This works great to remove the inner circle using tobject>clip>set tool, however on this occasion I need the cut out part and not the hole (if that makes sense).
What-ever way I approach this (invert selection, shapes, Bezier works but can take time) it always deletes the reaming part leaving just the circle centre part, inverting selection also the same.
Just to summarise, let’s say you have a coloured square requiring a hole with a transparent background, what would be the steps to accomplish this – thanks
If this is a vector object that you're working on (say the square is vector, and not a photo or other raster image) you can use Difference (a path operation, or boolean).
draw the circle
position it over the square as needed
select both
Path menu > Difference
Or another way to approach it, if you have this option on your particular canvas.
The path drawn with the process Brynn described can be used to clip your imported raster image.
Just a note that when saving your drawing as a pdf then it will still retain the whole intact raster image embedded so one could recover any part outside the clipping area.
It used to be possible to do what you want with clipping. You had to make a compound clipping path. You could use the last group of steps I gave (using Combine) to create your clippping path. And use that to clip the raster image. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to work lately. Maybe someone else knows a trick?
Had a go using these techniques but no change, the image is a wall a flame which needs the cutout (filling in might not be an option) - the second image to replace cutout circle would be Planet earh, this gives an aura of flames around the outer edge.
It cuts out the circle no prblem, is there no way to invert the clipping process ?
Steps followed.
Import PNG image
Create circle using circle tool
Place on image
Draw a large squre over both or use shift key to highlight.
Follow steps above, combine or difference
Its not a biggie as using GIMP can always swap over for this task, I use MS image manager to crop photos before importing as easier.
I guess you could turn it into a Vector by scanning it using Trace Bitmap, this works really well for low resolution images but can become unstable on my low spec machine if you up the scans.
This leads me to a related question which I hope you don't mind me tagging on here, as an example you may have scanned one image which results in several small Vector images - somthing like a page of icons which you may want to use one a t a time, so far I have been unable to find a way of cropping one off to use - all sorts of things happen except the desired effect 😀
At present I break the sheet down by cropping one image at a time using MS image manager, then each sigle item is fed into the Trace Bitmat tool.
I'm hoping someone else will answer about not being able to clip a raster image in this way. Because it definitely was possibly in the past, and I don't know why it doesn't work anymore.
But meanwhile, what's your question? Are you asking if there's a better way?
Icons are usually pretty simple, so I might be tempted to either trace by Pen tool, or re-draw them. But your approach seem reasonable to me. Crop out each icon, and then auto trace it.
It might depend on the size of the individual images. Icons are also usually pretty small. And very small images don't autotrace very well. So it might be better to trace the whole thing, and then copy out various pieces. But it's hard to say without seeing the sheet.
Wait, why is this question related to the other one? I guess I have been curious why you want to make a hole in a raster image. I can think of a couple of reasons, but it might help to know the big picture, so to speak.
The bigger picture on the cricle cut out is contained in post 1hr 3min ago, placing earth insde a flamed ring.
Had a go using these techniques but no change, the image is a wall a flame which needs the cutout (filling in might not be an option) - the second image to replace cutout circle would be Planet earh, this gives an aura of flames around the outer edge
The second question realtes to the images which I download from a subscription purchased, at the time I diidn't realise the images were mostly Ai or EPS/PSD which I have'n't got around to figuring out yet.
What i would like to do is remove part of the scanned image, using the Bezier push/pull tool you can highlight the newly created paths but not copy or delete them?
Mmmkay, we'll see if someone else answers about the clipping. I really am curious why it can't be done anymore.
About the 2nd question, where you have a sheet with several different objects that you've been tracing separately. Do I understand correctly those are AI or EPS or PSD files?
If the image is traced successfully, you should be able to select and remove part of it. It depends on exactly which options you used in Trace Bitmap, as exactly how to select them.
If they were AI or EPS or PSD files, they might be vector contents already, and not need to be traced. If that's the case, there are even more different ways the drawing might be organized, meaning yet more different options to select only part of the drawing.
When you're working with a file that was made by someone else, always start to select something with the Selection tool (not the Node tool ). Then the status bar will give you a clue what to do next.
