Recoloring ScissorsAndPlanes models with Inkscape

[sjsquirrel]

As many of you know forum member scissorsandplanes (Bruno) has been cranking out 1/300 scale aircraft models at a dizzying pace in is thread One model per non-working day (http://www.papermodelers.com/forum/aviation/25109-one-model-per.html). Bruno has graciously given his permission to anyone to recolor models and post them, taking credit for the recolor as long as the model remains free and he is credited as the original designer.

Several members (most notably Croden and Gerry1966) have been busily recoloring models in different liveries. The number of models available in the thread is now over 200 (not counting all the recolors).

I have prepared a tutorial (with permission from Bruno) on using Inkscape and PDFCreator to recolor and edit these models. Both of these tools are free and open source.

The primary benefit to using these tools is that you can create recolored versions of the models that retain the small file sizes of the originals, and that remain vector based rather than getting converted to raster images. This also allows you to easily edit the edited model using the same tools and techniques.

The tutorial, while focused on recoloring ScissorsAndPlanes models can also be used as a good general introduction to Inkscape.

Download the tutorial (http://stevespaper.com/Downloads/Recoloring%20with%20Inkscape.pdf)

Please post all feedback and questions here and I will update the tutorial if and as required.

Cheers,

Steve

[RunwayOneSixRight]

WOW- PERFECTO!

THANKS!!!

-RunwayOneSixRight (Matthew)

[croden]

Thanks! This will definitely help when my computer starts working again

[legion]

One thing, there is a much easier way to save multi page models. I use PDFMerge! - Merge PDF files online for free. (http://www.pdfmerge.com/) to merge them, it leaves no watermark or changes the vector format to raster. And is less complicated as well.

[RunwayOneSixRight]

I also use that website, that and this converter which can convert JPG to PDF and others.

Zamzar - video converter, audio converter, image converter, eBook converter (http://www.zamzar.com/)

-RunwayOneSixRight (Matthew)

[sjsquirrel]

One thing, there is a much easier way to save multi page models. I use PDFMerge! - Merge PDF files online for free. (http://www.pdfmerge.com/) to merge them, it leaves no watermark or changes the vector format to raster. And is less complicated as well.


To each his own. PDFCreator does not leave a watermark or convert the vector format to raster, so that's a tie. As for complicated, I assume anyone working with paper models can print a file. Other than that it's a few extra buttons to click. Hardly complicated or difficult.

i also work on a laptop and can be at home or work, or a number of places where I may or may not have reliable Internet. Having a tool on my computer that can do the job without relying on an internet connection works for me.

And it works with anything that can be printed. Pictures, MS Office documents, email, whatever. The tutorial itself was written in OpenOffice Writer then printed to PDFCreator to make the PDF file.

Steve

[fahast]

Nice tutorial, really handy .....

Can you help me out with .... how to align all the livery on different parts of the model together ? (like the lettering of airlines on a 747 hump ) ( like a 2 tone coloured belly alignment with rest of the fuselage) ( like the PanAm band around the windows trough out the fuselage)

These aligning stuff is very complicated for me , i would greatly appreciate if you teach me all this .

Thank you ,

Fahd.

[sjsquirrel]

Nice tutorial, really handy .....

Can you help me out with .... how to align all the livery on different parts of the model together ? (like the lettering of airlines on a 747 hump ) ( like a 2 tone coloured belly alignment with rest of the fuselage) ( like the PanAm band around the windows trough out the fuselage)

These aligning stuff is very complicated for me , i would greatly appreciate if you teach me all this .

Thank you ,

Fahd.

Good question. I'll put together a little something to illustrate how I approach it.

Steve

[legion]

Don't forget to explain layers as well. Using layers you can more easily show, hide and lock items, like one layer for panel lines, one for tabs, one for base color and one for fancy colors/patterns.

Also, right-clicking a group and selecting 'enter Group' allows you to edit the group as normal, but you don't have to ungroup and regroup.

[fahast]

Good question. I'll put together a little something to illustrate how I approach it.

Steve

Thank you Steve ! :)

Fahd.

[sjsquirrel]

Thank you Steve ! :)

Fahd.

