Inkscape Trace Bitmap Tutorial: How to Convert PNG Image or Jpeg to Vector + Remove Background

[@curtiscarlson8958]

Ive watched at least a couple of these. You do a great job at isolating a topic, explaining it, explaining how to use it and limiting the rabbit holes while still allowing room for enticing us into working more in depth with the topic. Keep up the good work!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much!! I'll keep at it!

[@2easy4marv]

Dude I'm absolutley in love with your tutorials and the results. Keep it up!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you very much!! Will do!

[@charliemancuso5690]

Great job communicating the workings of Inkscape. I'm new to the software and am able to pickup what you are explaining without stress lol.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! Have fun with Inkscape! It has a lot of tricky parts at first, but worth learning I think.

[@fathmaden671]

Great job. I like to watch your tutorials. it's really entertaining.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! 😀

[@trscsaeg]

Your steady hand when outlining is insane. I hope one day AI for graphics gets really good at identifying things to just cut things out in one click. I like that you can move your trace line with this though

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! I think you're right about AI. One day a lot of this will be automated. Hopefully there's still a place for designers and our human creativity!

[@AlextheENTP]

@@IronEchoDesign There will always be a place for the human spirit! AI can learn, but not revel or appreciate, improvise or see the difference between a bad mistake and a mistake that was meant to be. It understands what we tell it to, but even if we try, and even if we seem to succeed, we haven't really, truly created life. Technological advancement in service of a better future FTW!

[@mohamedshazli6972]

That smile at the end 👌👌 Oh man, you are Billiant!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha, thanks!! I love making these so much.

[@deejaudible]

Thanks!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much! I appreciate it!

[@MalibuBon]

I love your tutorials and would like to see a combo of a person and a dog angel.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!! Person, dog, angel combo would be cool. I'll try to see what I can come up with and if I have the skill for a tutorial on it. Thanks!

[@narciliocosta]

Dudy, that's kind a magic! Awsome!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! Inkscape magic!

[@jasonroskam8698]

Great tutorial, thank you. Too the point on how to do things with out all the extra commentary fluff.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! That's what I'm trying for.

[@ghstrder2740]

This was dope!!! And that smile at the end.. well earned... We need more!!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! I'll keep making them. Love doing these!

[@Nuguineatru]

You are a great teacher. I love your tutorials. Simple and to the point. Easy to follow.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much. I'm trying for simplicity and still keep them interesting.

[@JohnCarter-hm8pv]

FYI the image "William Real Photo of Building:" has been removed..... AWESOME tutorial... love your work!!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you very much! And thanks for the heads up on the image. Hope they bring it back to the site someday.

[@kaushiksekar845]

Lovely Inkscape and inkscape tutorial

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@chrish4522]

Extremely well presented and easy to follow. You helped me quite a lot in my beginner project, and earned a well-deserved subscriber.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you so much! I'll keep making these!

[@chrish4522]

@@IronEchoDesign Please do. I have an interest in graphic design and I have been working on T-shirt designs and logos for our local Special Olympics teams. I'd like to make them more and more professional, and I've already found a lot of great information in the handful of your videos that I've watched. As a suggestion, a video(s) about spacing, making things even/symmetrical, and relative sizing of both words and images would be awesome.

[@phamster18]

dude.. this tutorial is out of this world !! lol love it

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! Haha.

[@phamster18]

@@IronEchoDesign bus seriously I am learning SVG using inkscape, I grew up with Photoshop and photography but now want to learn vector graphic... Thank you for having a channel on inkscape

[@IronEchoDesign]

That's awesome. I followed the same path. I love Inkscape and still use Photoshop on some stuff.

[@designstenerife8606]

Excellent Rick. love the shadow idea, making it really look painted on to the wall. Thanks for sharing with us.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! I'm trying to keep up with the pace of your content on IG. I'm slow!

[@designstenerife8606]

@@IronEchoDesign no worries mate. I need to post more often. You know how life gets in the way some times...

[@IronEchoDesign]

I most certainly hear you!

[@edwardmccarthy7877]

Excellent. Thank you!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!!

[@santiagomarrodan8443]

Desde España, ¡muchas gracias!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Gracias!!

[@Ebonye-xr4bn]

OMG! Your tutorials are amazing! I am officially a new subbie!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!! I'll keep making them!

[@ahmedabdelaalweb]

Wonderful video dude. Thank you! @10:16 is a magical moment! My jaw literally dropped.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!! I'll try to do more like that.

[@imdxpertm]

Nice tutorial Rick. Suggestion for next vid: Rainy day scene.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! And, you're good! I'll start playing around with rain effects. Thank you.

