Trace Bitmap Changed Letter Quality

[HCmillertech]

I am doing a donation piece for a fallen Police Officer and need some help. I had a JPG and did a trace bitmap but the name and badge number got funky.

can someone tell me how I can straighten it out?

Thanks

[adbuch]

That distortion of the text is typical for lower resolution auto traced images. Another option would be to manually trace the text or find a similar font and type in the text and then edit the auto traced result to include the new text.
David

[adbuch]

Here is one method to find a similar font.

Paw 1.jpg (59.4 KiB) Viewed 1114 times

Open with Paint. net

Crop to text only

Save as jpeg file

Cropped text

Go to https://www.myfonts.com/pages/whatthefont

[adbuch]

If you want to find a free font that is close to this one, then

Here is one that looks pretty close.

Download and install new font into Windows fonts folder, then re-open Inkscape and type your text and add to your file.

[adbuch]

If you are only going to use this once for testing, then you could use the original search result and type in your sample text, then screen shot and import to Inkscape for Path, Trace Bitmap and it will provide a nice result.

[adbuch]

[plasmanewbie]

Great advice from David above. Were you able to get the design to where you are happy with it?

[HCmillertech]

Thank You I will Start trying to get it figured out.

[HCmillertech]

So I cant import the jpeg. I have to use version .91 for my table and it is a pain. I thought it would be nice to do this to donate for the silent auction but it is taking too much time to get the file right.

[adbuch]

So I cant import the jpeg. I have to use version .91 for my table and it is a pain. I thought it would be nice to do this to donate for the silent auction but it is taking too much time to get the file right.

Which jpeg is the one you can't import? I see no reason why you would need to be (or want to be) stuck using Inkscape version .91 because of your table. The newer versions of Inkscape will generate g-code tool paths just as well as your old version. My best advise would be to install the newest version of Inkscape onto your computer. You can have both versions (.91 and 1.2.x) installed and working on your computer at the same time.

If for some reason you are more comfortable generating the g-code/tool paths using version .91, then do all your editing using the newer version. Save from the new version as svg, open with your old version .91, and run your tool paths. As an example, I have done just that.

I created the final version I showed above using Inkscape 1.2.1 and saved as svg. Then I opened this svg with Inkscape .91. For some reason the .91 buttons are not showing the symbols for the version .91 I just downloaded, but they work just the same.

I know you spend about 15 minutes working on it between your two posts, and perhaps got frustrated. You originally did your auto trace using your version .91, so you must have imported the original jpeg image for that trace. You should be able to download and install the font I used for my demo. Then edit to remove the auto traced text and replace with text you type using the new font. Or simply us another font you already have installed. I doubt anyone would know the difference when you raffle it off at your event. Worst case just manually trace the letters from the original image you imported.

Let me know if you have any questions about any of this.

David

[adbuch]

You could manually trace the letters from the original jpeg image you imported. Then delete the auto traced letters and add the ones you created with your manual tracing.

David

[adbuch]

Great advice from David above.

Thanks plasmanewbie! I did download and install the Inkscape version .91 that the OP is using. It works, but is pretty "clunky" compared to the newer versions. Also, I think there may have been a conflict between this old version and my newer versions since it would give error messages and crash when I attempted to do Path, Trace Bitmap. I ended up uninstalling all 3 Inkscape versions I had on this computer and then installing the latest Inkscape version 1.2.2. This newest version looks identical to the version 1.2.1 that I had been using.

As a note, I previously had two different versions of Inkscape installed on this computer at the same and had not conflicts. I had been using version 1.1.2 and kept it installed after I installed the newer version 1.2.1. I'm not sure why I had so much trouble when I installed version .91. Maybe it was because I had 3 different versions and there was some sort of conflict between one of the newer ones and the old version .91 ( released January 2015).

David

[adbuch]

By the way, this g-code created using Inkscape 1.2.2 gives the same result as the g-code created with Inkscape 0.91. So either one will work, and no real need that I can see to stick with 0.91.

David

[plasmanewbie]

Good info David, would be a good idea for the OP to get the latest version of Inkscape, especially since it is free and then support from folks here may go smoother in the future.

[HCmillertech]

OK I downloaded 1.2.1 and I get the same thing when I import the JPG. It is a box with a red X.

[adbuch]

OK I downloaded 1.2.1 and I get the same thing when I import the JPG. It is a box with a red X.

That's because you are in outline view. You need to switch to normal view.
David