aug 03, 2011 11:56 am

Re: Help making image a svg

Post by Mallorey »

Thanks!
I will give it a try tomorrow.
sstehman
Posts: 1964
Joined: Wed Dec 01, 2010 4:29 pm
Location: Sandy in PA (PC&MAC,Inkscape .48, SCAL2,eClips, eCAL)

Re: Help making image a svg

Post by sstehman »

FYI - another member passed onto me that your Santa image is already a vector file. So when you try tomorrow, just import it into Inkscape. Put a box around the image. Go to object - ungroup and you will see little boxes around all of the individual pieces.

You do not have to do the trace bitmap feature for this (but hold onto those instructions for the future as you want them when you have an image such as a .jpg).
Sandy in PA
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