I have updated the tutorial with a section on texture alignment. I've changed the document revision number to 1.1.

Download the tutorial again from the link in the first post to get the new version.

Steve

[sjsquirrel]

Don't forget to explain layers as well. Using layers you can more easily show, hide and lock items, like one layer for panel lines, one for tabs, one for base color and one for fancy colors/patterns.


Yeah, I thought about going into layers but then decided not to since the model patterns don't make use of them anyway. I didn't want to add complexity, but you're right. There's plenty of good uses for them.

Also, right-clicking a group and selecting 'enter Group' allows you to edit the group as normal, but you don't have to ungroup and regroup.

Cool! I didn't know that. I'm relatively new to Inkscape myself so I've got plenty to learn too. Thanks for the tip. I'll work that in if/when I do another revision.

Steve

[legion]

I learnt it the hard way as well. Though there are plenty of tutorials and help threads on the Inkscape forums you can search through.

[sgoti]

Nice tutorial Steve, thanks!

[Dabeer]

Thanks for this tutorial - it's helped me get started on a recolor or two. But I find myself stuck - how do you map a horizontal line to a curved surface? For example, a livery that paints the top or bottom of jet, such as the gray on the bottom of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or the stripes on top of the Jamaican Air A340 in the One Model Per Day thread?

[fahast]

I have updated the tutorial with a section on texture alignment. I've changed the document revision number to 1.1.

Download the tutorial again from the link in the first post to get the new version.

Steve

Thank you Steve.

Fahd.

[k5083]

Nicely done tutorial. A lot of models could benefit from your part checking/correcting procedure.

August

[BigGiraffe]

Hello,

This has been an excellent tutorial and I enjoyed going through the steps to edit a file as practice. But naturally, the downloaded pdf file that I really want to adjust won't "Ungroup". Is there a way to deal with this? I like the basic model very much but want to dim all of the panel lines.

Thank you,
Kurt

[sjsquirrel]

Hello,

This has been an excellent tutorial and I enjoyed going through the steps to edit a file as practice. But naturally, the downloaded pdf file that I really want to adjust won't "Ungroup". Is there a way to deal with this? I like the basic model very much but want to dim all of the panel lines.

Thank you,
Kurt

It sounds like the PDF you want to modify is not in vector form, which means it's in raster (bitmap/jpeg etc) form. That means you're stuck with photoshop/GIMP/Paint type applications. This tutorial assumes you've got a vector based PDF to work with.

For raster based images I use GIMP which has an excellent add-on called (if memory serves) HQ Upscale that can scale up an image with minimal loss of quality. In fact, the addon may be included in current releases of Gimp. I'm still using version 2.6 because I didn't like a bunch of the UI changes they made in 2.8.

Good luck,

Steve

[sjsquirrel]

Thanks for this tutorial - it's helped me get started on a recolor or two. But I find myself stuck - how do you map a horizontal line to a curved surface? For example, a livery that paints the top or bottom of jet, such as the gray on the bottom of the Shuttle Carrier Aircraft, or the stripes on top of the Jamaican Air A340 in the One Model Per Day thread?

That's a good question. Unfortunately I don't have a simple answer. I would start with a model that has a similar livery and use it as a guide. The exact curve you will need depends on the shape of the aircraft.

If you examine one like the Embraer 170/175 prototype for example, on the cylindrical center section of the fuselage it's a simple straight line from one end to the other. It's on the pieces of the fuselage that have a change in diameter from one end to the other that require the color line to curve.

Another technique you can use is to print a white version of the piece (or pieces), roll it into shape, then draw the line on by hand. Now unroll it flat again and you'll see the general shape of the curve you will need.

Make note of where the line is closest to the seam, where it's farthest, how quickly or smoothly it changes from one end to the other, and so on.

With practice it gets easier and you can start to see it in your head as you work with the shapes.

