For dealing with rasters, Gimp is the perfect match to Inkscape that is better for manipulating vectors. There is loads of details on how to work both in youtube and their native site as well as in this group… Personally, when pulling vectors from raster images I find Gimp to be the most powerful.
You definitely ended up with a raster somehow - did it start that way?
You mentioned “from making a stroke in Illustrator” which should have resulted in a vector (cuttable line/shape). You can easily use the Live Trace function to turn the file you posted into a vector as eflyguy has done in Inkscape - but I’m wondering if that would actually double the work for you. Mind telling me the actual steps you went through to create the file? Please include a pic of the source art if you feel comfortable. The pen tool is very powerful, but there are usually faster ways of you have a lot of these.
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I have the image of the dog in photoshop with a transparent background. I then make a stroke around the dog. Fill the dogs face with another color then delete that inner color so all that’s left is the stroke around the dog’s face. I then export as and save as an .SVG.
I now understand the difference between pixels and paths. I’d just like to know the process on how to quickly make a path and save that outline for export so I can cut with my glowforge.
Original Dog Image: Dropbox - Dog Cutout.pdf - Simplify your life
Curious here…why do you fill the inside of the stroke with another color…then delete it? The stroke all by itself could be saved without that extra step.
I’m new to photoshop so that’s the only way I know how.
You can drag that photo into Illustrator or Inkscape (whatever your preferred design app is), draw the line around it, delete the photo and save the line as an svg. You’re doing a lot of extra steps it sounds like. You don’t even need to use Photoshop.
Yes…if you choose stroke / path it will be a cuttable line…not a raster.
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Doing that process would still result in a stroke instead of a path though? I need to make a path so glowforge will cut it.
Gimp is very much like Photoshop in how you mask off some areas, but Gimp mask lines can be saved off as a “path” that can be exported as vectors as an SVG. It gets a bit complicated as the raster image part has to be saved separately and then put back together in Inkscape, but the flexibility in making the paths is far beyond what Inkscape will do. You might look for some way to save the mask as a vector, but a raster line is still a raster.
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Oh your original post said you created the line in Illustator, not Photoshop - totally different process. Before I go further - do you actually have both programs? (You do if you have the full Adobe Creative Cloud suite)
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Oh gotcha! Sorry for the miscommunication. I only have Photoshop.
No worries 
the Methods for each program are very different. For Photoshop you need to make shape layers which can be exported as vector SVGs
- Make sure the shape layer you’re exporting as SVG has been created in Photoshop. If the vector shape is inserted in a Smart Object, it cannot be exported as an SVG. In order to export it, open the original vector file in Adobe Illustrator and export it as SVG there.
- Select the shape layer in the Layer panel.
- Right-click on the selection and select Export as (or go to File > Export > Export As.)
- Choose SVG format.
- Click Export.
If you’re unfamiliar with shape layers:
That said - PS will be totally fine for generating cutouts of your photographs but you’ll find it clunky and difficult for any kind of assembled object like a box or 3d puzzle. Dedicated vector programs like Illustrator, Fusion 360, Affinity Designer, Inkscape etc will be much better.
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