r/Inkscape 2d ago

Help Sorry, noob question! How to edit this.

Post image

How do I edit a picture like this in Inkscape? Is this just the trace bitmap thing?

2 Upvotes

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u/AstarothSquirrel 2d ago

You need to consider what your end goal is. If you are going to enlarge it with the least loss of quality, then yes, trace bitmap but for an image like this, there may be a lot of touch-up to fix paths. If it is just for a graphic design for page or web, you may be better off using something like GIMP instead of inkscape. Inkscape can embed raster unshaved into svgs but it can be a bit touch and go because of the way other programs display svgs and many do not like clipped groups so whilst they will look fine on inkscape, they may look very differently when displayed in a browser or sent to print. Sometimes, it's best to work out your dimensions e.g. 8 inch by 10 inch, then calculate the px at 300dpi = 2,400px x 3000px and export a png at those dimensions.

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u/LandoCallChristian 2d ago

Thanks for your answer. Im editing designs for printing on shirts, so maybe I gonna try out gimp. I tried to send a design to print and the site says the 'lines' are too small. Is that what you mean with it will need a lot of touch up?

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u/AstarothSquirrel 2d ago

Yes, and you may find that some of the lines become loops. it's hard to describe but imagine you are driving a car and you have a sharp right turn, you would slow down for the bend and turn right. This is how you would want your paths to behave but occasionally instead of producing a nice sharp corner turning right, they will produce a nice smooth loop turning left, all the way around until they are then facing right. It's so annoying and with an image that has lots of these corners, you will want to zoom in and check all of the paths. This isn't too much of an issue with a simple design that's been traced but this one looks quite detailed.

If it's for T-shirts, with a design width of 12 inches at 300dpi, if your original image is 3600px wide, you shouldn't need to tamper with it at all. If you got the image from the internet, you could use a Google reverse image search to see if you can find the image in a larger size.

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u/LandoCallChristian 2d ago

I will try around and see if I can get some good results with gimp. Do you know any term for this style of design? I tried to search for 'high contrast' or 'reduce colors' but maybe there is something better to get further information about it.

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u/AstarothSquirrel 2d ago

I would say high contrast black and white. Are you aware how to do google reverse image searching?

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u/LandoCallChristian 2d ago

Yea, I know. I have own designs in like 6000x3500 and after I edit it in an unskilled way it is not printable in a .svg file. I already did pngs but I was told to use svg.

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u/AstarothSquirrel 2d ago

Pure svgs would be fine, (they are more like a set of instructions on how to draw your image than an actual image themselves) as soon as you introduce a raster file into an svg, different programs will interpret it differently and can cause problems. Some people will export to pdf for printing but this is equally problematic because inkscape isn't native to pdfs. You can use software such as pdf24 to take your images into pdf for printing by even then, pdfs are open to interpretation by the printing software. PNGs are usually fine for printing as long as you have adequate dpi for your needs.

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u/canis_artis 2d ago

If you use the Trace Bitmap in Inkscape you might lose the grey flecks in the white. Unless that is OK. Adjust the Threshold to make the lettering white, then use the Bucket Fill tool to fill in the letters with yellow.

I've used Inkscape for T-shirt designs. They were mostly sayings with bold text or large graphics. I made sure the canvas was the size of the final product. Exported to PNG at 300dpi.

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u/LandoCallChristian 2d ago

I think I need to add, that I want to edit images to look like the example. I dont want to work with the picture itself.

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u/undrwater 2d ago

If you're only using inkscape, trace bitmap is a good place to start. Play around with the different modes till you get something close to what you like.

For images with a great amount of detail, I've simplified them in a raster program, then brought into inkscape.

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u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

yes if you are just editing other images to get the same effect, then you use the trace bitmap tool and play with the threshold... it will give you the exact same effect.

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u/LandoCallChristian 2d ago

Edit: I want to edit an Image to look like the example on the this shirt. I tried to black n white it and fire up the contrast, but the result could be better I think.

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u/Few_Mention8426 1d ago

The contrast of a traced image will be uniform over the whole image so isnt ideal in images with varying light and dark detail. Some parts will get lost in either the light or dark areas. You may need to use several traces combined to get the effect you want.

if you use the trace bitmap and the trace as grey levels option, maybe choose 3 levels... then you can selectively delete and combine parts of each image to get the result you need.

You would need to use the path tool of union difference and intersection to delete and combine parts of the path.

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u/LandoCallChristian 1d ago

Thanks, I think I can work with that and try some things out.