[@FilipeDalmattiLima]

Can’t say enough how amazing was this video tutorial! Thank you sooooooooo much

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you very much!!!

[@learntorelax3287]

What you did was a miracle. I'm always amazed by your work.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! It was all Inkscape. If I can do it, anyone can!

[@learntorelax3287]

@@IronEchoDesign Your videos always inspire me. Very useful for improving my skills.

[@IronEchoDesign]

So glad to help. Thanks!

[@FuzerMiX]

Subscribed, awesome tutorial 👌

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!!

[@birdie399]

Can’t wait to try this project. Thanks for the video.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Have fun with it! I tried a couple other buildings too, but liked the blue effect on this one most.

[@chrischris9221]

Great Great Great!!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@michaelharrison8126]

Fantastic tutorial. Thank you!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! It's a fun tool.

[@amielrelox]

Thank you for this! the best!

[@pawel040408]

Banksy style. Love it.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!! An inspiration.

[@hiruliao]

very useful tips. thank you for sharing.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!!

[@PauloHenrique-kx4of]

Nice tutorial

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thank you!!

[@graphosxp]

YOU GOOD!👍

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha, thanks!

[@guitarbrad]

This is an awesome and extremely instructive video! Thank you!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much!!

[@jss3018]

I'm learning so much. I do vinyl and I draw (badly) so I am always trying to fix a drawing with promise to make it better and vector so I can enlarge. Everything you have shown will work for me and I appreciate your input. Thanks again.

[@IronEchoDesign]

So glad some of these videos may help! Let me know if there is anything you'd like to see.

[@JohnColgan.]

wow, that appears so simple yet effective. Clipping the vectors with Path, Intersection as well as colour tinting the path as you bezier it are so much better than Object, Clip, Set

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! There's a lot of ways to do it, but I try to keep it simple.

[@JohnColgan.]

@@IronEchoDesign Object Clip Set has a flaw that it hides the area outside the clip, and it keeps reappearing on node edit etc

[@IronEchoDesign]

Yeah, I've seen that too.

[@ተመስገን-2022]

greate job 👌👌

[@WonkyPapa]

Thank you. I’m going to try this today.

[@RogeliusZ]

Eres todo un maestro

[@AnerAndru]

I'd put double like but you know I can't so 👍👍👍

[@derrickwalsh5087]

love your videos they have helped me a lot the only question i have is how do i save the vector i did so i can put it on my laser to burn on slate

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much. I’m not familiar with the laser settings but you can Export as an SVG. I have 2 videos on this channel that show the steps. I’ll try to paste one here. How to Save / Export a PNG File in Inkscape kzbin.info/www/bejne/ep-Td2iKgseGh8k

[@DeadlyInsite]

Mind blown....

[@Drugvigil]

Excellent bro learning a lot.

[@rroe5718]

Rick, enjoying your video's in my learning of Inkscape. Do you have a specific video that shows how to convert human portrait pictures to an image that I can cut out with my scrollsaw. Not sure if these would be called Vector or Bitmap images. The portrait would sort of have the look of the Astronaut in your video above......Thanks

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I’ve been thinking about this, and the latest video I posted has an Edge Detection tip that might work for the portrait image to scrollsaw application. Might still need more refining or a manual trace to get lines clean enough. Here’s the link and it’s the fish example if you want to skip ahead: kzbin.info/www/bejne/gqOQiJdmq5qSf9E

[@rroe5718]

@@IronEchoDesign Thanks and will check that out

[@Goliath190]

I am a new subscriber and also new to Inkscape. Is there a certain order to your videos that I can watch so I don’t get totally overwhelmed?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks so much! I like the two QuickStart videos for starting points. The Bezier Pen tutorial I made with absolute beginners in mind. The Trace Bitmap video with tiger in the thumbnail is a good starting point too, but it’s outdated now. I should make a new video to help people get started.

[@mannythemvrk]

My photo isn’t even duplicating. I’m following these instructions and when I select the photo and drag nothing happens. It just moves the original over and the page is still blank

[@koontyb4827]

Horrible when a plan doesn't come together

[@RTW2023]

I had the same problem.... if you move the path layer up one or two to its own layer it allows you to move it off of the page

[@jerrymcewen9902]

So much to learn, thanks for sharing with us. How can you move the tool bars? My screen has two different tools bars on right side, but nothing on top.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I believe the newer (and older) versions of Inkscape have a different default setup than the version I'm using. I'll be moving to 1.2 shortly to accommodate this. To get the right tool bar on top, go to View on top menu, and towards the bottom of the dropdown you'll see Default, Custom, and Wide. Choose Wide and that should put the toolbar on top. Can you let me know if that stil works?

