Problems with Inkscape. HELP!

[kwedding]

I'm a newbie and am having problems with Inkscape. I have read all the tutorials and watched the videos, but none of them help me. I import the .jpg graphic from PC Crafter and choose view<outline and either my picture disappears altogether or it goes to plain b/w. Then I choose path<trace bitmap. That is where the problem comes in. The box shows up but in the preview box, there's no picture and I hit the update button and nothing. So it makes it difficult to do any altering.

It doesn't show that there is a graphic loaded. It shows there are 46 objects in layer 1. What does this mean? What am I doing wrong? Can anyone help me. If not, I've bought this for nothing!

[Craigg64]

HI

Tracing can be tricky depending on the image you are trying to trace.
If you can upload the image you are trying to trace I or someone else might be able to give you a hand and suggest some setting for you.

I am sure it is just some setting in the trace tool that need to be adjusted.

Don't give up

Cheers

Craig

[AnointedHands]

If you are trying to trace a color jpg, you probably need to make some adjustment to the value(s) set for tracing.

My advice is to start simple. Find a simple jpg and start there. Work with different values and note the difference. Tracing is not for the faint of heart...sometimes I get a good trace and sometimes I have to trace many times to get it right. I have even had to combine pieces from more than one trace.

If you can't see anything when you hit update, hit OK and see what you come up with....if you don't like it, delete the trace, change the value and trace again.

[firstcut]

If you are using PC Crafter CDs you have vector images and don't need to convert. Import WMF version instead.

[Rens]

I am not sure if this will help, but you said it was a jpg image. After loading into inkscape I believe you would need to convert to bitmap image then do the trace. edit/make bitmap copy....then you should have the bitmap to trace just look at bottom of inkscape and it will tell you jpg image or bitmap and move over the jpg highlight the bmp and do your trace. I hope that helps
Rens