My first Inkscape Trace attempt

[wreed06]

What a disaster. I imported a jpg to Inkscape, did the trace bitmap, saved the image as an svg file. After importing the file into SCAL, I cut it and oh my... The cut was horrible! The original jpg was of a buck deer silhouette someone posted on the boards. The image is kind of fuzzy - not solid lines outlining the buck even though the whole thing is black. When it cut, all the fuzziness of the outlining was cut - each line was made up of many, many dots and that's what was cut. For example, some of the legs were cut maybe 5 times or so. It was a mess. I'm very new to Inkscape and don't really know what I'm doing, so there probably are tricks to it that can resolve my problem - I'll just have to keep digging.

[kkrewtea]

I think there are a few more steps you can do to clean up the image so it will cut only what you want it to...I don't know how to do it but there are some VERY TALENTED inscape people that will be able to tell you...GOOD job getting the tracing part done though!

[susibi]

The cleaner the image the better the trace. Trace bitmap will trace every pixel it finds so some images just are not worth the bother.
Try playing around with the settings in the Trace window - set your brightness threshold to 0.650 and if that is not dark enough go a little higher. Going too high can give a fuzzy outline though. Try selecting your trace then Path>simplify. This will take out some of the nodes and make the path smoother but you could loose definition .
Susibi

[wreed06]

Thanks, Sushibi. I'll try playing with the settings some. I think you're right - this image may not be worth the bother. It could have been scanned and copied so much that it has lost some definition. I'll try a different one and see how that one works.