[@inayachanelle4789]

Thank you, this tutorial has been very helpful! I'm interested to learn more about "composite" when you want to combine results of two traced bitmaps. What would be the best phrase I can use to search for more information on that process?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! I'll show an example in the next tutorial. Another way to say it would be to layer the results. Sometimes there is a detailed area on one that I like to combine with another.

[@tyheller287]

love the tutorials. cant get this to work using color bitmap for some reason it wont remove the traced image from the bitmap copy. any ideas as to why?

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks! Let's fix this. Sometimes the original image sticks underneath the new Trace Bitmap vector. Can you select the vector that was created and drag it off the original or is it stuck?

[@tyheller287]

@@IronEchoDesign it can be freely moved. everything was going great until the path intersection step. highlight the area i want to keep with the pen, shift click the full picture so both are selected, but after i click intersection nothing happens. when i try to move the part i wanted its still attached to the whole image. hope that makes sense :) still verry new to this

[@darrellB.]

In several of your trace bitmap videos, you mention using multiple results to composite them together. I have not been able to find a video on this. Would you put a link to a video for it or make one. Thank you.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks for the great question Darrell. You're right- I think I mention composting them but have never shown it. There may be a better way, but I take a darker threshold setting for the main part, and if there are any details that get muddled, I take another lighter threshold version. Then lay them on top of each other and delete the nodes that washed out the details so the better lighter part shows. Finally delete the nodes of the lighter version that are not needed. I tried including the steps in a video but it got wordy and confusing. I can send you screenshots if it helps. I probably should work on the video too though since it's a great question.

[@darrellB.]

@@IronEchoDesign Thank you for the reply and the explanation but for me, a video helps more in that I am able to pause, go back, and even slow it down as much as I need. I have been trying to figure it out on my own using a photo of my service dog that passed away without much success at all. Thank you for all the great videos that you have put out, I know they really do help a lot of people like me.

[@IronEchoDesign]

This is a very special project. Can you send me the photo? I'll test a few methods. If I get the steps down we'll enough for a video, would it be okay to post it on the channel? My email is my last name "johanson" dot "rick" at Gmail.

[@Kelly-yo2yk]

Great tutorial! I am having a problem once I click on the trace bitmap file to open. On my Mac it opens for a second image but on my Asus notebook ...no image !

[@stevo6572]

Amazing work! How long did it take you to get this good with inkscape? TY sir!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!! I still have a lot to learn, and it took me a couple of years to figure parts of Inkscape out. I started the channel with the hope of helping others get ramped up faster than I did.

[@mzabs1871]

wow

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks!

[@elkielonnkvist8962]

Hi, I've been following along some of your videos. In trying to cut a piece out of a photo with the bezier then use clip, then make a trace bitmap from that but it still acts as though the whole original photo is still there. I'm totally lost. Please what have I done wrong?!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Great question! You’ve found the Trace Bitmap quirk I wish they’d address. One solution is to create your Bezier clipping shape first, based on the original photo. Put it aside and then do Trace Bitmap. Now you can clip the area you want from the full Trace Bitmap result. Hope this helps!

[@relaxingzone369]

HI - I JUST FOUND YOUR CHANNEL - I WATCHED A FEW VIDEOS AND I WAS STUCK HERE TRYING TO DO STEP BY STEP AS IN YOUR INSTRUCTIONS . I CAN'T WORK WITH 18 COLORS - IT OPENS TO 17 AND AT THE BOTTOM IT IS WRITTEN - FROM ALT, ROTATE THE IMAGE TO THE OPPOSITE CORNER, FROM CONTROL PRESS AGAIN AGAIN ???? I TRY AND TRY AND NOTHING WORKS - HEEEELP !!!!! ANYWAY, YOU'RE DOING A GREAT JOB - MEANWHILE, I'M GOING TO TRY WITH 3D SUBTITLES . THANX

[@yuklingtse9451]

Hi Rick, thank you so much for your tutorial. I'm following the steps and trying to trace the astronaut. It was amazing! I was a bit lost with the invert image though. I managed to use trace bitmap and make a black vector with the invert image setting. But when I changed to white, the whole picture changed to white, not the astronauts. Did I miss something? Would be greatly appreciated if you could let me know. Cheers

[@IronEchoDesign]

Great question. Was the inverted brightness threshold on Single Scan set to .50? When the inverted image black vector is formed, drag the still black version away from the source image so its in its own part of the workspace. For easy visibility make a large rectangle and color it anything (red for example), as a temporary backdrop. Now with your still black vector on top of the red temp background, change the vector color to white. Now you can easily see what parts you will clip out to isolate the astronauts. (4:37 in the video). Does this help?