Steve

[BigGiraffe]

Thank you so much, Steve. I'll download GIMP and try it out. I don't really understand the difference between vector and raster, but I do understand one works with Inkscape and the other needs GIMP, and I can work with that.
Best regards,
Kurt

[Dabeer]

Thank you so much, Steve. I'll download GIMP and try it out. I don't really understand the difference between vector and raster, but I do understand one works with Inkscape and the other needs GIMP, and I can work with that.
Best regards,
Kurt

While GIMP is definitely the tool for raster format images, you might be better off importing the image into Inkscape and then drawing vector format over the top. This would allow you to recolor and scale the model in the future, if you wanted.

By the way, the difference between raster and vector is that raster stores a color value for each pixel, and vector stores lines and shapes, turning them into pixels only when you display them on screen or print them.

[BigGiraffe]

This is my first attempt to do any changes to a downloaded card model, and all I'm wanting to do right now is make a bunch of black panel lines into a bunch of light grey panel lines -- personal preference. The basic livery will remain unchanged. But if I can do this to my satisfaction, I do see trying out a whole color scheme someday soon.

If I redraw the lighter lines over the older in Inkscape, is there a way to do a white border around the new line so it covers the blurry edges of the old line, or do I need to first erase the old completely?

Thanks!
Kurt

[Burning Beard]

If Inkscape is like Corel, the lines you draw are on a separate layer, ie, if you delete the original drawing you will be left with the new lines you have drawn. You can color the enclosed shapes with the fill tool, or export them to a raster program and paint on them.

Beard

[sjsquirrel]

This is my first attempt to do any changes to a downloaded card model, and all I'm wanting to do right now is make a bunch of black panel lines into a bunch of light grey panel lines -- personal preference. The basic livery will remain unchanged. But if I can do this to my satisfaction, I do see trying out a whole color scheme someday soon.

If I redraw the lighter lines over the older in Inkscape, is there a way to do a white border around the new line so it covers the blurry edges of the old line, or do I need to first erase the old completely?

Thanks!
Kurt

Can you post a link to the model you are referring to? It would be easier to give input that way.

Using Gimp you can simply draw the new lines over the old ones in a different color. Sometimes the blurry edges are really detrimental to the finished product and you have to clean them up, other times you may not notice them when printed.

You can always draw the new line in the color you want, then draw white lines beside the colored line to hide the blurry bits.

My favourite approach is similar to what Dabeer suggests. Gimp also supports layers. I make a new, transparent layer over top of the original image. Making sure the new layer is active I then trace (draw) the new lines over the old ones. All the new lines will be in the new layer, effectively leaving the original image untouched. You can copy the entire image this way, filling areas with color and generating a nice clean pattern.

Your best friends will be the selection tools (particularly the Free Select and Fuzzy Select tools) and the Color Picker (eyedropper). It can be a pain switching between layers all the time, but it's worth it. Add the layers tab to the toolbox and it's much easier.

Dabeers suggestion of importing the image into Inkscape is ideal, because then you create an entirely new pattern in vector format that can be easily scaled and rotated and recolored in the future.

Both techniques can be a lot of work though. It's not bad with simple models, but gets more challenging with highly textured models.

Again, the best thing you can do is show us what model you're working with.

Steve

[BigGiraffe]

Good Day!

The model I'm practicing on is one I bought for download, and if I can learn to do this, I'll be buying this model with a different color scheme and making the panel line adjustments before I print. I'm hesitant to actually post it since it's not a free model, but perhaps I can crop a small area to show what I mean.

Meanwhile, I'll look at the layering suggestion. I've heard of that with airplane "models" for MS Flight Simulator, though I only painted in the basic layer.

Thank you!
Kurt

[Burning Beard]

Layering is really the way to go on repaints. That way you can add and subtract things from you drawing. Say you want to take a plane and weather it. You can have one layer with carbon, another with mud/dirt, and a third with chips. Then you can use the individual layer you want, making your model either pristine or war weary, on anything in between. The raster program I use is Corel Photo Paint, which allows you to turn on or off the layers you want to use, you can even move them forward are back of individual layers, like putting chips on first and dirt second, or switch them around.

Adobe will do the same thing, as I am sure others will. If you buy a program, make sure you can open another programs files, then you can inspect the way they worked their layers.

Beard

[BigGiraffe]

I do want to try this out one evening this week. I'll start with GIMP since I have that now. Thanks to all of you for your advice and suggestions. I'll let you know!
Best regards,
Kurt

[Ponytail]

Thanks for the manual, Steve!