Most commonly, we find that all the objects in the file are Grouped. The status bar will tell you what kind of object is selected, when you're using the Selection tool. If the status bar says "Group of...." that means you need to Ungroup. Object menu > Ungroup, or else there's a button in the command bar, or there's a key shortcut. Watch the status bar with every click, and when you no longer see the word "Group" in the status bar, then everything is ungrouped. Now deselect everything, and you'll be able to select individual objects.
If you notice the drawing changes significantly when you ungroup something, then likely there was a clip or mask that was removed by ungrouping. The status bar will tell you whether clip or mask, so you can either try to release the clip or mask, or share the image with us and we can do it.
If it says "Path...." then likely you have a compound path, meaning more than one path has been combined into one, even though they may be disconnected paths. In that case, it might or might not be possible to separate what you want. But you can try by doing Path menu > Break Apart. There's a good chance everything will go black when you do that, but don't worry. Without deselecting anything, add a stroke and remove the fill. Then you will be seeing the actual paths (when everything was black you could only see the filled areas).
You can quickly add/remove fill and stroke in the Style Indicator area of the status bar, which is the bottom-left area of the window. Right-click on the Fill or Stroke color bar, and you can choose the option you need. Or you can use Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill and Stroke Paint tabs. Then deselect everything, and you'll be able to select the individual path or paths that you need.
If the status bar says "Image...." that means you have selected the imported raster image, rather than the vector paths you traced. You can drag it out of the way, to make it easier to see the path. Or it might mean that the auto-trace was not successful.
Sorry, what exactly is the issue with clipping? Can someone share an example file, and explain what they expect and what to do to get the problematic behavior?
Maren, it used to be you could use clipping to make a hole in a raster image. That ability was lost....I first noticed around maybe 0.91 or 0.92, but the change could have happened sooner (I don't use raster images much).
The technique was a compound clipping path like in the attached SVG file. And clipping a raster image would result in a hole in the image. (That's just a random screenshot of someone else's that I downloaded ages ago.)
OMG! It just worked! I must have tried it 6 times the other day.
Oh, it has something to do with the shape, apparently. Ok, I'm re-uploading the file. Notice that with the star object, the clipping works. But with the circle object, it does not. Assuming you can reproduce what I see, do you have any ideas?
Edit
Just re-uploaded with a square hole. It does not work either. But the star hole does work!
Edit #2
Just tested with 1.0beta2, with same results. Star hole works, but circle hole and square hole don't. The status bar says they are clipped. But there's no hole in the raster image.
Update - Burnt the midnight oil following replies above.
Success on two fronts, firstly making changes to the bitmap scan settings whilst recognising tscans are stacked to a minimum of three. Using the ungroup followed by break apart function isolated the individual components, although this may only be for one layer at a time – still a bit fiddly which prompted another look at the alternative file formats, one in particular EPS which is often provided alongside PNG images.
Using online file conversion web sites converted into SVG, this worked much better using the same commands above to achieve desired result.
This is fine until I move across to Linux which may not need the Ghost script files required by Windows.
It depends on the path direction. Break the path apart, reverse the direction of the inner path, then Path > Combine again. Then it will punch a hole into the raster image.
It depends on the path direction. Break the path apart, reverse the direction of the inner path, then Path > Combine again. Then it will punch a hole into the raster image.
Oh, that's very tricky! It did not used to matter about the path direction. So I still wonder if it should be reported. Why should the path direction matter? Do you know?
Something to do with fill rules, I think. As a general rule, I'd suggest to compare what it looks like in Firefox or Chrome. If it looks the same, it's probably correct.
In this case, it is correct and it looks the same.
Unless Inkscape should change a path's direction upon converting it to a clipping path? Could be very difficult to do, and maybe cause more issues than it solves ...
Of course, my next question, is why should the fill rule matter? I can't think of any other case where the fill rule matters for clipping. Maybe for masking, that might make sense to me. To me clipping should happen according to the paths, not the fill rule.
What I'm saying is that why would anyone clip a raster image using an object with a hole in it, for any other reason except to make a hole in the raster image. So I think it should work, no matter the path direction.
