Inkscape Tips???

[CuseCuts]

Hey guys,
I've been using Inkscape for about two or three months now and I was wondering if anyone had any tips for bitmap tracing? I just wonder when it is best to use which option to trace with. Any thoughts on this are really appreciated!

Mike

[tcaudle]

It's a bit of a nebulous question. The method of tracing is largely dependent on the bitmap to be traced. The level of contrast or the difference between a simple black and white line drawing or a complex continuous tone bitmap all come into play. Then each type of trace has settings. The goal is to get a center line tracing that has minimal clean up. Like all auto trace programs its a lot better at doing simple line drawings or high contrast, high resolution bitmaps. At some point it becomes quicker to hand trace a bitmap than to spend the time to clean up an auto trace with hundreds or more disconnected objects or really ragged outlines. I know it's a major learning curve to learn how to hand trace (digitize) but it's time well invested. After you master the process, it opens up a world of art sources and lets you take in complex jobs that you might normally avoid. Buying artwork is great and there are some wonderful sources, but building you own gallery over time gives you a chance to better match the local demands. I found over several years that I simply could not predict my customers tastes and what I though was really neat and would sell often fell flat. One thing I did do was limit the choice of Fonts down to about 5 that I knew were good for plasma.

[acourtjester]

As with many software packages there are tricks you can use, Many have be shown here. This post shows one that really helped as it used another software package to preprocess an image before bringing it into Inksacpe.
http://www.plasmaspider.com/viewtopic.p ... lp#p140897
rdj356 posted a YouTube video he made that does this.

[CuseCuts]

Thanks for the ideas guys! I plan on trying them in the next few days before I head back to school.

[Rtodahl01]

Do you use a mouse to hand trace?
I am having a heck of a time

[acourtjester]

There is a youtube video showing how to use Inkscape with a mouse for tracing that helps. It is doing a rough trace and then going back and adding detail to the original trace by clicking on the line and moving it to reshape the trace. also check out the post shown above where rdj357 links to a video using "Paint" to assist in tracing that is great.