Craft Edge

ok. I can get my tear bear pdf in into ink scape & remove the words.....but when I cut them out..the bear limbs & body is all jagged..any ideas on how to clean it up. I bought this cd off ebay & really would like to get use out of them. THanks

Can you post a picture of the artwork. Your PDF file might not be vector artwork. The creator of the file may have saved a low resolution file as a PDF and that's why you are getting the jagged edges.

haha! I just got through pm'ing you the file. maybe you can tell me what I need to do. ok

Did you trace this? If the original image wasn't gray rather than black and white I would increase the brightness cutoff when you trace it to get solid lines. You might also try using the paint bucket to make it into vectors. It might be easier on this file.

If you trace again and get a cleaner image, be sure to use Path/break apart and delete the extra lines.

One other thing to remember about pdf files if they are made correctly you can open them in Inkscape and Ungroup them a couple of times and they are already svg files. Sometimes you have to ungroup twice. But this is only if the pdf files are saved correctly in layers. It's worth a try. Another thing I noticed your lines weren't connected, looked like that you had open ended pieces.

Hi, in addition to the open lines you have double lines and too many nodes. All of which are causing the cut problems.

You need to decrease the number of nodes with Path/simplify
You need to do break apart and get rid of the double lines

This file, as is, as a svg will take a lot of work. Perhaps as mentioned above it you take it into Inkscape as the pdf you might fare better.

Good Luck.

With this artwork, I would just redraw the pieces with the pen tool. This took me about 5 minutes, but I love the pen tool. I use it all the time.

talanhart wrote:With this artwork, I would just redraw the pieces with the pen tool. This took me about 5 minutes, but I love the pen tool. I use it all the time.

Todd, is this the same as the bezier tool in Ink? I use that a lot too.

I was going to say in my first post that the original file had a lot of broken lines and extra little bits. You want a clean file without any of that so that you get a good cut without little pieces that will come free of the mat and clog the blade area. The extra pieces also slow down the cutting. You want a file that when viewed in outline mode just has the one set of lines to be cut. I attached an image of one of the original pieces showing the broken lines and the extra pieces in between.

Yes, the pen tool is the Bezier tool. It is your best friend when creating curves.

Yes...I was using the calligraphy pen/brush stroke pen to fill in the white spots in the black lines..but It didn't work/ when I saved it.. It didn't cut solid..I am using the bezier & drawing over the images & It works AWESOME!!!!! SO I am VERY happy right now!! Thank you all & to you a big virtual THANKYOU to Todd! This beats cutting these things out by hands