Maybe I'll make a report, if for no other reason, to try and get more info.
Inkscape 1.0 is in string freeze, so a feature to revert a subpath's direction is unlikely to happen for that version, if that means that new translatable texts need to be added.
It's still worth making a feature request for it. I've needed it to fix things like this a couple times. If you make one, please also include idea(s) how to present that option to the user, so how a person is supposed to use that suggested feature.
I agree with @brynn that this is confusing in general. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to set that clip-rule when it is needed, i.e. when there is a hole visually in the place where the clip-rule evenodd would add one. This could be one feature request, if only to discuss it.
Can I ask does the same apply to other types of images, example;
Map of USA, requires three vertical bars of different colours - creating a single bars using square shapes tool then duplicating, shift to select all eliminates the other two bars?
I worked around this by creating three maps, three bars then fitting together.
There seems to be quite a few bugs on the Windows version that do not appear in online videos, this makes it difficult to replicate what is being taught.
Maren, thanks, but I think you misunderstood my question to you. I was talking about something already possible in earlier and current version 0.92.4. No need to break apart in order to change direction on one of the sub paths. Just select a segment using the node tool and reverse the direction for only that one sub path.
Applestump, I'm not sure what you're asking. Could you show a screenshot or share the SVG file? Also it would help to know which video you're having trouble with.
Putting 3 vertical bars on a map, I would probably draw 3 rectangles. If you're working with groups (which you were earlier) it's possible that something could seem to disappear. But probably they are just being hidden behind the imported raster image. But I need more info to figure out what you're doing.
It sounds like your last 2 messages are regarding 2 different things - one something about rectangles and the other about text.
I've just started a new page on the Inkscape website, where we're going to collect curated tutorials (reviewed to make sure they contain correct info). It already has a few very basic, very beginner tutorials, but we want to collect a lot more. At this moment, all the tutorials on this page have been reviewed https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php But that page will be moved at the end of this month. It will have a new link after that, but I don't know what it will be yet. Hopefully I'll have that soon.
Except for those, there are tons of tutorials on the internet that the Inkscape project has no connection with. Anyone can make a tutorial and put it on the internet. But we're hoping this collection of curated tutorials will be useful for users.
I didn't know that was possible, but I can confirm that in 0.92.x, only the direction of the subpath is reversed, while in 1.0.x, the direction of all subpaths is reversed, when nodes of a subpath are selected.
Sometimes it can be difficult to communicate exactly what’s happing, or what I am trying to achieve. Recording this would help considerably.
Most of the videos I use are produced by Logos by Nick, I have found them to be helpful for my subjects at just the right pace, perhaps consider inclusion into the library.
Getting back to the bars or similar type of operation I came across this thread whilst looking for an answer, OP and others are posting very similar issues to myself – these are my own experiences too,
Various posts indicate different results, the post answered Jun 13 '16 at 2:43 by freemath illustrates this having tried all the options (need to try this myself)
I thought it may be helpful to upload individual screen shots of the three scenarios outlined above.
First off using an outline shape (the tea pot in this case) to clip a section of Union Jack, the end result should be a tea pot with Union Jack background.
Uploaded files are both converted from EPS files then ungrouped, break apart then re-group before exporting as a PNG file.
My current method is use Bezier tool to trace outline of Tea Pot over the flag, this works okay but it should be possible to to clip directly from the shape itself? This seems to be a common topic on other forums with multiple answers, some work for some users others not so.
Thanks Aero, but I would like the Union Jack to be the background, i.e use the tea pot to cut out the shape (of the tea pot) please see attached example
PS, how did you manage to get the handle back? missed that off the selection by accidenet 😀
Well, I'm still not sure what the original problem was, since there still is no SVG file to look at. So I can't comment about the solution. But I'm glad you managed to figure it out.
Applestump, would you please start a new topic for each new problem that you need help with?
It makes it easier when people are searching the forum for something, if there is only one problem in each topic.
Yes, if you are talking about raster images found on internet by searching something like free colouring page teapot, I guess you could say that.
