Block Printing Help

Hi all, I am new to the glowforge community and first time posting. I am trying to figure out how to make this SVG file into a format that will print the negative space so I can use it as a block print. This will be a skill I would like to learn so I can continue to do this on other projects. I have no clue how to do that and I am using the recent version of illustrator. TIA!

TheHermitsvg

Welcome to the fun! Luckily this is super easy in AI.
Click the “Edit” menu, select “Edit Colors,” then click “Invert Colors.”

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Welcome to the forum.
I think a block print is very similar to a stamp. You would simply engrave away the area around your design. The stamp maker tool included in the Glowforge Premium subscription would accomplish this fairly easily.

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Where is this stamp maker tool you speak of?! I have the premium subscription.

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Thank you! I just tried it and when I import it into GF it reverts back to the basic SVG again instead of the negative image.

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Just found it! I suppose this is one of those “you should read your manual” moments lol!

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In Inkscape I do it in six operations.

  1. Make a filled rectangle that gives you space around the image. It helpos to have it a different color.
  2. Send the filled rectangle to the bottom.
  3. Right Click on any of the black objects in the original SVG.
  4. Context menu Select Same > Fill color
  5. Shift click the bottom rectangle to select.
  6. Path > Exclusion

Whoops. Almost made the primal mistake. Uploaded a not reversed image.

Reversed Hermit

I don’t know if this will give you the definition you want. The SVG is vector art, but most likely a scan of some bitmap that has lost definition along the way.

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Thank you! I have Inkscape as well, just haven’t used it much. This is very helpful and thanks for posting the image too!

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And for completeness, if your image is a raster here’s another way to do it:

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