Help adding a line around pic

[Kevin Baker]

Hi Everyone!

Been playing with this most of the morning and at the point where it's getting frustrated. I'm trying to add a line around the attached pic which will allow me to cut it out of the material I'll engrave it on. I need it to be as close as possible (ie not an oval or rectangle).... can anyone point me in the right direction here?

I've tried the cutout lab in Photo Paint and adding a line using Corel isn't very easy.

Thanks,
Kevin

[Dave Johnson29]

I need it to be as close as possible

Hi Kevin,

Use the hand trace function in Corel. Dee recently wrote an excellent tutorial on tracing. Do a search back about 3 or 4 weeks or so.

It may look onerous to start with but once you get the hang of it, it goes really quickly.

[George Brown]

Hi Everyone!

Been playing with this most of the morning and at the point where it's getting frustrated. I'm trying to add a line around the attached pic which will allow me to cut it out of the material I'll engrave it on. I need it to be as close as possible (ie not an oval or rectangle).... can anyone point me in the right direction here?

I've tried the cutout lab in Photo Paint and adding a line using Corel isn't very easy.

Thanks,
Kevin

You mean like this?

[Kevin Baker]

George -

How did you do that?? EXACTLY what I wanted...

Dave -

Yes, that was what I was doing, but it was very slow going, working none the less, but very slow.

Thanks
Kevin

[Mike Null]

Here's a tutorial. http://www.unleash.com/articles/whitebox/

[Kevin Baker]

I love this forum!!! Always someone ready to help out!!!

Thanks guys!

[George Brown]

George -

How did you do that?? EXACTLY what I wanted...

Dave -

Yes, that was what I was doing, but it was very slow going, working none the less, but very slow.

Thanks
Kevin

Guess I'm really fast at tracing

- open pic in photopaint
- using wand tool, create mask by clicking white area
- invert mask
- fille inside of mask with black
- copy to clipboard
- open coreldraw
- paste from clipboard
- use bitmap, outline trace, line art
- select no fill and hairline outline
- delete couple of artifacts ie. keep only main outline

Takes about 5 minutes.

[AL Ursich]

Good Deal...

Thanks !!!

AL

USN REtired too

[Stephen Beckham]

Another spin on George's process - I use the transparency tool. Click and remove the white background. Fill what's left with a solid color and then do the trace.

What's the difference? Well, if you have area's inside that you want removed as well, for instance you want to look through a handle or spokes of a wheel AND cut the outline as well. It will allow you to keep the integrity of the overall outline as well as little small cutout areas that you might to cut out as well.

Only drawback is sometimes it might remove more than you want - you can fill those areas back in before creating the outline...

[Todd Trebuna]

Dowload gimp. Use border tool.

[Roy Brewer]

How did you do that?? EXACTLY what I wanted...

Kevin,

Probably not exactly, but practicing this technique will get your project easily below 5 minutes.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1PyRu_hSUW8

[Steve Clarkson]

Wow!!!! That was awesome!!!!!!!