Hi all. I've never used Inkscape before, and I only need it to do one (what I think is pretty simple) thing. I hope someone here can help.

I'm using an iPad app called VideoScribe, and if you upload a vector illustration, it makes it look like it's being drawn by a hand in a video. I'm using drawings that were created outside of Inkscape, and then I take them to Inkscape and convert them to vector. The problem is, when I upload them to VideoScribe, it doesn't draw it correctly. I figured out why, though, on the website:

2. To make your image seem ‘drawn’ then it needs to have a stroke on it. The stroke needs to be drawn with either the pen tool or the pencil (NOT the brush tool). If you use the brush then on saving, illustrator will expand the stroke and the line wont be drawn.

3. If you want to keep your brush effects or styles for the strokes or don’t want strokes at all to be seen, there is an easy solution. If you put a white stroke or stroked path behind the image, it will draw that first and as long as it’s behind, it won’t be seen. Whatever is in front of the white line will be what is seen as it is drawn. So basically, your white line won’t be seen but will provide a path for the hand to draw your image.

So it looks like I need to "put a white stroke or stroked path behind the image". I don't have a clue how to do that. I tried to look it up, but I'm so clueless about Inkscape, that I realized I'd have to put dozens of hours into learning the basics before I'd be able to figure out this one process without outside help.

To sum up this far-too-long post, can someone tell me how to: put a white stroke or stroked path behind an image?

Thank you!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

Things can get pretty dicey in this type of scenario, where you know, "it looks like all I need to do is this or that" and especially when 2 or 3 different programs are involved. But I'll cross my fingers

First, you mentioned a website, with a colon (:) afterwards, but no link. I'm not sure if that's a typographical error, or you forgot the put in the link?? Also, your list starts with #2, so it seems possible that we don't have all the info yet?

So based on what I understand, you'll need to be able to select the objects either individually, or all at once, without selecting objects which don't need to be edited. I don't know about the file, but it's possible that the object is either Grouped with other objects, or maybe even a subpath of a larger compound path. We may eventually need to see the SVG file. But let's start with the obvious, and hope it doesn't get too complicated, lol. Let us know if you have trouble selecting. (Use Selection tool )

1 -- Select the object and Duplicate (Edit menu > Duplicate, or button on command bar)
2 -- White stroke (select the object, then Shift + click on white in the palette along bottom of canvas) (that will either change an existing stroke to white, or add a white stroke if it doesn't have one)
3 -- Remove the fill (select the object, then click X at the far left side of palette)
4 -- Move below (select, then Object menu > Lower, or button on control bar) (You'll need to watch as you click Lower, and stop clicking as soon as you see it disappear behind the original. If you click again, after it disappears, it may not be immediately below the orignal any more.) (Unless it doesn't matter how far below the original it is. If it doesn't matter, you could click Lower to Bottom, and do it all in one click.)

If there are 10s or 100s of objects, it will be more efficient to select them all at once. It's fairly easy to do, but is kind of hard to explain. So I'll leave that out for now. But if that's the case, let us know, and we can give instructions for that. A lot of it depends on the file and what's in it, so we may need more info, before we can tell you the steps.

Let us know how it goes

Wow, brynn. Thanks for the detailed instructions! I did everything, and tried 5 different times just to make sure it wasn't me, but it still didn't work. I'm starting to think it might just be a problem with the app.

I emailed the creator and he said I should expand the brush size. I'm importing these images from vectors I bought on a stock photo site. Can I expand the brush size on a vector that's already been created? I've spent hours looking through Inkscape tutorials and my head is spinning.

I really appreciate your help! Thank you!

I think you probably should be able to expand the brish size, if you have the right program. But Inkscape doesn't have brushes. However, the creator of whatever it is probably doesn't know any more than I do what's in the file. I suspect he's just guessing. (The most popular vector software uses brushes, i.e. Adobe Illustrator, and is incredibly expensive. He probably assumes that's what you're using.)

In your original message, you said that you take files from outside Inkscape (presumably raster formats) and use Inkscape to convert to vector. How did you convert to vector? Did you use Trace Bitmap (automated trace) or did you trace by hand using Pen or Pencil tool? Before you answer that though, answer this. In your next message, you said that you had purchased vectors from a stock site. Images that you converted to vector using Trace Bitmap, or by hand tracing, and vector images that you bought, could have entirely different content. Even though the images may look the same, they can be made with different types of tools and features. That means that there will be different ways of selecting the objects that need the white strokes. So it's important for us to know exactly what's in the file.

I could ask a lot of questions, and get bogged down in explaining terminology and Inkscape features, but it will take forever that way. I think the absolute fastest way for us to figure this out, is if you can provide the SVG file for us. Then we can download it, open it, and immediately know what's there, and how to explain to you how to select the objects.

You can either attach the SVG to your next reply (look below Submit button for Upload attachments tab) or upload wherever you want, and give us the link. I can probably look at it late tonight, or someone else may see it before I do.

As I suspected from the beginning, this is not going to be as simple as you may be hoping. In theory, putting a white stroke behind an object sounds pretty simple. And it IS pretty simple, if you already know how to use Inkscape (witness the instructions I provided). I'll be glad to try and help, but you still are probably looking at, at least, a small learning curve. So just to let you know

Anyway, the first step is uploading the SVG file, and we'll go from there