Making Digital Stamps using a scanned hand drawing and Inkscape

A question that I get asked a lot is how do I do my digi stamps.  The answer to this is quite simple.  I take a photo of what I am interested in. Then sketch a hand drawing from that photo. Or you can use a light box to trace the photo. Then scan the drawing into my laptop and trace round it with a Vector Graphics Program. To print properly the line art needs to be 300dpi, and be saved into a JPG (non transparent background) or PNG (transparent background) format. It also needs the lines to print very black and clear, so any editing of the image to make it larger should not show any imperfections. When I am creating a digi stamp for sale, I save my images in A4 or A5 size because it is most common that most paper crafters have an A4 printer and would not wish to print a digi stamp any larger. I also want to try to keep the file size as small as possible so it can be sent at low internet speeds. Last night I went down to the small harbour and took some photographs. This is one that I thought would make a good composition for a watercolour painting. However, for this exercise I’m looking at the boats. Especially the red and the blue one on the far right. I made sure to set my camera for the largest mega pixels just in case I needed to crop the photo later. That way, I could crop and still have a sharp photo to work from.

I decided on the blue boat, and cropped the photo to create the composition. The lines look good for a digi stamp. It is instantly recognisable and would be quick to colour in after purchase. It also follows the watery theme of my digi stamps to date

I printed off the photo and made a sketch of the boat. I used a blue pencil because all the illustrators seem to use one. The reason for this, is that when you want to ink in your lines later the non-photo-blue pencils usually don't show up when photocopied so it saves a lot of rubbing out time. Apparently the blue lines do show up when scanned straight from the originals, but as I am going to digitally ink up my drawing there is no real need to use blue, I’m just being posh.

I scan in the drawing into the laptop at 300dpi, and once it has been digitised I can crop it to a more manageable size. There are many vector graphic programs on the market and people say that some of the best are Illustrator or CorelDraw but I use the open source package called Inkscape, because I am on a budget. Just remember to save often because it tends to crash (or it does for me in this latest version). And I use a graphics pen and tablet, rather than my mouse. Cleaning up the drawing to make it into a digi stamp is probably the longest stage and actually takes longer than the drawing itself, so making digi stamps is a labour of love if you are only going to use it once. Fortunately they are becoming more and more popular, and you can buy digi stamps at very little cost.

Import the drawing into Inkscape and embed the photo into the document. File > Ctrl+I > find your photo > OK Extensions > Image > Embed Images > Embed only selected image > Apply Lock the layer with the image on it and create another layer above it to use for vectoring the outline to your drawing.

Choose the Bezier tool and start to draw the outline around the image keeping fairly close to the outer edge, by clicking with the tool. You will need to Choose the Edit Paths Nodes tool if you need to tweak the lines in any way and if you are not sure how to do this, watch Screencasters.heathenx's Episode 75 video tutorial which will give you the basics to using the Bezier tool in Inkscape. It will be like stretching an elastic band round the image to produce the vector line, I use open ended lines and don’t close any lines because I am not going to colour in the image, I just need the black outline to make a digi stamp. You can see the outcome of tracing the drawing as I have marked it in Red to show where I have already been. I also have chosen not to include all the lines that I drew in blue in order to streamline the digi stamp. You can see the blue pencil showing through in the ripples of the water, the sign under the window and the name of the boat on the outside. I have also chosen to leave out the buoy and the tarpaulin on the roof of the boat hut.

After I am happy with the laying down of the vector lines, I choose which ones I want to make thicker or thinner, this is easily done because the lines are open ended. Usually I make the foreground lines anything from 2.5 to 3 (pixels) thick, and the background 1px to 2px. Anything finer than 1px will mean that the lines may not print out properly if the image is reduced in size too much because they will be too thin for the printer to pick up. Anything larger than 3px, and the digi stamp lines will be too bold when expanded to A4 size. When all the adjustments have been done. Select all the lines and export the selection as a png. File > Export Bitmap > Selection > Width and Height (enter required value) > 300dpi > File name of your choice > Hide all except selected > Export You will now have a .png file of your black line drawing that will have a transparent background, within the parameter of a printable A4 sheet of paper, and will have the correct dots per inch for clear sharp printing, without any pixilation to the design.   Congratulations! You have made your first digi stamp!

