hello all. i recently made the leap to linux as a longtime "convenience windows user". i am a screenprinter, mostly working with monochromatics, the only thing i ever used illustrator for was vectorizing logos and simple images. i am used to adobe's controls, and im having more difficulty getting used to this new graphics suite than anything else.

so my question is this:

i am trying to vectorize a fairly high-res jpeg image, its grayscale, but has been contrasted 100% (no grays). when i open the dialogue box for "trace bitmap", the multiple scan options all work fairly intuitively but produce a three step gradient halo around the image. im pretty sure i need to use one of the single scan options, but when i click OK, *nothing happens*

wut? please help.

Have you tried changing the brightness option and hitting update? Sometimes nothing will appear until you get the setting right.

With multiple scans you can delete all but one they are stacked one on top of the other, or union if the result is better.

prkos wrote:Have you tried changing the brightness option and hitting update? Sometimes nothing will appear until you get the setting right.

Brightness cutoff was the first option i tried, i found a video on youtube where a guy was vectorizing some mono flash art, and that was what he used. my graphic didnt work the same way as shown in the video, in order to get anything other than sporadic speckling in the update, i had to turn it all the way up to 1.000, which was crisp, but then the background went black and i had to check "invert image". this made the update look fine, but as i said, hitting OK did nothing that i could see.

prkos wrote:With multiple scans you can delete all but one they are stacked one on top of the other, or union if the result is better.

i suppose this is an option, but im not sure why i should have to do this. i would rather learn how to use this new software competently. could there be an issue with the image im using? what is the optimal image format for simple, flat logo vectorization?

AntiWarhol wrote:im pretty sure i need to use one of the single scan options, but when i click OK, *nothing happens*

wut? please help.

You are correct. What happens when you click on preview? Do you get one?

It may have actually traced. Click on the object and see if a trace is now on top of the bitmap (check the status bar at the bottom to see what it says. If you are dealing with a high res input there may be no visible difference until you zoom in,

-Rob A>

okay. i think i may have actually got it now. when i get an update of brightness cuttoff at 1.000 and THEN get an update with brightness steps set at 2, i get a perfect, filled vector that is a shade of dark gray which i can change to black by clicking the shades below.

is the "update" more of a "commit" than a preview function that stacks these operations together? if so, this interface is a first for me. Is this some kind of linux standard that i am not used to, or just an arbitrary decision by the developers?

ffaat wrote:

AntiWarhol wrote:im pretty sure i need to use one of the single scan options, but when i click OK, *nothing happens*

wut? please help.

It may have actually traced. Click on the object and see if a trace is now on top of the bitmap (check the status bar at the bottom to see what it says. If you are dealing with a high res input there may be no visible difference until you zoom in,
-Rob A>

ive moved the original object, definitely nothing under there. unless it may be invisible? the thought actually occurred to me that i may have to render the path visible somehow, but decided that would be far too perverse on the part of the developers to even consider.

That makes no sense. Can you provide he image you are scanning, so I can check settings? Single scan has never not worked for me when the threshold is set properly.

-Rob A>