Afternoon all

I am thoroughly enjoying learning and playing with Inkscape, thanks for creating it :)

A thing I've made as a 'print out and colour in' file works fine as that but I also had a go at seeing if I could colour it in on Inkscape (using fill) and... yikes, no ;) I've clearly not set the paths correctly to combine in the right way. I've tried lots of different combinations but none give me what I'd expect (though has taught me the many ways in which I've got it wrong haha!).

My basic file (a traceover of a public domain Celtic knotwork pattern: https://flickr.com/photos/britishlibrary/11121840964/in/photostream) looks like (1a and 1b) in the attached PDF. When I 'fill' it uncombined it looks like (2) and when I combine the sections and fill it looks like (3) which is only slightly different. I was hoping for something more like (4).

I've not converted the lines to paths as that seems to turn the single centre into two outer lines which would seem to confuse things further. Is that my mistake? (I've tried joining nodes together, combining various bits, union... I'm clearly not getting it right).

What can I do to make this a more useful file, if someone wants to colour it in online rather than via a printer?

Thank you
Jo

P.S. If anyone has kids who might enjoy colouring in a Christmas-themed A4 sheet with computing-themed puzzles on it, then folding that sheet into a small booklet / zine... then I also created this in Inkscape for my job and it's free to download :) https://cs4fn.blog/colour-in-mini-christmas-zine-from-cs4fn/ (there's also a US letter size sheet but I've not tested how well it folds as I don't have a US-paper-printing printer).

It might have been easier if you had included the SVG file of your attempts, as the PDF is mostly display and definitely not an easy format to understand your objective or your work thus far.

I've attached the result of the linked image. All the paths are grouped, but when you ungroup them, there's a single outside path that should remain properly closed. Selecting all of the paths, then de-selecting the outside path allows one to set the remaining collection to fill. I believe this will accomplish your desired results.

This image above is the result of the trace of the original from the linked site, slightly cleaned up of "debris" and represents the SVG file with the fill set for all the paths. This is what would be paper-printed for filling in manually.

This image above is the result of setting all the paths to a fill setting, but excluding the single outside path.

If this isn't your objective, let me know and/or include a current SVG file for easier examination.

I must confess, I used LightBurn laser engraving and cutting software to perform these tasks as it is a must easier program for the simpler tasks.

Thank you - that's a LOT better than my effort. I hope no-one tries to cut the design out, that would seem horrifylingly fiddly :) It should just be two ribbons intertwined though, without black bits between the ribbons (but probably those can just be selected and turned back to white easily enough).

I've attached the SVG. (I can't see how you're appending images to a forum post, I don't seem to have an option for that as far as I can tell).

Jo

I used drag-and-drop to put the photos in place. During that process, the attached SVG file was also turned into an image, but each entry has a set of flags to the right of the filenames at the bottom of the editor. The flags for the photos were left as images and the flag for the attachment was changed to the left-most position, which I can't recall at present.

You'll notice that the SVG I've attached has double lines where your version has single lines. The trace function in both Inkscape and Lightburn creates a path for both sides of a non-zero thickness line. The original image has a plenty-thick line, resulting in those doubled up outlines. This worked to my advantage in that it merely required a re-assignment of stroke and fill to get your objective. The rather thick outline could have been adjusted to be thinner if you had desired to do so.

Ah did you do trace bitmap? That might have been the more sensible and much, much quicker option haha :)

I've uploaded an SVG which uses a laborious work around to change the colour of the central ribbon, bounded by a black line either side. It's what I was trying to do with the fill button but of course there isn't a bounded portion for the fill to go into. My current version just uses shapes (as paths) pushed into position so it looks vaguely right but isn't the real deal. I do quite like the thick black lines though.

Thank you
Jo