[SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

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trusktr
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[SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby trusktr » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:19 pm

I have this drawing:
Image

You can see that parts of the letters are thick and then become thin, as if the pen outline merges into a single line.

How would you achieve this effect in Inkscape, considering that you can't split/fork paths? :tool_pen:
Last edited by trusktr on Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:31 pm, edited 1 time in total.

Lazur
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Re: How do I trace a design where the line splits (forks)?

Postby Lazur » Thu Mar 21, 2013 1:46 pm

You can try pattern along path on that, or for more accurate results, draw each side of the strokes for the basic shape.

That colouring effect is much easier to have precisely than the two outline shape generated, with the interpolate extension.
With the two sides drawn, most likely one from editing a duplicant from the other, the extension can produce the number of strokes to have.

I would use the combination of these two as a basic.

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ragstian
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Re: How do I trace a design where the line splits (forks)?

Postby ragstian » Thu Mar 21, 2013 2:00 pm

Hi

A path can't split but you can run paths in parallell or on top of each other.

To create a vector image of your bitmap I would;
Import the image into Inkscape - Place it on it's own layer - Lock that layer.
Create New layer(s).
Trace the letters by hand. Draw straight lines with the pen tool, keep nodes as few as possible, keep nodes symmetrical.
When I trace by hand I set the background opacity to 50% and use a contrasting color on the pen stroke, here I have used red.
See attached image where the letter "K" is made of three objects. Pay attention to node type and node handles.
The letter "S" have been drawn with straight line segments and is shown before I drag the strokes to follow the letter outline.
Image
Click Image for larger version.

First draft - Needs More Tweaking of nodes - "trusktr" - this is; Practice time!
(You can start off with the attached SVG file.)
Image
Click Image for larger version.

Good Luck
RGDS
Ragnar
Attachments
KSB_Trace.svg
(198.87 KiB) Downloaded 257 times
Last edited by ragstian on Fri Mar 22, 2013 8:19 am, edited 4 times in total.
Good Luck!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
RGDS
Ragnar

trusktr
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Joined: Sat Sep 25, 2010 6:44 am

Re: How do I trace a design where the line splits (forks)?

Postby trusktr » Thu Mar 21, 2013 4:30 pm

@Lazur, I'm not familiar with those things yet. I'm a total newb.

@ragstian, thanks, after playing with it, that's exactly what I discovered. What I did was make two identical paths along the thin parts, then slightly pull the ends apart so the result look like the line forks into two lines.

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druban
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Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby druban » Thu Mar 21, 2013 8:17 pm

This is just an alternative method to introduce people to the Powerstroke, soon to be available in 0.49, and currently usable in development builds. Not as nice as Ragstian's method or result! But perhaps a bit quicker/easier?

powerstroke.png
powerstroke.png (124.74 KiB) Viewed 5848 times
Your mind is what you think it is.

Lazur
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Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby Lazur » Fri Mar 22, 2013 12:30 am

That powerstroke feature looks promising!
A bit too intuitive though for calligraphy.
Will post a trace of mine, just for the fun of it.

Lazur
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Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby Lazur » Fri Mar 22, 2013 9:42 am

Well, more of a reconstruct than a trace, and had no patience for the whole thing, but for the first stroke.
Image
Image
Image
Image

Full size version of that last image here:
http://kepfeltoltes.hu/130322/hlp9_www.kepfeltoltes.hu_.png

It surely is very time consuming thing, so my suggestion is to learn proper copperplate calligraphy of that type lettering, before putting the effort into a vector copy.
Basically those kind of letters are constructed from ellipses.
It is better to consruct the outlines from circle archs though in this case, as if you add a stroke to the outline, when you use ellipses, the overall shape distorts, but when you have circles, they will remain circles no matter of the outline width.

At the end I didn't use pattern along path, simple gradients was easier, but couldn't leave out interpolating, that surely added a lot to the grahic.

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ragstian
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Location: Stavanger-Norway

Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby ragstian » Fri Mar 22, 2013 1:42 pm

Hi Lazur URH

This looks amazing! - I like the effect but as an Inkscape newbie I don't understand how you created it!!
Can you walk us through step by step - slowly ? :)

RGDS
Ragnar
Good Luck!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
RGDS
Ragnar

Lazur
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Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:38 am

Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby Lazur » Sat Mar 23, 2013 3:14 pm

Just finished with a sample svg that describes the things I could mention about the process, but it is bigger than 256kB after zipping.
Will work that out soon.

Off topic:
By the way it not really is a walk through step by step.
Do such restrictions, as "you SHOULD do this only by this, and this IS how you SHOULD do that", kind of helping stuff works?
I'm not sure. In my oppinion this would lead all becoming robots, and all the own experience would be missing from the whole learning and creating process.
As with the whole inkscape vs. illustrator stuff: "Hey, look here, I have fancy adobe skills!", but would fail any graphical work where ideas are needed
not just predefined things and pulling out styles that other's set fashion and basically anywhere where precious softwares aren't at hand.
Did I mention I didn't learn inkscape that way?

Lazur
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Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:38 am

Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby Lazur » Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:00 am

Here is a link for that svg, hope it works:
https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/s/iwewdzpff6h5irz/hlp14.svg
There is an explanation inside if you open that svg with inkscape.

edit:
link corrected

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ragstian
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Location: Stavanger-Norway

Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby ragstian » Tue Mar 26, 2013 4:56 am

Hi.

Thanks for sharing! It's appreciated! (even if it turns me into a "robot") :D
I get the following error when clicking the link you provided;

Code: Select all

Error (403)
It seems you don't belong here! You should probably sign in. Check out our Help Center and forums for help, or head back to home.

When I link to images saved to dropbox my link looks like this;
(Here embedded in code links so you can see the string instead of thumbnail)

Code: Select all

[url=https://dl.dropbox.com/s/zaqrflcjk7yobe2/KSB_Trace.PNG][img]https://www.dropbox.com/s/a5npnsnnd3k4zbh/KSB_Trace_TN.PNG?dl=1[/img][/url]

Her I link to two images. A large "main" image (KSB_Trace.PNG) and a thumbnail (KSB_Trace_TN.PNG)
- Pay attention to the "https://dl" and the "?dl=1" after the thumbnail file-name, they are essential!
- "dropbox.com/s/zaqrflcjk7yobe2/KSB_Trace.PNG" and dropbox.com/s/a5npnsnnd3k4zbh/KSB_Trace_TN.PNG are from the share link in dropbox.
- took me a day or two to get it right the first time!
- hopefully this will help you ?
- happy to share some of my (little) knowledge!! ;)

Good Luck
RGDS Ragnar
Good Luck!
( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)
RGDS
Ragnar

Lazur
Posts: 4717
Joined: Tue Jun 14, 2016 10:38 am

Re: [SOLVED] How do I trace a design where the line splits?

Postby Lazur » Tue Mar 26, 2013 6:00 am

Sorry about that, quite new to this.
By the way, dropbox could have used some more kind words.


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