For giggles, I traced and cut a random political flier.
When traced, the rectangular selection area included a bit of the green area. That showed up as an additional cut.
It would be handy if the cut areas that are significantly separated visually were treated as different cuts.
Note the alignment issue, too, but that is well documented.
I.e. I would have liked to have deleted the bottom left and bottom right bits of cut area.
You should be able to select just the portions you want. Did you try the adjustments described in the online manual?
https://glowforge.com/support/topic/first-three-prints/2nd-print-trace
Specifically,
Get the Details You Want (Keyboard Shortcuts)
To pick up light markings, use Control-Up Arrow (Windows) or Command-Up Arrow (Mac). To ignore light markings, use Control-Down Arrow (Windows) or Command-Down Arrow (Mac).
If there are too many stray marks, Control-Shift-Up Arrow (Windows) or Command-Shift-Up Arrow (Mac) to remove them. If small details aren’t showing up, use Control-Shift-Down Arrow (Windows) or Command-Shift-Down Arrow (Mac) to reveal them.
If you still can’t get a clean scan (too much “noise” in the original, for example), you might consider using a free app like Adobe Capture to import scans from a phone or tablet into Inkscape / Illustrator / Affinity Design for complete control.
Good luck!
Another thing to try: take a piece of paper and cut a rough hole in it that would allow your desired subject to show through but not the distracting background. Put that over the original when you do the trace.
Also, I’ve found that shiny materials don’t trace as well due to the reflection of the lights. If you can reduce the glossiness of the piece it will give you a better trace.
Fantastic suggestions!
Thank you! I’ll give it another shot when we invariably receive yet another copy of the same flyer.
There’s another trick you can use which is sort of bogus but effective: select and delete. I had a trace with some areas of speckles, so I just did a rectangular selection (click and drag) to get the bits and then backspace/del and they were gone.
It’s been a little while since I’ve seen any replies on this thread so I’m going to close it. If you still need help with this please either start a new thread or email support@glowforge.com.
