Hello. New to Inkscape. Having issues with Bitmap tracing and complete fill. I read some pre-existing topics concerning the issue I'm having with double stroke lines and I saw that a solution was selecting "centerline" in the bitmap tracing dialogue but when I do this, even on a very small image, the program crashes. I realize that using the bezier tool would be a work around but I'd like to see about finding a fix using bitmap tracing. I would post pictures but I can't seem to do so here.
The second issue I'm having is that when I fill in using a color with the bitmap trace there is an unfilled white border around the filled color and inside the stroke tracing. Is there a way to bitmap trace something and get rid of this strange invisible white border?
In anything other than centerline tracing mode, Bitmap tracing will produce a closed path. Even though your image may, to you, seem to be made up of individual lines, to the tracing code they're thick shapes to be traced around. Consider tracing a filled rectangle - you would expect to get a filled path as a result. Now mentally make that rectangle thinner and thinner, until it's the thickness of a pen or pencil stroke - it still gets traced as a filled path.
The problem with double lines is probably that your path has a stroke but no fill. Going back to the thin rectangle above, you can see how this would result in a shape that has two lines close together. Turning off the stroke and setting a fill might be all you need to do, depending on your use for the traced shape.
As to the white border around the filled colour - that's nothing to do with the bitmap tracing process, and everything to do with the bucket fill tool. Try increasing the Grow/shrink parameter, but this tool always struggles with sharp corners. Generally the bucket tool is not a good choice - it should usually be one of the last things in your arsenal - but for filling a traced bitmap the only other practical alternative is manually drawing the shapes in a layer below the traced bitmap.
This is a subject I cover in some detail in my tutorial series in Full Circle Magazine (free download) - though it predates the addition of centerline tracing, and the layout of the Trace Bitmap dialog has changed somewhat in 1.0. The Trace Bitmap and Bucket Fill tools are described in parts 79-81, but I recommend starting from part 76 where I also show some manual tracing techniques.
Thank you for your reply. I could not locate where turn off the stroke. But no matter, I went ahead and used the bezier tool and made a nice outline. Now, having avoided the previous issues with bitmap tracing I seem to still be getting these white borders around a colored fill. I have seen youtube videos of people using the fill on an object made with the bezier tool and this white, unfilled border is not present. Any ideas how to get rid of it?
New users often don't realize that the Bucket tool creates new objects in areas of the screen bounded by color.
Since the boundary objects are vectors (having no pixels), the bucket tool reads the screen pixels which may be anti-aliased. The bucket tool can compensate by "growing" the new object's size according to the setting in the tool's controls. Zooming-in on the area to be "filled" can also help.
It sounds like you need to get more familiar with the basics of Inkscape. Go through the first few tutorials in the Help menu.
It's possible that the "white border" you're seeing is actually a white stroke, in which case you'll definitely need to learn how to turn it off.
When manually tracing, where possible it's better to draw closed paths for each section of the image, then set their fill colour, rather than tracing over the image with lots of separate lines that don't form closed shapes and trying to fill them with the bucket tool.
Beginners' Questions Bitmap tracing and filling
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Hello. New to Inkscape. Having issues with Bitmap tracing and complete fill. I read some pre-existing topics concerning the issue I'm having with double stroke lines and I saw that a solution was selecting "centerline" in the bitmap tracing dialogue but when I do this, even on a very small image, the program crashes. I realize that using the bezier tool would be a work around but I'd like to see about finding a fix using bitmap tracing. I would post pictures but I can't seem to do so here.
The second issue I'm having is that when I fill in using a color with the bitmap trace there is an unfilled white border around the filled color and inside the stroke tracing. Is there a way to bitmap trace something and get rid of this strange invisible white border?
Thank you.
In anything other than centerline tracing mode, Bitmap tracing will produce a closed path. Even though your image may, to you, seem to be made up of individual lines, to the tracing code they're thick shapes to be traced around. Consider tracing a filled rectangle - you would expect to get a filled path as a result. Now mentally make that rectangle thinner and thinner, until it's the thickness of a pen or pencil stroke - it still gets traced as a filled path.
The problem with double lines is probably that your path has a stroke but no fill. Going back to the thin rectangle above, you can see how this would result in a shape that has two lines close together. Turning off the stroke and setting a fill might be all you need to do, depending on your use for the traced shape.
As to the white border around the filled colour - that's nothing to do with the bitmap tracing process, and everything to do with the bucket fill tool. Try increasing the Grow/shrink parameter, but this tool always struggles with sharp corners. Generally the bucket tool is not a good choice - it should usually be one of the last things in your arsenal - but for filling a traced bitmap the only other practical alternative is manually drawing the shapes in a layer below the traced bitmap.
This is a subject I cover in some detail in my tutorial series in Full Circle Magazine (free download) - though it predates the addition of centerline tracing, and the layout of the Trace Bitmap dialog has changed somewhat in 1.0. The Trace Bitmap and Bucket Fill tools are described in parts 79-81, but I recommend starting from part 76 where I also show some manual tracing techniques.
https://inkscape.org/forums/tutorials/inkscape-tutorials-in-full-circle-magazine/
Thank you for your reply. I could not locate where turn off the stroke. But no matter, I went ahead and used the bezier tool and made a nice outline. Now, having avoided the previous issues with bitmap tracing I seem to still be getting these white borders around a colored fill. I have seen youtube videos of people using the fill on an object made with the bezier tool and this white, unfilled border is not present. Any ideas how to get rid of it?
New users often don't realize that the Bucket tool creates new objects in areas of the screen bounded by color.
Since the boundary objects are vectors (having no pixels), the bucket tool reads the screen pixels which may be anti-aliased. The bucket tool can compensate by "growing" the new object's size according to the setting in the tool's controls. Zooming-in on the area to be "filled" can also help.
More here: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Bucket.html
It sounds like you need to get more familiar with the basics of Inkscape. Go through the first few tutorials in the Help menu.
It's possible that the "white border" you're seeing is actually a white stroke, in which case you'll definitely need to learn how to turn it off.
When manually tracing, where possible it's better to draw closed paths for each section of the image, then set their fill colour, rather than tracing over the image with lots of separate lines that don't form closed shapes and trying to fill them with the bucket tool.