I'm a total newbie to Inkscape, so this information may be somewhere, but I couldn't figure out how/where to find it.

I have a JPEG that I opened in Inskscape and converted to SVG by tracing the paths. It's simply a solid black object. I want to change the color, but I can't get the fill to work. I found information about how to do a fill, and I can set all the settings, but I can't get it to actually apply. I select the object, open the Fill window, set the fill and strokes to "matte," choose the color...and don't know what to do next. Is there an "okay" button or something? Is it supposed to be applying automatically? What am I missing?

Thank you!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

No, there's not an OK button for applying a fill. When you click a color on the palette, or anything except the X button in the Fill/Stroke dialog, you should immediately see the change on the canvas. The F/S dialog has 3 tabs, and 2 of them look almost identical. The only difference is that one changes the fill and the other changes the stroke. I wonder if you might be on the Stroke paint tab instead of the Fill tab?

I'm not sure what you mean by "matte" color. Do you mean a solid color? In other words, did you click the button beside the X button (tool tip says "Flat color")?

When you say you traced it, it sounds like you mean you used Trace Bitmap (or some other automated trace)? And it sounds like you used a single trace option? Or did you trace it "manually" like with Pen or Pencil tool?

Is the solid black object the only object you see? What does the status bar say, when you have it selected? You are using the Selection tool right? Are you by chance using a graphics tablet?

At the moment I'm stumped. All I can think is that you don't have selected the object that you think you have selected. But hopefully once I have answers to these questions, I'll understand better. If you still haven't figured it out, could you provide a screenshot of the entire Inkscape window, while the object is selected (this is so we can see the status bar info, and other indications on the window.

maybe your traced object is stacked (it's an option in the trace) or otherwise a complex object with many nodes. So what looks to you like a fairly solid object, could instead be a lot of nodes and/or multiple objects stacked on top to create the illusion of a solid object. That would mean when you select one of the complex stacked objects and apply FILL, only this topmost object (quite possibly a tiny portion of the entire image) is getting filled. After a trace you are also left with the original image object there, which visually will still combine with the traced bits, possibly also causing the confusion. As you cannot set the image object fill color. I would suggest you try to move things around after your trace, to discover exactly how many and what kind of objects you have there.