hi -
here's a map of a country with a red border:
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... graphy.png

i've imported the .png and now want to clip it to just show what's inside the red border.

tracing results in a huge complicated mess of paths and nodes that basically cause inkscape to hang when i try to intersect/difference them with pencil-drawn paths to try to isolate the border. i feel like i must not be approaching this correctly, what's the right way to do it?

thanks!
-erik

Not sure about your expertise in Inkscape: You can try to autotrace for 3 or 4 colors and go with the red part only. Close the path at the coast and separate the objects - select the one you need and cut it - delete the redundant objects and paste back the cut part. move it over the map and use it to as a clipping mask. If that´s too much effort you can easily set points along the red border with the pen-tool till it´s closed and use it as a clipping mask.
Maybe like so:

Cheers

I would probably trace the red line with the Pen tool, and use that to clip the raster image. Or trace the inner edge of the red line.