Although not yet worked it through it can surely help me to replace the lost working of some of my old graphical tools due to the forced change of OS from XP to Win8.1. My main HD is almost gone, still ticking....

[BigGiraffe]

Hello! I've temporarily put aside my original project and am working with recolors of the ScissorsAndPlanes 737-200. Using one of the other models, I've followed through your tutorial and have successfully grouped and ungrouped objects, changed colors and shapes, and other things like that.

Now, starting with an uncolored model, I am wanting to paint a stripe along the passenger window line, but can't quite figure out the best way to do it. For instance, if I want to draw a broad blue stripe that encloses the windows and runs the length of the airplane, what is that best way to do that? I would want the windows all to show, but the other fuselage panel lines to either be a darker blue where they cross the stripe, or not to show at all. I've tried drawing a line for the top of the stripe and one for the bottom and then filling, but the panel lines don't cooperate. Surely there must be an easier way?

Thanks!
Kurt

[sgoti]

Hello! I've temporarily put aside my original project and am working with recolors of the ScissorsAndPlanes 737-200. Using one of the other models, I've followed through your tutorial and have successfully grouped and ungrouped objects, changed colors and shapes, and other things like that.

Now, starting with an uncolored model, I am wanting to paint a stripe along the passenger window line, but can't quite figure out the best way to do it. For instance, if I want to draw a broad blue stripe that encloses the windows and runs the length of the airplane, what is that best way to do that? I would want the windows all to show, but the other fuselage panel lines to either be a darker blue where they cross the stripe, or not to show at all. I've tried drawing a line for the top of the stripe and one for the bottom and then filling, but the panel lines don't cooperate. Surely there must be an easier way?

Thanks!
Kurt

The effect you describe can be achieved through a combination of layering and opacity. I'm too tired to work up a proper tutorial with screenshots. In the meantime, layering is explained here (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Layers.html#Layers-Menu), and opacity is discussed here (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Attributes-Fill-Stroke.html#Attributes-Color-StyleIndicator-Display).

Basically, you want your blue stripe to cover (hide) the panel lines. Then, create a new layer above the one that contains your blue stripe, and copy/paste your panel lines into this new layer (let's call this layer the "new layer"). Make sure everything lines up between the original layer and the new layer.

Then, adjust the opacity of the new layer, down to about 20-50 percent. As the new layer becomes less opaque (more transparent), you will start to see the panel lines that run through the stripe change from black to blue.

[sjsquirrel]

Hello! I've temporarily put aside my original project and am working with recolors of the ScissorsAndPlanes 737-200. Using one of the other models, I've followed through your tutorial and have successfully grouped and ungrouped objects, changed colors and shapes, and other things like that.

Now, starting with an uncolored model, I am wanting to paint a stripe along the passenger window line, but can't quite figure out the best way to do it. For instance, if I want to draw a broad blue stripe that encloses the windows and runs the length of the airplane, what is that best way to do that? I would want the windows all to show, but the other fuselage panel lines to either be a darker blue where they cross the stripe, or not to show at all. I've tried drawing a line for the top of the stripe and one for the bottom and then filling, but the panel lines don't cooperate. Surely there must be an easier way?

Thanks!
Kurt

Hi Kurt,

These are excellent questions. I should add some discussion of this to the tutorial, so thanks for asking.

To answer your question, to draw your stripe of color you need to make an enclosed area, not just a line. So, using the Draw Curves tool click a start point, click another point, then another and so on until you come full 'circle' (or square or whatever) back to the first point. Click one last time back on the first point to create a closed shape.

Now you can fill your shape with the color you desire, and the Stroke can be removed, changed to the same color as the fill, or to a different color, or whatever you need to achieve your desired effect.

Now choose the selector tool and select your blue stripe. On the Object menu select "Lower to Bottom". This will put the blue stripe "under" all the other drawing elements, like the windows for example. While you're in the Object menu make note of the other options there, Raise, Lower, and Raise to Top, as well as the keyboard shortcuts for them.