[@TomPearce]

@@IronEchoDesign Yeah I had the same question, kind of looked like it just automatically changed both in the video, following your instructions did the trick, thanks! Also, great tutorials, being going through your tracing ones and find them very helpful!

[@IronEchoDesign]

Nice! Thanks, and I'll keep making more!

[@madeleine7887]

How can I break apart a photo? For instance, separate the legs from the torso Thx

[@IronEchoDesign]

Great question. It's easier outside of Inkscape, like with Photoshop or other raster software. You can still do it with clipping but its cumbersome. Take photo and duplicate it. Create a shape around the torso and select the new shape and the photo. Go to Object on the top menu bar and in the dropdown choose Clip- Set Clip. Then repeat the process go get the legs. Hope this helps.

[@154Colin]

I need your help. All of a sudden when I draw a rectangle the stroke has rounded corners on the outside. I did not change any of the stroke values, the only one I change is the Width. What happened!?!

[@BlackCat_2]

Very interesting! I was looking for something to make a custom vector t-shirt design to take to a printer to have them printed. Would this work for me and export the image into a vector format the printer could use? I am still undecided about getting Inkscape but subscribed to your channel assuming I figure out that yes this program will work for me. - Heidi

[@IronEchoDesign]

Thanks Heidi! Good luck on your projects, and yes- Inkscape is great to use for T-shirt design. It's free and comes with some really strong tools built in. Usually the printer will tell you what file type, size and settings they want and you can always export your Inkscape work to a PNG file and modify to CMYK if it's a screen printer. POD you can go straight from Inkscape. Enjoy!

[@BlackCat_2]

@@IronEchoDesign they want a vector of my design that can be resized up or down. Right now it's just a pixel design. Thank you for your reply. I will likely install Inkscape tomorrow. It's nearing 2am here so going to try to sleep. :) -Heidi

[@IronEchoDesign]

That's great! It's a great program and design tool.

[@trscsaeg]

Can inkscape completely replace photoshop

[@alaskahomesteading]

I found that the "intersection", technique did not work on color scan (4 scans)... I ended up exporting the clipped single scan bitmap as a png, then re-import it, rescan in color and then change color of the layers.. Is this a good way to do this? I seriously could not get a color trace to work with the interestion.. maybe I'm missing something?? Anyway.. the way I did it worked and really didn't take much time. So if anyone has this issue my way works until Mr Rick does a tutorial!!

[@IronEchoDesign]

That's a great workaround. If the design I'm working on is too complicated or crashes Inkscape when trying to do Trace Bitmap sometimes its easier to export part of it and bring it back in as a PNG. Another approach if youre doing multiple scans is to do get the vector version of your art first and then clip out the exact shape you ultimately want. Less options that way but it keeps the workflow in Inkscape.

[@gauravjoseph4831]

Yes this is for vector but how do you remove a white or grey background from an image without vectorizing the image itself ?

[@IronEchoDesign]

There are few different methods for that. Here is a video that shows how: kzbin.info/www/bejne/sH3YgoZ4jbyjqpI

[@leeannlambert6229]

Do you have a video on G code?

[@IronEchoDesign]

I haven't used it yet. Are you looking for something to to help program CNC machine projects? I can research it.

[@watchersmedia9512]

I will appreciate anyone who can help. I downloaded inkscape, tried vectoring an image which I didn't succeed and along the line, I couldn't access the image any more. I mean, if i import an image, the image doesn't show up rather it display an envelop shape. If anyone has encountered such problem and later solved it, please help me and let me know how. Thanks

[@robertclare8496]

Just can"t get intersection clipping to work

[@simplyscripture5030]

I scanned a copy of the US Constitution and every time I try to trace bitmap my computer crashes

[@simplyscripture5030]

I'm still trying to figure it out, I don't think I'm doing something right. Seems like it should be pretty simple

[@IronEchoDesign]

Let's see if we can fix this. What are you looking to do ultimately? Are you looking to make a stylized graphic of the constitution? Trace BitMap could do that pretty well. Just resize the source image to something under 10MB. That may help avoid a crash. If you want a legible vector copy of the constitution, that may take a ton of computing power, so there are some workarounds you can try. What is your goal?

[@simplyscripture5030]

@@IronEchoDesign I have a laser engraving business and I want to make an engraved rendering of the Constitution on a nice slab of wood. I would rather buy a file than do it myself…….. but I can’t find one

[@dustinsmith9064]

Please, for just one video intro could you wear a black Jerry curl wig and yell, I'm Rick James and this is the IronEcho.... Thanks for the video btw.

[@IronEchoDesign]

Haha. Thanks, love Rick James!