How to Make Water Depth Contour Maps with Inkscape and Trace Bitmap

Inkscape tutorial showing easy design workflow by Rick Johanson in a step-by-step free course on how to make custom water depth map art. Follow along and learn the basics of Inkscape including Trace Bitmap, Drop Shadow, and custom page sizing. Two specials guests make a cameo in this beginner intermediate Inkscape 1.3 Tutorial.
📱 What screen recorder am I using?
I use Camtasia to make all my videos. From my experience it's the best screen recorder available, and I like the built in video editor and cursor effects. Check it out here: techsmith.z6rjha.net/ba9x0M
Water Depth Data and Contour Maps provided by NOAA Office of Coast Survey:
www.nauticalcharts.noaa.gov/e...
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[@zzziiii1111]

The stealth appearance, though! :D Really appreciate your detailed instructions. It's fun to learn a skill from someone who actually loves doing it.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha- they snuck in there. I do love making these. Now its a family affair.

[@WriterLady]

It's incredible, how much effort you put forth so we learn digital art skills & techniques we didn't even know we needed! So much gratitude for your expertise & your willingness to share it. 🙏

[@IronEchoDesign]

Many many thanks! I'm grateful for the whole Inkscape community.

[@graphguy]

Ok.. one of these is going up on my office wall!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Nice! I may do the same!

[@zfotoguy71]

This would also be handy for people using a CO2 laser to cut out topographical maps.

[@robp9129]

Another helpful guide Rick; best wishes to you and your family from the UK 🤗👍

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks you!! Cheers!

[@CTRL_SMarcos]

Beautiful, thanks for the video 💯

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you! Was a quick one, but we have to use the time we have. Ha.

[@ShafaqIftikhar-pw9ld]

What can i say another awesome tutorial from a great TUTOR!!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!!

[@user-xd9sm8xl8g]

thank you!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!

[@WalidDingsdale]

thanks for this great tutorial, very lovely kids

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!

[@MentallyHellthy]

Can you explain how to get the different depths? What does shallow contour, safety contour, and deep contour mean relative to each other? I can't figure out how to get more than 2-layers. Thank you!

[@NickGrayson15]

Awesome guide! I was just wondering if you had a way to do this with a lake?

[@ptredhead]

That looks so good! Thank you. I'm definitely gonna try this. I wonder, can you do that with a topographic map, like a mountain or something showing contour lines? That might be trickier though.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! It’s a fun little design project. Great idea about trying this with topographic lines. I’ll test it out.

[@keyvanhasani1622]

Hi. Please do a tutorial on an area that has a concrete dam and a lake behind it in Blender Design.

[@IronEchoDesign]

That would be cool. I haven't gotten too far in Blender. Still a complete beginner. BlenderGuru has an amazing channel that may help with that.

[@Mariam-Mina]

Nice tutorial!! And your kids are so adorable!! I’m surprised how you managed to do this tutorial with the 2 little munchkins 😅 I lock the door or wait until they go to the school to record my tutorials 😂 I record in 10-15 mins then I take hours in editing, I need to get improved in this 😅

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!! They snuck in for the surprise appearance on this one. I know the feeling, and I usually do lock the door while recording too. And the editing… I need to get faster on that. Whats your channel? I’ll try clicking on your handle and see if it’s there.

[@Mariam-Mina]

@@IronEchoDesign thanks Rick 👍 youtube.com/@MariomaArt I’m fan with cricut so I do tutorials for cricut design space & Inkscape software but more related to design projects to cut using cutting machine like cricut or silhouette not to design logos or graphics. It’s mainly to make cards, 3D projects like gift boxes, rolled flowers, using glyphs in fonts….etc I’m resin artist too, I don’t do resin tutorials but I use Inkscape to design mandala and cut it with vinyl then attach it to resin wooden boards. They are so cool! I enjoy watching your channel and have been following you for a while 👍

[@stephenbishop85]

Great video, thank you! What's the font used at the end?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you! I’ll have to double check. I think it is Inter V. Free Google font. There are several weights you can download for free.

[@talk2devid]

Can you please create a tutorial about how to recolor a old comics traced image?

[@sumitdadhwal7067]

Hi Rick, Thanks for these awesome vidoes. Could you please do a video combining water depth contour maps and land based artifacts (roads, highways, parks etc.)? - A fellow bostonian :) 😀

[@kumudumadhawa493]

Bro, Your videos are really helpful. I have a request. Can you please make a custom map like custom zoo map, or site map with cartoon illustrations ?

[@justsandm]

Great video, but do you have a video that explains the what to do next? How to save the individual layers?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! All the layers are preserved when saved as an SVG. Are you looking to export layers individually for a cutting machine?

[@graphguy]

NOAA needs to step up and add right mouse download! With that said Microsoft Edge users have the built in 'Web capture' that works very well and doesn't require another app.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Seriously! Lets get the data, NOAA! Didn't know about the Edge web capture. Thanks!

