I have an Image, where to begin

I recently just purchased and put together a XXL. I have a sign I’m trying to make. It consists of let’s and a shape that I want to cut out and put on a backer board. I have the image created. My question is what do I need to do next? If someone can provide me with a high level of steps I can start to do some research and figure out how to get it.

I’ve read that you need to save as a svg file then outline it in Inkscape and then save it. I’m just very confused as to the order of what you need to do to get an image into Carbide Create when you are starting with a JPG file and what you are trying to accomplish in each step. Any help would be greatly appreciated. If there is another thread explaining the process I can check that out as well.

If it’s a fairly simple image you can try doing a trace like I did on this one: https://youtu.be/TVOY-0xVVWU

The thing with a program like Carbide Create is that it understands “paths” and not the traditional “dots per inch” of something like a JPG image. You will sometimes see this type of file referred to as vector art, and it’s basically a way of saving a drawing as a series of lines and coordinates. You can use a free program called Inkscape to convert your JPG file to paths/SVG or an online converter. I would do a search for “Inkscape trace bitmap” or “online JPG to SVG convertor” If you provide an example of the drawing I can offer some more specific advice.

Appreciate the help. Will do some digging. I’m assuming when I uploaded the jpeg image to my photo editing software (Pixelmator) and saved it with a svg file format it kept the jpeg image formats of dots But now has the svg file format. Simply saving an image as a svg format doesn’t work. I need to change the image to have continuous lines then save the format as svg so it saves the continuous lines.

If the image is either black and white, or has a low color count with clearly defined color boundaries, you could use Inkscape to convert the file to a vector format.

Check out this tutorial for assistance.

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Carbide Create only understands vectors/paths — no text, special effects, or embedded pixel images. Open in Inkscape and view in outline mode to see what it will import.

For tracing see: https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Creating_a_rustic_letter and https://wiki.shapeoko.com/index.php/Carbide_Create_Photo_Tracing

For the actual drawing see: Let's draw an "ellipse" with new users and Let's Make a B (for anyone)

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Thanks for the help. Between the group and some handy YouTube videos I’ve got a better grasp

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