The Raise and Lower keyboard shortcuts are great to know. They can help you fine tune what's on top of what very quickly.

The attached screen shot shows a blue stripe with a black Stroke that I've "Lower"ed until it's under the panel lines and logo on the tail, but still above the red color of the tail.

Now, for the panel lines. If you follow the above you should have the existing panel lines on top of your new blue stripe, in whatever color they were drawn in. The simple way to fix them up is to draw new lines over top of the panel lines that cross your new blue stripe, and then change the Stroke color of those lines to suit your desired result.

Please let me know if anything else needs clarifying. I'll add this to the tutorial. Eventually, with feedback like yours we'll get it to where it can be called complete.

Regards,

Steve

[sjsquirrel]

<snip>

Now, starting with an uncolored model, I am wanting to paint a stripe along the passenger window line, but can't quite figure out the best way to do it. For instance, if I want to draw a broad blue stripe that encloses the windows and runs the length of the airplane, what is that best way to do that? I would want the windows all to show, but the other fuselage panel lines to either be a darker blue where they cross the stripe, or not to show at all. I've tried drawing a line for the top of the stripe and one for the bottom and then filling, but the panel lines don't cooperate. Surely there must be an easier way?

Thanks!
Kurt

Hey Kurt,

Re-reading my post one other possible issue occurs to me. If you find the windows and panel lines still not cooperating fully, consider selecting all the windows and grouping them. You can, if necessary, select some windows, group them, select some more and group them, and then group those groups together until all the windows are in a group.

Now you can raise and lower the windows as a group until they appear in the proper position over the blue stripe but still under the panel lines.

Hopefully you don't have to go through that, but just in case....

Steve

[BigGiraffe]

Hello!

This will surely get me going on the stripe part. I'll experiment and practice during the afternoon (or that's my plan, anyway). Yesterday I did group some windows on one of the small pieces as an experiment and that worked pretty well. And I'll read the links on layering and opacity.

This is fun -- I'm so glad you published the tutorial!

Best regards,
Kurt

[BigGiraffe]

P.S. -- Thank you both for your advice!

[BigGiraffe]

Good Afternoon,

Here is my latest question... I have an rectangle bounded by four nodes, one at each corner. I now want to add two more nodes along one side so I can pull the side in and back out again. How would I add nodes to an existing shape?

Thanks!
Kurt

[sgoti]

Good Afternoon,

Here is my latest question... I have an rectangle bounded by four nodes, one at each corner. I now want to add two more nodes along one side so I can pull the side in and back out again. How would I add nodes to an existing shape?

Thanks!
Kurt

[CTRL]+[ALT]+<click> (or double-click when I tried it on my Mac.

More here (http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Paths-Editing.html).

[BigGiraffe]

Thanks Glenn! You know, I looked through that help file yesterday and couldn't find the answer, and even after you told me what it was (which I tried just now and it works fine...) I still had to skim through it a couple of times to find where they talked about it. Anyway, I can continue now.

Best regards,
Kurt

[sgoti]

Thanks Glenn! You know, I looked through that help file yesterday and couldn't find the answer, and even after you told me what it was (which I tried just now and it works fine...) I still had to skim through it a couple of times to find where they talked about it. Anyway, I can continue now.

Best regards,
Kurt

Yeah, well, we won't talk about how long I had to search to find it… ;)

Somehow, there's just something about the way things are laid out on that page. It's there, but like you said, you sometime have to look a few time to find whatever you're trying to do. Kind of like trying to use the same program first on a Mac and then a PC (or vice-versa).

Heh- Maybe it's the same language, just different accents.

[BigGiraffe]

Good Afternoon,

When saving a file from Inkscape to a pdf, it has a setting for "Resolution for Rasterization". I wasn't too impressed with my first printing, so assume this number of 160 dpi isn't good enough. What number is adequate?

Thanks,
Kurt

[legion]

Don't use that option. PDF can handle vectors, so no need for rasterization. In the image below, you can see you don't need to have ANY of the option boxes ticked. But if you want to use rasterize, a value of 300 or higher is more common.

[sjsquirrel]

Good Afternoon,

When saving a file from Inkscape to a pdf, it has a setting for "Resolution for Rasterization". I wasn't too impressed with my first printing, so assume this number of 160 dpi isn't good enough. What number is adequate?

