This will bring up handles that you can use to change the size and length of the curve. To further match the boundaries of your shape with that of your subject’s, click on one of the nodes. This will curve the line and allow you to shape it according to your subject’s boundaries. Once your image is outlined, we’re going to grab the Edit Paths by Nodes tool, click on the outline to select it, then manually click and drag any of the straight segments of the line. It may help to reduce the opacity of the image in order to add contrast between your shape and the subject. We are going to straighten that out in the next step. Once you’ve outlined your subject, it should look something like the image below. Don’t worry about the rudimentary shape and parts of the subject laying outside of the shape’s boundaries. It’s much easier for me to verbally demonstrate this than it is to type it. It is highly advised that you watch the video at the bottom of the page for this particular step. Make sure to position the anchor points at the peak of curves while allowing for a straight line to run directly through to the next anchor point. I removed it with no harm.Grab the Bezier Pen and begin to start creating a rudimentary shape that outlines your subject. There was 1 px wide light blue shape in the tracing result. NOTE1: If your image isn't pixel perfect 3 colors, but anti-aliased or a photo, you may need more colors than 3, I needed 4. Trace in BW the black bitmap, remove the background from it, too.Ĭhange the fill color of the black shape to white. Now you have a real black bitmap, not the original bitmap with SVG function. Select the blackened image, goto Edit > Make bitmap copy, delete the original blackened version. Shift the tracing result (with holes) aside and colorize the imported PNG to black (Filters > Color > Colorize): Trace (see NOTE1) the imported image in colors without the background. Scale it after the process is done and you have a vector image.Īt first make a spare copy to the artboard. Import the image and do not scale it smaller. Of course it can happen that your flag is a photo which is taken when the flag is waving and it cannot be cropped. Then you haven't any background to remove.

Crop the flag in a bitmap editor (GIMP, Paint.NET, Photoshop, etc.) to its exact rectangular size.

Inkscape trace bitmap transparency