I whish to create black silhuette cutouts of faces and whole bodyes?

I have succesfully used paint.net to remove background and make a "body" black - resulting in a black silhuette to vectorize. However the line is not totally even, and I am worried, that the cutter (which I am about to buy) will cut an uneven line.

Can Inkscape create an even line for cutting around my black "body"? Or even better, can I create it from scratch on a JPEG image.

Thank you very much

Kind regards Maiken (a danish women new to cutting and Inkscape)

Welcome Maiken!

Of course you can
Yes, there will probably be a few ways to smooth out the line for cutting. Perhaps even during the vectorizing process. Are you planning to use Inkscape's Trace Bitmap to convert to vector, or another trace engine? If you use Inkscape, you can probably achieve some smoothing, just by tweaking the settings. (I assume the same for other trace engines, but don't really know for sure.) If it can't be made smooth enough in that process, there may be a few ways to go, depending on the result of the trace. But it can absolutely be made smooth (as long as it's a vector path). Although....well, I should probably qualify that statement. I have an idea in my head what generally is meant by "silhouette". But I guess conceivably it could be more complex than what I'm thinking, and perhaps not so easy. So it can definitely be done, but it's hard to say how easily it can be done. After you get the trace finished, maybe you can show us the result, then we can make more realistic suggestions from that point.

Oorrr....Yes, you could even draw the line yourself, using Inkscape's Pen/Bezier tool or Pencil/Freehand tool! Depending on the complexity of the shape, it might even be easier than trying to find the right trace settings. If it's what I have in mind, it should be fairly easy. But again, it's hard to say for sure, without seeing the image.

I don't know much about these cutter machines. But I do know that not all of them are compatible with Inkscape. Some of them make it impossible to use anything except their own software. So (if you haven't already considered it) you'll want to make sure there exists a way to move the image from Inkscape to the cutter.

Let us know how it goes

YesYouCan!

Probably a faster way than the trace bitmap might be to use the "fill bounded area" tool (SHIFT+F7 )

Steps to follow:
- Import your bitmap
- Draw a bounding box around your silhouette
- Select the "fill bounded area" tool (SHIFT+F7)
- Click within the bounding box area
- Select the "edit paths by nodes" tool (F2)
- remove ALL the nodes on the outside, effectively inverting the shape and creating a mask for the silhouette
- fine tune this with the node editor "edit paths by nodes" tool (F2)

* note: as the "fill bounded area" tool (SHIFT+F7) creates a vector based on the resolution of your screen rather than the bitmap, you will get different results based on the zoom level you're in. As I normally use a 1920x1600 screen resolution, it will give great results and I can easily create masking or clipping objects for any oddly shaped bitmap.

** note: As you now have a nice vector outline, your cutter should be capable using that. You can export the outline to various formats, such as .dxf .hpgl etc. One of those should be usable by your cutter software no doubt. Often a copy and paste from Inkscape through the clipboard into your cutter software will work as well.

Thank you very much for your replies - I appreciate it, as I do not know of anyone, that is able to help me here in Denmark.

I do not think it will be the best idea for me to trace by hand, as I like the natural flow of the lines and my drawing skill are not the best

I tried to enclose my best silhuette so far as an EPS file (converted usind online-convert.com) but did not succeed (the website simply jumped back to a blank reply). Therefore I enclose it as PNG, which is the end product of the work I did in paint.net (mentioned in my first post). As you can see the edge is not even. Could Inkscape smooth the edges perhaps?

Or perhaps the SIOX function in Inkscape could do a better job. SIOX:

Kind regards
Maiken (which is pronounced Mike - with an "n" at the end)

Jelle: The method you mention - is that the SIOX method? I am having trouble understanding the message, like for examble, what is a bounded area exactly? (From Denmark, remember ) When I do as I think you decribe - I just get a coloured blob

I enclosed my original photo in case one of you have to much time

Kind regard
Maiken

Wow! Yes, that is an excellent solution, to use Paint Bucket tool instead of vectorizing with Trace Bitmap, or whatever. I've done that very, very quickly for you, and attached below. You can see that perhaps too many details have been lost? A little piece of hair under ear on right (left ear), for example. I did with these settings: Threshold 25, Grow/Shrink 0.50, Close gaps None. But perhaps some tweaking could add some more detail, if you need. (Also, you can change to a different color -- that's just my tool's color.) Make sure to remove any stroke, for the best clarity. For my Paint Bucket tool, I have no stroke. But yours might use a stroke.

Actually I'm not following Jelle's method. I don't understand "- Draw a bounding box around your silhouette" or why any node editing would be needed. All I did was import the black silhouette that you made, zoom out so that entire black area fits Inkscape window, engage the Paint Bucket tool, and click on the black area. Period, that's it!

I explained the SIOX Foreground selection technique (using Inkscape's Trace Bitmap) in a tutorial I made, that perhaps is easier to understand than the manual. It's not a video, but you can find it in this topic: viewtopic.php?f=6&t=6616. Look at the section called Rendering. I'm not sure if it would work, if you won't have control over the photos that might be submitted. The technique requires fairly good contrast between background and subject. And the photos you receive might not always have enough contrast.