Thanks,
Kurt

That setting is really only applicable to imported bitmaps or drawing elements you may have added that are not in vector form. The "best" value will therefore depend on the actual source material.

As a rule of thumb, 300 is generally good, but again, the best value depends on the source material.

If you can be more specific of what was unimpressive about the first print, or even post a sample we may be able to give more input. It's possible that setting isn't even involved.

Steve

[BigGiraffe]

Good Morning,

The printing comes out looking like it's made of a bunch of tiny dots instead of something smooth, so I assumed this Rasterization setting caused it (both printers came out that way). When I unchecked the box, I got the same result.

However, now I got quite an improvement on the printer down here by changing the default setting from "normal" to "max dpi". It took forever to print but sure is nicer. There is always something new to learn!

I'm still going to leave the Rasterization unchecked.

Thank you very much,
Kurt

[croden]

Good Morning,

The printing comes out looking like it's made of a bunch of tiny dots instead of something smooth, so I assumed this Rasterization setting caused it (both printers came out that way). When I unchecked the box, I got the same result.

However, now I got quite an improvement on the printer down here by changing the default setting from "normal" to "max dpi". It took forever to print but sure is nicer. There is always something new to learn!

I'm still going to leave the Rasterization unchecked.

Thank you very much,
Kurt

I'm Looking forward to your model, but I didnt catch which model it will be?

[BigGiraffe]

It will be from the 1970's, but I'm a bit reluctant to say what, exactly, in case my plans don't work out. I'm making progress, though.
Kurt

[Lfd38]

Really great tutorial! I've started using it to recolor the A320. I am having some difficulty adding a colored stripe from fuselage to tail sections, getting them to line up and follow the curve of the tail section. I would like to see a more tutorials as others have stated here. Keep up the great work!

Bob

[Serg3t]

The other tutorial should be "How to rescale (enlarge) SaP models with Inkscape". I use Corel Draw for it but it is not freeware.

[BigGiraffe]

Good Evening,

Tonight's puzzle making lettering... I used the Text tool, selecting a font and size, and made a long name that included "International". I find that it will not let me ungroup the letters so that I can reshape each one to get the right appearance. In fact, even when I do a single letter, I cannot get the Edit Paths tool to work on it. Is there another way I should be drawing letters?

Thanks!
Kurt

[Dabeer]

Good Evening,

Tonight's puzzle making lettering... I used the Text tool, selecting a font and size, and made a long name that included "International". I find that it will not let me ungroup the letters so that I can reshape each one to get the right appearance. In fact, even when I do a single letter, I cannot get the Edit Paths tool to work on it. Is there another way I should be drawing letters?

Thanks!
Kurt

I haven't done this myself, so I don't know if it will help - or even work - but did you do "Object to Path" before trying to edit the paths?

[sgoti]

I haven't done this myself, so I don't know if it will help - or even work - but did you do "Object to Path" before trying to edit the paths?

This is exactly what must be done to edit lettering paths (the paths of the letters themselves, not the path the text follows).

First use "Object to Path", then use "Ungroup" on the result. THEN you will be able to change the letters' appearance.

Hope this helps, and please keep us posted on your progress!

[mbauer]

Thank you for taking the time to create this tutorial Steve.

Downloaded 1.1 (revision) and will try using inkscape for a recolor been wanting to do.

Mike

[BigGiraffe]

Good Evening, Folks!

Your tip on using "Object to Path" did the trick. I was able to separate the letters and begin work on them.

This part will take a lot of patience, because no font is just quite right and so each letter must be adjusted in thickness and shape. The tutorial helped in that I was able to select four of the inner nodes from the "R" and pull them down in unison a little bit. Regaining a smooth curve up to the top is a bit of a challenge and I'm still wrestling, but I'm sure that will come with practice.

Thank you,
Kurt

[croden]

Good Evening, Folks!

Your tip on using "Object to Path" did the trick. I was able to separate the letters and begin work on them.

