Newbie needs pointers here. Tracing an image so it will cut an irregar shape. What's the easist way?

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Hi I did the cutting tutorial but it doesn’t exactly explain how to do a cutout of say an irregular image. https://glowforge.com/support/topic/first-three-prints/cut-out-a-shape

I’d like to know how to define the cut out edge of something irregular like an image file. Where should I go to learn this?

I know Gimp better than inkscape but am learning more on both. I’d like to be able to use the magic wand feature in gimp to define the edge of the image and then tell Inkscape to define that edge so I can save as a .svg file. Am I doing this right?

Thanks,

Dustin

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This is one of the most common topics out there. What you’re interested in is tracing.

Just yesterday, in fact:

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You are a great resource for the community man, your time and experience are a valuable addition to the forum.
Thanks from all of us! :+1:
Your sense of humor is also an asset.

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Thanks for pointing me in the right direction. I have another question after reading up.

The question is, if I use Gimp to select an irregular outline to an image, using the magic wand tool, can I then paste that outline and image into Inkscape and then define the outline as the path so that it will cut that irregular outline without having to use the Besiel tool to define the outline path? If not is the besiel tool the only way to define the outline edge?

Thanks in advance!

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Search the forum for “inkscape trace”.

You’ll find lots of info.

Sorry accidentally submitted there for a sec.

So yeah, you’re either going to trace (easy) or bezier/pen/pencil (harder). You need to define a path to follow the outline of whatever you want to cut. The simplest way to do that is with a really clean-edged raster image, so I think you’re on the right track with preprocessing your image to be super contrasty, then using the trace function.

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Thank you sir that helps.

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