Hey guys! I scanned in some calligraphy that I was working with and I wanted to put it on a black background so that it looked as if it was cut out. I made a black rectangle and put the "Inner Cutout" shadow type on it by using Filters --> Shadows and Glows --> Drop Shadow --> Inner Cutout, but this just makes my writing disappear behind the box. Is that not how the inner cutout effect works? Any suggestions?

Instead of DropShadow > Inner Cutout, try using Cutout Glow filter. Attached SVG file with it applied to some random text. (Text was combined with a rectangle, for cutout effect. Then the filter puts icing on the cake



Actually, you might be able to accomplish the same thing with the Drop Shadow > Inner Cutout. But you'd have to tweak all those settings in the Drop Shadow dialog, until you find the right combination.

Edit
With Drop Shadow > Inner, you should be able to control the direction of the drop shadow, while with Cutout Glow filter, it's already set, and you can't change it. (Well, you could c hange it by tweaking the filter, with Filter Editor.) Plus it has the glow effect that you might not want.

Inner shadows, dropshadow and inner and outer glows, all work with blur.

Blur is very heavy on the processor in Inkscape, thats why i would always do such stuff in Gimp.
I have written a tutorial for a cutouteffect, here:
http://gimp-science-labs.blogspot.de/20 ... ffect.html

Maybe that can help you understand the principle.

EDIT:
here is a little illustration how to achieve the effect in Inkscape.
I tried to add a highlight, but couldnt get it to look good.

Also take a look at Part 13 of my tutorial series, in which I give an example of creating a cutout text effect using blurring and clipping.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11981

Xav wrote:Also take a look at Part 13 of my tutorial series, in which I give an example of creating a cutout text effect using blurring and clipping.

viewtopic.php?f=6&t=11981

learned something new !