However, once a raster image like this is traced in Inkscape using Path - Trace Bitmap... (Single scan: Brightness cutoff), the result (more than one, often many paths combined into one) is called a compound path.
Notice in the video, even after removing many nodes, it's still a compound path due to the extra path left for the hole inside the handle.
Maren, I noticed shift+R, the keyboard shortcut for Path - Reverse seems to work correctly also for beta 1.0.
Beginners' Questions Clip Set to remove circle
Inkscape.org
This works great to remove the inner circle using tobject>clip>set tool, however on this occasion I need the cut out part and not the hole (if that makes sense).
What-ever way I approach this (invert selection, shapes, Bezier works but can take time) it always deletes the reaming part leaving just the circle centre part, inverting selection also the same.
Just to summarise, let’s say you have a coloured square requiring a hole with a transparent background, what would be the steps to accomplish this – thanks
If this is a vector object that you're working on (say the square is vector, and not a photo or other raster image) you can use Difference (a path operation, or boolean).
Or another way to approach it, if you have this option on your particular canvas.
..ahhh, I should have mentioned the image is imported, often JPEG or PNG that sounds like stubling block.
In the past I have used the scan tool for some images converting to vector although on photos it eats resources, makes things unstable.
Is there an easier way ?
Thanks
Hi.
The path drawn with the process Brynn described can be used to clip your imported raster image.
Just a note that when saving your drawing as a pdf then it will still retain the whole intact raster image embedded so one could recover any part outside the clipping area.
It used to be possible to do what you want with clipping. You had to make a compound clipping path. You could use the last group of steps I gave (using Combine) to create your clippping path. And use that to clip the raster image. Unfortunately, I have not been able to get it to work lately. Maybe someone else knows a trick?
I'll give that a go thanks.
Had a go using these techniques but no change, the image is a wall a flame which needs the cutout (filling in might not be an option) - the second image to replace cutout circle would be Planet earh, this gives an aura of flames around the outer edge.
It cuts out the circle no prblem, is there no way to invert the clipping process ?
Steps followed.
Import PNG image
Create circle using circle tool
Place on image
Draw a large squre over both or use shift key to highlight.
Follow steps above, combine or difference
Its not a biggie as using GIMP can always swap over for this task, I use MS image manager to crop photos before importing as easier.
Cheers
Years ago, few versions ago, that used to work. I don't know why it doesn't work anymore. Maybe someone else knows?
I guess you could turn it into a Vector by scanning it using Trace Bitmap, this works really well for low resolution images but can become unstable on my low spec machine if you up the scans.
This leads me to a related question which I hope you don't mind me tagging on here, as an example you may have scanned one image which results in several small Vector images - somthing like a page of icons which you may want to use one a t a time, so far I have been unable to find a way of cropping one off to use - all sorts of things happen except the desired effect 😀
At present I break the sheet down by cropping one image at a time using MS image manager, then each sigle item is fed into the Trace Bitmat tool.
(its sorted of related)
I'm hoping someone else will answer about not being able to clip a raster image in this way. Because it definitely was possibly in the past, and I don't know why it doesn't work anymore.
But meanwhile, what's your question? Are you asking if there's a better way?
Icons are usually pretty simple, so I might be tempted to either trace by Pen tool, or re-draw them. But your approach seem reasonable to me. Crop out each icon, and then auto trace it.
It might depend on the size of the individual images. Icons are also usually pretty small. And very small images don't autotrace very well. So it might be better to trace the whole thing, and then copy out various pieces. But it's hard to say without seeing the sheet.
Wait, why is this question related to the other one? I guess I have been curious why you want to make a hole in a raster image. I can think of a couple of reasons, but it might help to know the big picture, so to speak.
The bigger picture on the cricle cut out is contained in post 1hr 3min ago, placing earth insde a flamed ring.
Had a go using these techniques but no change, the image is a wall a flame which needs the cutout (filling in might not be an option) - the second image to replace cutout circle would be Planet earh, this gives an aura of flames around the outer edge
The second question realtes to the images which I download from a subscription purchased, at the time I diidn't realise the images were mostly Ai or EPS/PSD which I have'n't got around to figuring out yet.