 

Print and Cut with Inkscape and Craft Robo

This is an improvement to the decoupage ideas of my tutorial Gone Wild for Digi Stamps Tutorial, Part 2.  In the meantime since I have done the tutorial I have found excellent tutorials that got me thinking on how to improve the way that I print and cut with Craft Robo, using Inkscape.  Using a combination of all of tutorials, (a bit of this and a bit of that) I came up with this tutorial that you may find useful.  A better way to decoupage without the need for the Bezier tool.
Thanks go to:
Cardsulike – Inkscape Silhouette Page Settings
Clever Someday – Print and Cut
Cardsulike – Using Inkscape to Cut on your Silhouette and Robo, and
Carolyn – Changing a stencil type dingbat

Preparing the Craft Robo Page Template in Inkscape
	This is the screen that you see if you open up a new page in Craft Robo that is in Landscape.  You can notice that it consists of: Registration Marks (the black L shapes) Printing Margin Box Cutting Margin Box, and No print, no cut grey area What we want to do is copy this page in Inkscape and calibrate it so that the print and cut on the computer screen works with the printer and also cutter, cutting where expected.
	First I use the Snipping tool programme that comes with Windows Operating System in the Accessories file.  I capture the page from Craft Robo (CR), using the rectangular snip.  I then save this on my desktop so I don’t loose it. It will save as a JPEG and you will be using this as a guide.  The screen on the CR represents an A4 page size and so does the one in Inkscape, so hopefully, the calibration should only be a matter of millimetres. This is the variation of Cardsulike – Inkscape Silhouette Page Settings, where the seed was sown.
	Open up Inkscape.  My default page is A4 so I don’t need to change anything. I created a layer called “Image Layer” and imported the JPEG image of the CR page into that layer and adjusted the size of the image to fill the page.  I then reduced the opacity by about 50% to grey it out a bit and locked the layer so I did not mess up things by mistake, later on.  This has the effect of diming the page so I can see more accurately where to copy the line placements of the elements of the CR page.
Keeping the elements on separate layers can make things more convenient later on when you want to print or cut.	Create another layer and called it “Cutting Margin”. Use the create a rectangle tool without the fill option selected, and copy the cutting area from the CR JPEG page with the rectangle tool. Lock the layer afterward. Create another layer and call it “Registration Marks” Use the Bezier tool and draw in the three L shapes from the CR page.  Lock the layer afterward. You now have your guidelines to use within Inkscape that match the guidelines within Craft Robo.  You no longer need the CR JPEG image so that layer can be deleted.
	I made my page more fancy, by adding instructions to the outer edge to help me remember.  I sometimes take a break with playing with things and my memory needs as much help as it can to get back into it when I start playing again.  It’s just the way I am. The page preparation has now largely been done.  I saved my template in the inkscape template folder so that I can use it from the pick list when I open a new page.  You can do the same for Portrait if you want to.
Getting the outline of an image so it can be cut with Craft Robo
	Find an image that you would like to get the outline of, such as this freebie that I am offering so that you can print and cut it.  I am going to use one of my freebie digi stamps that you can have, in order to play along with (just click the image).  I was too late to use this cauldron for Halloween, but I have already shown you how I used it in my Cauldron of Flowers post here, so you can see a Cauldron is not just for Halloween.
	Import the image in Inkscape, onto the “Image Layer” of the Robo Page you prepared earlier. Adjust the image height and width to what you want the final image to be.  I have made my image 8.5cm tall or 3.5” tall (about the size of an ATC), which is a good size for this exercise.  If you want to keep the ratio the same as the original, remember to close the padlock before you change either the width or the height.  You could always eyeball it if you don’t want an image so short and fat.
	Select the image in order to autotrace the image. Shift + Alt + B > OK There is no need to change the settings if you have a good contrasting image.  The default settings should be fine.
	Close the “Trace Bitmap” screen and you will think nothing has been done.  Wrong.  You have just vectorised your image and must now click on the image, which will pick up your vector file, move your mouse to the side and you will see the two images side, by side.  Check that it says “Path” and then you are sure it is the vector not the image. Keep the vector file selected you want to break it apart and then choose path union. (Shift + Ctrl + K) > (Ctrl + (+))
	Remove the fill option and make sure that the stroke paint is selected. Shift + Ctrl + F I have changed the colour to red and made the stroke style width 3 px so that you can see it for this tutorial. Congratulations, you have now outlined your image. Inspiration for this came from Clever Someday – Print and Cut.
