I have a .jpg image; I need to

convert to .svg

remove the white background but keep the white areas in the image

keep the file size as small as possible (for use in a printer that prints white but needs small file sizes).

I have used "Path>trace bitmap>remove background"; it accomplishes the conversion and removes the white background, but also makes white areas in the image transparent. Is there a better way to do this? Thanks.

In a raster graphics editor, you could use the magic wand selector, and select the white background. Give it some color that does not appear anywhere in the image. Then run it through Trace Bitmap, and remove the background.

Thank you, Brynn. I made the background gray; when I ran the "trace bitmap," it kept the gray background and made the white transparent. I don't understand why.

While looking forward to a suggestion, I came up with an approach (by pure luck) that worked for me. It involves layers, which I just happen to be learning about. I made the white areas of the image gray, ran the "trace bitmap" with "remove background" checked and "stack scans" unchecked to make the layers easy to separate. One of the layers turned out to be just the gray areas in the image; I selected the layer and clicked white on the color bar at the bottom. The gray turned white. Then I reassembled the layers. Now I have an image with white areas and no background.

Thanks again. Next time I'll do more experimenting before I ask for the forum's attention.

Oh, don't worry about it. If you hadn't posted this, I wouldn't have learned what you learned!

I'm also surprised that Trace Bitmap took out the white parts of the image. Somehow, it must assume that anything white must be a background???