What i would like to do is remove part of the scanned image, using the Bezier push/pull tool you can highlight the newly created paths but not copy or delete them?
Thanks
Mmmkay, we'll see if someone else answers about the clipping. I really am curious why it can't be done anymore.
About the 2nd question, where you have a sheet with several different objects that you've been tracing separately. Do I understand correctly those are AI or EPS or PSD files?
If the image is traced successfully, you should be able to select and remove part of it. It depends on exactly which options you used in Trace Bitmap, as exactly how to select them.
If they were AI or EPS or PSD files, they might be vector contents already, and not need to be traced. If that's the case, there are even more different ways the drawing might be organized, meaning yet more different options to select only part of the drawing.
When you're working with a file that was made by someone else, always start to select something with the Selection tool
(not the Node tool 
). Then the status bar will give you a clue what to do next.
Most commonly, we find that all the objects in the file are Grouped. The status bar will tell you what kind of object is selected, when you're using the Selection tool. If the status bar says "Group of...." that means you need to Ungroup. Object menu > Ungroup, or else there's a button in the command bar, or there's a key shortcut. Watch the status bar with every click, and when you no longer see the word "Group" in the status bar, then everything is ungrouped. Now deselect everything, and you'll be able to select individual objects.
If you notice the drawing changes significantly when you ungroup something, then likely there was a clip or mask that was removed by ungrouping. The status bar will tell you whether clip or mask, so you can either try to release the clip or mask, or share the image with us and we can do it.
If it says "Path...." then likely you have a compound path, meaning more than one path has been combined into one, even though they may be disconnected paths. In that case, it might or might not be possible to separate what you want. But you can try by doing Path menu > Break Apart. There's a good chance everything will go black when you do that, but don't worry. Without deselecting anything, add a stroke and remove the fill. Then you will be seeing the actual paths (when everything was black you could only see the filled areas).
You can quickly add/remove fill and stroke in the Style Indicator area of the status bar, which is the bottom-left area of the window. Right-click on the Fill or Stroke color bar, and you can choose the option you need. Or you can use Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill and Stroke Paint tabs. Then deselect everything, and you'll be able to select the individual path or paths that you need.
If the status bar says "Image...." that means you have selected the imported raster image, rather than the vector paths you traced. You can drag it out of the way, to make it easier to see the path. Or it might mean that the auto-trace was not successful.
Sorry, what exactly is the issue with clipping? Can someone share an example file, and explain what they expect and what to do to get the problematic behavior?
>>brynn, much appreciated, let me have a play around with those ideas/concepts and come back to you.
In terms of other file formats (EPS/Ai/PSD) they are also available (but no SVG) but require Inkscape plugins/confguration to be viewed.
btw, if anyone needs a SVG thumbnail viewer for Windows I have installed this extension which works well even though quite old.
https://github.com/maphew/svg-explorer-extension/releases
Maren, it used to be you could use clipping to make a hole in a raster image. That ability was lost....I first noticed around maybe 0.91 or 0.92, but the change could have happened sooner (I don't use raster images much).
The technique was a compound clipping path like in the attached SVG file. And clipping a raster image would result in a hole in the image. (That's just a random screenshot of someone else's that I downloaded ages ago.)
OMG! It just worked! I must have tried it 6 times the other day.
Oh, it has something to do with the shape, apparently. Ok, I'm re-uploading the file. Notice that with the star object, the clipping works. But with the circle object, it does not. Assuming you can reproduce what I see, do you have any ideas?
Edit
Just re-uploaded with a square hole. It does not work either. But the star hole does work!
Edit #2
Just tested with 1.0beta2, with same results. Star hole works, but circle hole and square hole don't. The status bar says they are clipped. But there's no hole in the raster image.
Update - Burnt the midnight oil following replies above.
Success on two fronts, firstly making changes to the bitmap scan settings whilst recognising tscans are stacked to a minimum of three. Using the ungroup followed by break apart function isolated the individual components, although this may only be for one layer at a time – still a bit fiddly which prompted another look at the alternative file formats, one in particular EPS which is often provided alongside PNG images.
