Inkscape Question

[jerry1939]

I imported a picture into Inkscape and have been tracing it with Bezier tool.  Keep SAVING reliqiously as I go.  When I delete the imported image to see my work, some of the middle 2/3rds is missing, however, it shows up OK before deleting the imported image.  Cannot SELECT the missing lines (With the image in place), even though they show on the screen.  Here is what else is odd.  Can click on those "lost" lines OK with the NODES tool, as shown on the 1st photo.

Re: The 2nd photo.  Some time ago, the color chart on the bottom left of the screen shifted, so I set (and left alone) the bottom number to 255 and haven't found a need for me to ever change anything.

Thought/Help greatly appreciated.  Worst case scenario I can move the imported image over, print what I can, import what does print and set it on a fresh image.

jerry

[jollyred]

I have had the same problem when tracing over an image. One thing that sometimes helped was to select the image, then go to "objects" and "lower to bottom".  An alternative is to select the lines and "raise to top".  If the photo is on its own layer, the layer can also be lowered.  Sometimes this did not work.

[jerry1939]

jollyred,  Thank you for the info.  Tried it and failed.  I did cure it by sneaking up on it in a weird way.  NODES - DELETE did not work.  However, NODES - SELECT - DELETE did eliminate the lines that were showing, but wouldn't print.  After I did this on a few lines, just using SELECT - DELETE started working.  Now I only need to redo the 10% that gave a problem.

Remind me to share with the Nice Folks on this site that I hate this new fangled technology.

[jollyred]

Nothing says you have to use it.  Could always get out a pencil and paper and make them the old fashioned way.  Sometimes I feel that would be a lot less frustrating.

[JOE_M]

Have you tried using the automatic traces that are built-in to inkscape? You get 3 options and each has adjustments you can make and a preview pane.

Path - Trace Bitmap

 

[jerry1939]

23 hours ago, JOE_M said:

Have you tried using the automatic traces that are built-in to inkscape? You get 3 options and each has adjustments you can make and a preview pane.

Path - Trace Bitmap

 

Thank you Joe,  I have always hated the fact that there doesn't seem to be anything remotely close to a Users Manual for Inkscape.  It looks like the HELP tab was written for a 20 year old version.  Was not aware of "Trace Bitmap".  Tried it & failed.  Imported an image of a dog that I thought had good lines for it to work with.  Set EDGE DETECTION & REMOVE BACKGROUND.  Left everything else alone.  Clicked OK.  Waited 10 minutes and the OK button was still highlighted, but nothing happened.  How do I operate "Trace Bitmap" as it is obvious that I don't know how?

Thanks,

Jerry

[JOE_M]

I'll try and explain what I know but it's hard without images and to be honest I'm too lazy to make a real tutorial.

I open inkscape, open an image. First thing I do before playing with the image is to drag the image off to one side (click with the left mouse button, hold the button and drag).

Then I go up top and click Path - trace bitmap and get that dialog box.

Put the checkbox in "live preview".

I don't check "remove background" or "siox foreground selection".

I usually go straight to Edge Detection, and use the default threshold, but you can adjust it up/down and watch the preview to see what happens.

If nothing is showing up in the preview, then you don't have your picture selected. Left click on the pic and you should see 8 double-arrows around the perimeter of it. No arrows means you haven't selected it.

When it's selected and the preview is what you want, hit OK. If it's a very complex trace it might take a few seconds, but usually it's instantaneous. If the OK button is still lit, that means the trace is done - you just can't see it yet.

Take the mouse back to your image, left-click-hold and drag to the center. 99% of the time the trace will drag to the center, and the image will remain off to the side. Every now and then it will be the other way around, I don't know why.

The arrows will still be around the trace - it's still selected. Left click on the image, you'll get the arrows around it to show you've selected it,  hit the delete button and the original image is gone and you'll just be left with the trace.

At this point I usually save the trace as a SVG file (a type of vector file) and edit them in my V-Carve software. If you want to edit them in Inkscape you have to double-click on the vector and all the individual points will pop up.

Hope that helps a bit, or that someone else can explain it more clearly.

 

Also - if you've got a very busy picture, you can try another free software called Irfanview. It has some easy to use color manipulation and you can pick the background out color by color and make it white - cleaning it up so when you take it to inkscape it's a lot easier to do traces.

[jerry1939]

A huge Thank You Friend.  I don't have time to try it now but will definitely give it a try another day.

Thanks again Sir.

Edited August 14, 2017 by jerry1939