This part will take a lot of patience, because no font is just quite right and so each letter must be adjusted in thickness and shape. The tutorial helped in that I was able to select four of the inner nodes from the "R" and pull them down in unison a little bit. Regaining a smooth curve up to the top is a bit of a challenge and I'm still wrestling, but I'm sure that will come with practice.

Thank you,
Kurt
I am curious as to what your next recolor will be. :rolleyes:
But, I know it will be great if it's anything like your last one :)

[BigGiraffe]

Thank you very much! This time I have more confidence I'll be able to finish, so I'll tell you it is Braniff International. It's going to take awhile with all those letters, though.
Best regards,
Kurt

[croden]

Thank you very much! This time I have more confidence I'll be able to finish, so I'll tell you it is Braniff International. It's going to take awhile with all those letters, though.
Best regards,
Kurt

Nice!! Can't wait!
(Since you are having letter troubles, you can use the letters from the 747-100 that Gerry1966 recolored) But that won't help with recoloring skills...

[BigGiraffe]

Good Morning! I hadn't thought of borrowing the letters from another model; I guess the full realization of the potential of this Inkscape hasn't soaked in, yet. But it's just as well, because as you noted, I'm learning this way. I think the "light is finally coming on" about adding nodes and smoothing between them, and such.

Plus, in studying the lettering in an old Braniff timetable, I see that the stylized "A" would form the basis for the "R" and the "N", and even the "O". I'll be discarding my original "R" (which isn't that good anyway), but will cut-and-paste the "A" and then make some tweaks so it becomes the "R".

This will probably end up on a DC-8.

Best regards,
Kurt

[croden]

Interesting, I haven't ever built a DC-8

[cafe]

Excellent tutorial! I've learned a new things!

Yeah, I thought about going into layers but then decided not to since the model patterns don't make use of them anyway. I didn't want to add complexity, but you're right. There's plenty of good uses for them.
Steve

A pdf not having layers doesn't mean the model didn't use them prior to saving to pdf.

I use them when creating my models in Inkscape (from bottom to top: colors > model > markings or colors > markings > model) but if you open the final pdf in Inkscape, you'll only see one layer.

For a Scissorsandplanes recolor, like Legion, I'd use 4 layers. From bottom to top:
- tabs and red lines
- colors
- markings
- model (panel lines)

The boring work is moving the tabs and colors to their respective layers. The panel lines stay on the original default layer that I rename to "model".

Layers are useful, the fact that you can lock the tabs/colors/model layers when working on the markings, thus not moving anything by accident is super nice.

[sjsquirrel]

Excellent tutorial! I've learned a new things!



Thanks, I'm glad you found it helpful.

Excellent tutorial! I've learned a new things!

A pdf not having layers doesn't mean the model didn't use them prior to saving to pdf.

I use them when creating my models in Inkscape (from bottom to top: colors > model > markings or colors > markings > model) but if you open the final pdf in Inkscape, you'll only see one layer.

For a Scissorsandplanes recolor, like Legion, I'd use 4 layers. From bottom to top:
- tabs and red lines
- colors
- markings
- model (panel lines)

The boring work is moving the tabs and colors to their respective layers. The panel lines stay on the original default layer that I rename to "model".

Layers are useful, the fact that you can lock the tabs/colors/model layers when working on the markings, thus not moving anything by accident is super nice.

I agree on all points. Feel free to do up a chapter on using layers and post it here. I chose not to since the use of them is not strictly necessary. Useful sure. Helpful certainly. But my goal was to help others get started, which I think I accomplished quite nicely.

Steve

[BigGiraffe]

Hello!

I need to reduce the size of something, such as an American flag, to 30% of the original. I thought I did something like this a few weeks ago but now can't remember how, nor can I locate it in the Inkscape help file. Is there a simple command to reduce something, proportionally, to current size?

Thanks,
Kurt

[legion]

Ctrl+Shift+M opens the modification/Transform menu. You can scale things there.

[BigGiraffe]

Yes -- That was it! Now let's see if I can remember longer, this time.
Thanks,
Kurt

[cfuruti]

Yes -- That was it! Now let's see if I can remember longer, this time.
Thanks,
Kurt

Even easier: enter Selection mode with F1. Select your flag. In the Tool Controls Bar you'll see four text fields for X, Y, W and H, followed by a drop down menu; select "%" in that menu, than change W and H (if the padlock is closed, either W or H will suffice) to 30, then type Enter or Tab and you're done.