Using online file conversion web sites converted into SVG, this worked much better using the same commands above to achieve desired result.
This is fine until I move across to Linux which may not need the Ghost script files required by Windows.
Cheers
It depends on the path direction. Break the path apart, reverse the direction of the inner path, then Path > Combine again. Then it will punch a hole into the raster image.
Oh, that's very tricky! It did not used to matter about the path direction. So I still wonder if it should be reported. Why should the path direction matter? Do you know?
Something to do with fill rules, I think. As a general rule, I'd suggest to compare what it looks like in Firefox or Chrome. If it looks the same, it's probably correct.
In this case, it is correct and it looks the same.
Unless Inkscape should change a path's direction upon converting it to a clipping path? Could be very difficult to do, and maybe cause more issues than it solves ...
Of course, my next question, is why should the fill rule matter? I can't think of any other case where the fill rule matters for clipping. Maybe for masking, that might make sense to me. To me clipping should happen according to the paths, not the fill rule.
What I'm saying is that why would anyone clip a raster image using an object with a hole in it, for any other reason except to make a hole in the raster image. So I think it should work, no matter the path direction.
Maybe I'll make a report, if for no other reason, to try and get more info.
Maren, will reversing a subpath without the need to break apart be a lost feature in 1.0?
Brynn, path directions should not matter if a clip-rule is set.
I have attached an edited version of your clipraster.svg with the clip-rule set if you want to try it.
What the heck is a "clip rule"??
https://developer.mozilla.org/en-US/docs/Web/SVG/Attribute/clip-rule
Well thanks. Can you dumb it down, and tell me how to do it in Inkscape, without altering the code?
I looked at the objects in XML Editor, but there's nothing in the Style attribute value about "clip rule". It does have the fill rule though.
Is this the only purpose of the clip rule? Or else, what else does it do?
Yes of course, I have attached a simpler version of it. The clip-rule is all you need. Use it as a template, it should still work as expected.
Inkscape 1.0 is in string freeze, so a feature to revert a subpath's direction is unlikely to happen for that version, if that means that new translatable texts need to be added.
It's still worth making a feature request for it. I've needed it to fix things like this a couple times. If you make one, please also include idea(s) how to present that option to the user, so how a person is supposed to use that suggested feature.
I agree with @brynn that this is confusing in general. I'm not sure how difficult it would be to set that clip-rule when it is needed, i.e. when there is a hole visually in the place where the clip-rule evenodd would add one. This could be one feature request, if only to discuss it.
Feature requests should go into https://inkscape.org/report (the general bug tracker).
Can I ask does the same apply to other types of images, example;
Map of USA, requires three vertical bars of different colours - creating a single bars using square shapes tool then duplicating, shift to select all eliminates the other two bars?
I worked around this by creating three maps, three bars then fitting together.
There seems to be quite a few bugs on the Windows version that do not appear in online videos, this makes it difficult to replicate what is being taught.
Thing is, you don't just have to learn the software but workarounds too.
Put on Path works for a single line of text, but has major issues beyond this.
Maren, thanks, but I think you misunderstood my question to you. I was talking about something already possible in earlier and current version 0.92.4. No need to break apart in order to change direction on one of the sub paths. Just select a segment using the node tool and reverse the direction for only that one sub path.
Applestump, I'm not sure what you're asking. Could you show a screenshot or share the SVG file? Also it would help to know which video you're having trouble with.
Putting 3 vertical bars on a map, I would probably draw 3 rectangles. If you're working with groups (which you were earlier) it's possible that something could seem to disappear. But probably they are just being hidden behind the imported raster image. But I need more info to figure out what you're doing.
It sounds like your last 2 messages are regarding 2 different things - one something about rectangles and the other about text.
I've just started a new page on the Inkscape website, where we're going to collect curated tutorials (reviewed to make sure they contain correct info). It already has a few very basic, very beginner tutorials, but we want to collect a lot more. At this moment, all the tutorials on this page have been reviewed https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php But that page will be moved at the end of this month. It will have a new link after that, but I don't know what it will be yet. Hopefully I'll have that soon.
