Inkscape Tutorial - Convert Bitmap Image to Vector Image

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This Inkscape tutorial demonstrates how to convert a bitmap image into a vector image by using Inkscape's "Trace Bitmap" function. Inkscape version 0.48 was used for this video. This tutorial shows tips and tricks that can be useful for beginners as well as all Inkscape users.

Inkscape website
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Closed Caption:

in this video I'll be demonstrating how
to convert a bitmap image into an
inkscape vector image using ink escapes
trace bitmap function i'll be using
inkscape version 0.48 and I want to
start by having three bitmap images
imported I've already imported two of
them and i'll show you how to import it
while I import the third 1i go to the
file menu I select import and I select
my file and say open and then this'll
asked me whether I want to link or embed
the image and i'm going to embed it and
then I press the ok button so now I have
this bitmap image imported ok now to
convert this to a vector image I'm going
to first select the image that I want to
convert so i'll select this first one
here and then I go up to the path menu
and select trace bitmap and then i'm
going to select the colors option here
i'm going to unselect smooth i'm going
to use stack scans and for right now
remove background is going to be
unchecked and for the number of scans I
want to match it with the number of
colors that's in my image so I've got
this blue orange and yellow color but in
the corner here i also have some white
so i'm going to select for scans
you can press the Update button to get a
preview of what this will look like once
its converted so i'm going to press the
ok button and now the new vector image
is placed right on top of the old bitmap
image and let me just move this to this
position right here to show you the
corner this corner here is white and
it's actually a white object and so it
will cover up anything that's below it
but let's say for instance that I do
this conversion let me select the bitmap
image again and this time i say remove
background and i'll press the ok button
so i should have a new vector image on
top here now if I move this to the side
if you look at its corner right here you
can see that you don't see the white but
it's transparent and that's because I
removed the background so let me go
ahead and select this vector image and
i'm going to get rid of that because I
do want the background to be removed and
let me pull this down here i'm going to
convert these other two just the way I
did before with a remove background
selected press the ok button and that
should generate another vector image
right on top of the bitmap so i can pull
that down and then i'll do the same with
this last bitmap image
and I'll pull this one down as well
now these vector images that i just
created are actually groups of objects
there's three objects here one for each
color so if i want to manipulate them
individually i can go up to the object
menu and select ungroup i'm going to do
that with all three of these so again
the object menu and select ungroup and
then once more object menu and ungroup
and now i'm going to pull these apart to
show you how they were constructed so
i'm going to select the two blue dots
here and pull those down and the darker
colors are the objects that are going to
be on top and the lighter colors are
going to be on the bottom so the blue is
the darkest what was on the top oranges
next it was below it and yellows on the
bottom so here blue on top pull that
down
orange below it
and again yellow on the bottom and here
we have blue on top ones below it and
finally yellow on the bottom when I pull
these objects apart
you should notice that each of these
objects contain its own shape plus the
shape of the object that was above it so
this was the top object so this voyage
one contains its own shape plus it
contains the shape of the circles the
yellow contains everything for this one
again the blue was on top the voyage
contains its own shape plus it contains
the shape of the two circles that were
above it and then the yellow contains
everything and then here this blue shape
was on top the orange contains its own
shape plus the shape of the blue one
that was on top of it and then finally
the yellow contains everything on top of
that so this is how these are
constructed when you use the stack scans
checkbox checked so i'm going to go
ahead and delete all of these now and
I'm going to convert them all with the
stack scans box unchecked let me uncheck
that i'm going to select this object and
convert it and I'll pull that down
select this object and convert it and
pull that down and select the final
object and convert it
and then I'll pull it down and just like
before I need to ungroup this i'm going
to ungroup all three of these
so now i'm going to pull these apart
so with this method with stacks cans
unselected none of these objects overlap
any of the other objects so this point
object here does not contain the area of
these two circles and the yellow object
below it does not contain the area of
any of the objects above it and so you
can see that as I pull all three of
these apart one thing to notice however
when you use this with the stack scans
unchecked and let me show you this by
selecting this object here and i'm going
to go ahead and convert this again press
ok and i want to drag this over here if
i zoom in on this
you'll notice that there's some white
area in between the blue circle and the
yellow background and it's not
noticeable when I'm zoomed out with this
picture but with some pictures as a lot
more noticeable let me zoom back out and
delete this and I'm going to do the same
thing except i'm going to have the stack
scans checked and i'm going to do a
quick conversion and I'll pull the
converted file over here and i'll zoom
in on this one
I still have the space in between here
but what shows through is the object
that was below this blue button which
was this orange area here so in some
cases even though you have this space
here it's not noticeable because it's
not white so this information is
particularly useful if you're converting
a photographed so let me demonstrate
that for you here real quick
i'm going to give myself some space and
i'm going to import another image and
this is a bitmap image of a photograph
and this is a pretty low resolution
photograph if you do higher resolution
photographs it can take a long time to
convert so with this selected I'm going
to do one conversion with stacks cans
selected and there's a lot more colors
in this picture so I'm just going to set
the number of scans to 12 and i'm going
to press the ok button and now Mike
inverted image is placed on top I'm
going to move my image down then i'm
going to select my bitmap image again
and uncheck stack scans and press the ok
button now i'll drag my image down
so hear me zoom in a little bit
and I don't need this dialog box anymore
you can see here that I have a lot of
white space that shows through in
between the objects whereas in this
picture on the left here I still have
the space in between the objects but the
color is in white
it just takes on the color of the object
that was below it
both of these methods are good depending
upon what you're trying to achieve for
instance let me draw a rectangle around
this i'm going to press the select
button and then move this to the bottom
with this button here and now everywhere
there was white
now red shows through so if i change its
color i can get something that looks
rather nice so you can experiment with
both the stack scans checked and
unchecked until you get the effect that
you'd like to achieve
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have a great day