	Keep the vector file selected because now you want to move it to the “Cutting Layer” of your Robo Page you made earlier. Shift + Pgup You now have the image on the “image layer” and the cut line on the “cut layer”, but they do not marry up.  Finally you deselect your vector file, then Reselect both the image and the vector file.  (NB: if you had never moved the two files apart after Autotracing this step would not be relevant as one image would be sitting directly on top of the other).  You now want to align them vertically and horizontally. Shift + Ctrl + A
	Perfect Alignment! (Without the need for the Bezier tool)
How to calibrate the printer and the Craft Robo
	So far we have created a template of Craft Robo for Inkscape. Import an image into Inkscape and created a cutting line of the outer edge of the image.  Now we want to make sure that when you print the image and then cut the image the two elements look like they do on the screen.  We now need to calibrate the cutting line with the image. Open the Layers window. Shift + Ctrl + L Hide the layers that you do not want to print.  i.e. “Cut Layer” and “Print and Cut Area” then send to print in the normal way. Ctrl + P
	This is how it should look now.  You can measure the image and make sure that it is the dimensions you were after (in my case it is ATC height, 3.5” or 8.5 cm). The registration marks are what the CR will be looking for in the next step. Place the printout onto the CR cutting mat and put it into the CR the normal way. This next bit is a variation of Cardsulike – Using Inkscape to Cut on your Silhouette and Robo
	As we are calibrating the CR I shall be using the pen and drawing the cut line in Red so that I can see where to adjust the settings.  This will only need to be done once so that you find the offset for your template. Send the document to print in the normal way. Ctrl + P In the next screen, under “Select Printer”, choose the Graphtec Craft ROBO > Preferences > Cutline Settings > Modify Colour > Pick the same colour as your cutline on your document, in my case it is red > OK> Controller.
	The Craft Robo Controller Screen will appear. Adjust the setting for the CR so that you choose the pen option > Landscape > Registration Marks > Search Registration Marks > mm > and then press the “Registration Mark Reading” button.
	The CR will go through the process of finding the registration marks on the printout page and finish up with the pen nib directly above the lower left corner of the registration mark group of three that you made on the template.  You can be confident that things should line up if the registration marks are located before cutting, once you have calibrated the cut lines with the printout.  All you need to remember is the degree by which you offset for this particular template you created, every time you need to use it. Close the CR controller screen > OK to printing preference screen > Print > OK
	The pen will now draw the outline of the image with the red pen. You can see that the pen line is off balance to the image, but it is only be mm.  The next bit may need a bit of tweaking, but in my tests it was pretty spot on.  If you want you can use a shape like a square to calibrate with that is easier to measure, but that wouldn’t have looked so pretty in my tutorial. Without removing the cutting mat.  Take a ruler and measure the difference along the x axis (horizontal, width) and the y axis (vertical, height) in mm.
	In my case for the width (x axis) the red line must be moved 11mm to the left.  This will be a (-) number so the resulting calibration for the width is (-)11mm.
	For the height (y axis) the red line must be moved 6mm to the bottom.  This will also be a (-) number, so the resulting calibration for the y axis is (-)6mm. If you imagine a compass, moving the cutting lines S or W to meet the edge of the printed image produces (-) numbers and moving the cutting lines E or  N produces (+) numbers.  Your template that you created will most likely have different settings to mine, but they will not be far out, and by the time you calibrate your portrait template you will be proficient at calibrations.
	Now print with the CR again with your offset margins and see what happens. Send your document to print Ctrl + P > Select Printer (Graphtec CR) > Preferences > Basic Setup tab, Offset > With –11mm > Height –6mm > Cutline Settings tab, > Modify Colour > Red, OK > Controller > Landscape > Pen > Registration Marks > Search Registration Marks > Registration Mark Reading. When the CR comes to rest Close > OK > Print > OK The pen should now trace the outline of the image, and be identical to the picture on your computer screen within Inkscape.
	After calibration.  You can see the original red outline, and you can now see the red outline pretty close to the outline of the image.  Good enough for me. I could fiddle about with percentages of mm, but I am very happy with the result.  If I really wanted to, I could use a very old fashioned tool that my grandmother used called a pair of scissors and trim the image up. If you do not want to go so close to the edge, follow Carolyn – Changing a stencil type dingbat tutorial to make a cut line a little further away from the edge as with her stencils.
	Finished Print and cut. You now have a template that you can use to design your projects on.  You can print the project, and you know the offset margins to set so that you can cut your project and everything should line up beautifully. Remember, calibration only needs to be done once, per template.  After calibration, your projects should be a doddle to do, just remember the settings. Please let me know how you get on when following this tutorial, hopefully I haven’t missed anything.