Except for those, there are tons of tutorials on the internet that the Inkscape project has no connection with. Anyone can make a tutorial and put it on the internet. But we're hoping this collection of curated tutorials will be useful for users.
I didn't know that was possible, but I can confirm that in 0.92.x, only the direction of the subpath is reversed, while in 1.0.x, the direction of all subpaths is reversed, when nodes of a subpath are selected.
Please report this as a bug at https://inkscape.org/report - and please mention that it is a regression.
Thank you!
Thanks brynn, sorry for the delayed response.
Sometimes it can be difficult to communicate exactly what’s happing, or what I am trying to achieve. Recording this would help considerably.
Most of the videos I use are produced by Logos by Nick, I have found them to be helpful for my subjects at just the right pace, perhaps consider inclusion into the library.
Getting back to the bars or similar type of operation I came across this thread whilst looking for an answer, OP and others are posting very similar issues to myself – these are my own experiences too,
https://graphicdesign.stackexchange.com/questions/20196/using-the-shape-of-an-object-to-cut-the-object-beneath-it-in-inkscape
Various posts indicate different results, the post answered Jun 13 '16 at 2:43 by freemath illustrates this having tried all the options (need to try this myself)
I thought it may be helpful to upload individual screen shots of the three scenarios outlined above.
First off using an outline shape (the tea pot in this case) to clip a section of Union Jack, the end result should be a tea pot with Union Jack background.
Uploaded files are both converted from EPS files then ungrouped, break apart then re-group before exporting as a PNG file.
My current method is use Bezier tool to trace outline of Tea Pot over the flag, this works okay but it should be possible to to clip directly from the shape itself? This seems to be a common topic on other forums with multiple answers, some work for some users others not so.
Thanks
Maybe a white background is all you need?
Note, my mouse pointer in Inkscape is tiny by default on my 4K display 200% scaling.
Thanks Aero, but I would like the Union Jack to be the background, i.e use the tea pot to cut out the shape (of the tea pot) please see attached example
PS, how did you manage to get the handle back? missed that off the selection by accidenet 😀
The white background from my video is a separate object. Place it on top of your Union Jack, select both and use Object-Clip-Set from the menu.
The handle... I googled it. ☺
Object-Clip-Set is the menu option i have tried, result as attached - thanks
Your result is from using the black object instead of the white object.
Use the white object instead.
I couldn't quite get that to work but understand the apporach, rather than a black outline for selection use a filled in white block.
It's quite a change from using the standard clip>set, is there no other way (seems like a lot of steps).
This is the sort of thing I was hoping for, 1.2 minutes in cat with multiple backgrounds https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9p8yA5pqeBQ
It gives the option to ry many textures or backgrounds easily, is this not possible with Inkscape?
Cracked it, all it needs is a solid object rather than an outline - works everytime!
Areo, you are on the right track but there is a much quicker way using paint (fill bounded areas)
(mine is still missing handle 😁)
Well, I'm still not sure what the original problem was, since there still is no SVG file to look at. So I can't comment about the solution. But I'm glad you managed to figure it out.
Applestump, would you please start a new topic for each new problem that you need help with?
It makes it easier when people are searching the forum for something, if there is only one problem in each topic.
Apologies, yes, the thread did stray all over the place although there is some overlap.
Applestump, I disagree. This is much quicker and better, with fewer steps, than using the Paint Bucket tool.
Hold shift key to select multiple segments.
Thanks Aero, I have saved your mini video for future reference - very handy.
Are you not just turning an outline into a silhouette ?
Applestump, you're welcome.
Yes, if you are talking about raster images found on internet by searching something like free colouring page teapot, I guess you could say that.
However, once a raster image like this is traced in Inkscape using Path - Trace Bitmap... (Single scan: Brightness cutoff), the result (more than one, often many paths combined into one) is called a compound path.
Notice in the video, even after removing many nodes, it's still a compound path due to the extra path left for the hole inside the handle.
Maren, I noticed shift+R, the keyboard shortcut for Path - Reverse seems to work correctly also for beta 1.0.