[BigGiraffe]

Good Evening,

I have an airline logo (TWA, for example) in jpg format. When I import it into Inkscape and then try to position over the tail, it includes a white rectangle that covers everything under it. I can drop its layer, but then the logo goes with it. There is a tutorial in the Inkscape instructions for "tracing bitmap" and recreating the logo, but it is too complicated for me to figure out.

Is there an easy way to remove the white border for a jpg logo so that only the logo appears?

Thanks,
Kurt

[Dabeer]

Good Evening,

I have an airline logo (TWA, for example) in jpg format. When I import it into Inkscape and then try to position over the tail, it includes a white rectangle that covers everything under it. I can drop its layer, but then the logo goes with it. There is a tutorial in the Inkscape instructions for "tracing bitmap" and recreating the logo, but it is too complicated for me to figure out.

Is there an easy way to remove the white border for a jpg logo so that only the logo appears?

Thanks,
Kurt

I'd use GIMP to add a transparency layer and remove the white, then save it as PNG and re-import it into Inkscape.

Alternatively, if there aren't too many gradients, rather than using Inkscape's automatic tracing function, I'd trace it manually using the Bezier curve tool then setting fill and stroke to match the logo.

Edit: for example, consider the SR-71 tail photo, and the png export of the svg logo I traced manually.

[BigGiraffe]

Thanks, Dabeer! I'll give that a try!

You TRACED that logo?? Wow!

Best regards,
Kurt

[legion]

I think Inkscape has a tracing bitmap function, though it isn't stellar.

[Dabeer]

You TRACED that logo?? Wow!

Not from that reference photo, but yes :)

[cfuruti]

Good Evening,

I have an airline logo (TWA, for example) in jpg format. When I import it into Inkscape and then try to position over the tail, it includes a white rectangle that covers everything under it. I can drop its layer, but then the logo goes with it. There is a tutorial in the Inkscape instructions for "tracing bitmap" and recreating the logo, but it is too complicated for me to figure out.

Is there an easy way to remove the white border for a jpg logo so that only the logo appears?
Kurt

AFAIK JPEG does not support transparency, so if your image has a white background it will appear as a white rectangle no matter what you do, unless you mask it in Inkscape. Although it is possible, it's much easier doing it in GIMP, as suggested by Dabeer:


In the Image/Mode menu, make sure "RGB" is already selected
Open the Layers tab, select the only layer, in the pop-up menu choose "Add Alpha Channel" (don't forget this step, otherwise step 4 will replace white with white)
Select the areas of your image you want transparent. For instance, in the menu Select/By Color, then click on the white background. Or use the Fuzzy Select tool
Use Edit/Cut, or press Ctrl+X. The white areas should be replaced by a checkered pattern meaning they are now transparent
Use File/Export but choose PNG, not JPEG
Load in Inkscape

BTW GIF also supports transparency, but alpha values are binary, i.e. either entirely opaque or entirely transparent, with no smooth transitions. PNG is much better.

[cfuruti]

Here's an example with GIMP (the original image is a PNG from my site, I artificially converted to JPEG just for show):
205888
Since it's a JPG, it should be an RGB, but let's check to make sure:
205889
Open the layers pop-up menu, then add the alpha channel:
205890
Select the Fuzzy select tool:
205891
After the white areas are selected, press Ctrl+X (since there's no white inside the image, I could have used Select/By Color instead):
205892
Save as a .png, and load into Inkscape:
205893

Also remember - Image/Autocrop is your friend!

[BigGiraffe]

Good Evening,

Great tutorial, cfuruti. I started trying to figure it out and had problems, but the step-by-step was good. And I might still try to trace the thing one of these days as I see Dabeer had such success, but for now at least now I can continue.

Thanks!
Kurt

[ngagrandal]

This is so amazing!!! I have literally been looking for this kind of help since the beginning of last year, and I can't believe I have found it!!! THANKS SO MUCH! :D