[@unityindiversity1708]

@@IronEchoDesign Firefox and Opera can do the same

[@IronEchoDesign]

Where have I been? I use Firefox and didn’t realize it has screen capture. Thanks!

[@mathieubaker1548]

Is there any reason why i cant make the layers on the lake i want? thanks!

[@ninjaziggman]

I can't get it to show me the depths of the water. I'm trying to do Millinocket lake, is there something I'm missing?

[@RahulSharma-mo1kr]

Rick, thank you for the most informative video. Can I ask what software you used to capture the screen capture? Thank you.

[@1amiguita]

I need this answer also, I used the snap tool and don't think that's good lol

[@RahulSharma-mo1kr]

@@1amiguita Your in the right place as Rick is definitely the one to ask. 🙏🏽

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!!🙏

[@IronEchoDesign]

I’ve landed on Camtasia as the best screen recorder for making these tutorials. I can record my voiceover in-window video and the screen share at the same time. Plus the editor tool has all the built in effects I need. Here’s a link if you want to check it out:techsmith.z6rjha.net/ba9x0M

[@RahulSharma-mo1kr]

@@IronEchoDesign Rick thank you so much. Wishing you all a Happy New Year.

[@bobvandigriff1425]

Maybe I missed it but, where/How did you get the Color bar that's to the right of the where the text "Crane's Beach is at the bottom of the screen? Thanks.

[@imGhayas420]

loved it(the video) btw my princpal said can i make a logo for the school like it has a eagle and its a circle logo can you give me some tips or make a vid about it btw i've been using inkscape for not a long time i use it to make logos (can i get a shotout?)

[@janehellwig6814]

Hi Rick! Thanks so much for this and for introducing Crew's Reviews! When we load the website, it says "the layer, ENC, cannot be added to the map" and then shows no detail for Crane Beach or Mentor Headlands, OH lol. We've tried Chrome and Microsoft Edge with no success... Any suggestions?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much, and thanks for checking out Crew's channel! Let's fix this ENC error. Is this message coming up from nauticalcharts dot noaa dot gov /enconline/enconline dot html? I'll try doing Mentor Headlands right now on my computer.

[@IronEchoDesign]

I've got it up and Mentor Headlands, OH is working and has really nice depth contours. Want to email me and we can figure it out? johanson.rick at Gmail.

[@GalleryAvenueDesigns]

Hey Rick, so happy I came across your videos. I love Inkscape but I've noticed that since I did the 1.3 update I can't use the trace bitmap function. As soon as I open it Inkscape crashes every time. Have you come across this issue?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! And yes. That happened to me when I moved from 1.1 to 1.2. Instant crash. The advice I got that worked was to do the good-old shut down, restart. Then test Trace Bitmap on a small file size image and do single scan. If that still crashes there might be something worse going on. Hope it can be fixed!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Also, try it in a new Inkscape window BEFORE playing with any Path Effects. The bug could be in a Path Effect causing trouble to Trace Bitmap.

[@GalleryAvenueDesigns]

Thanks, will do

[@user-gi9nd2jn7d]

Hey Rick thanks for the vid. I try the same on NOAA and the ENC layers are not available. Any idea why it isn't there? When I go to the ENC Viewer, the pop up message states: "the layer, ENC, cannot be added to the map".

[@IronEchoDesign]

Lets try to fix this. Is this message coming up from nauticalcharts dot noaa dot gov /enconline/enconline dot html? If so, what location are you trying to view. I'll try to repeat it on my computer. Thanks!

[@user-gi9nd2jn7d]

Yes Rick. I checked your screen in the vid and everything looks exactly like your screen.@@IronEchoDesign

[@user-gi9nd2jn7d]

Hi Rick, they fixed the issue. Things are back to normal. Thanks for looking into it.@@IronEchoDesign

[@IronEchoDesign]

@user-gi9nd2jn7d Nice! So glad to hear!

[@The_Penguin_City]

Lo siento, pero eso se hace con un sistema de información geográfico como Grass Gis.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Gracias! I just Googled Grass Gis and it looks amazing. Going to play with it today. Muchas gracias.

[@The_Penguin_City]

@@IronEchoDesign It's not so easy my friend. Maybe you must start with QGis from start. This kind of studies, like the one that you are doing require other kind of tools because a map, even one that its purpose is to be informative, must meet some requirements. Datum, projection, scale, north, marginal data, reticule or gradicule, data legend, among many others. Part of my post gradiate research is to investigate ancient lake in Mexico city before Spaniards invade this city. Similar of what you are doing now, but based in sinthetic radar aperture digital terrain models. Greetings from México, congratulations about your beautiful channel.

[@The_Penguin_City]

@@IronEchoDesign kzbin.info/www/bejne/hXmTeKWFlq9jhLssi=ywp448BRE8RzuCnS

[@lua_programmer]

Never knew you had kids.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Two of them! Little monsters.