I was just checking out some of the other t-shirt blogs and I found this post on Fantastic Bonanza’s blog about Inkscape - an open source vector graphics program. I thought this might be of interest to anyone that makes vector graphics for their Spreadshirt shops. Here is what Joe from Fantastic Bonanaza has to say about Inkscape.
If you don’t know what Inkscape is, it is an open-source vector graphics program that I highly recommend. It’s what I use! Although it’s not as powerful as commercial programs like Illustrator or Corel, it is easy to use and, with the features they are frequently adding, is constantly becoming more robust.
Totally cool. We will have to check this out. If you are already using Inkscape to create vector graphics for your Spreadshirt Shop let us know what you think.
Thanks to Fantastic Bonanza for blogging about Inkscape.
Lindsay Patross
Dave
I’m glad my blogging pointed you in the direction of something useful! Inkscape is a great introduction to vectors for those who don’t have experience with them, because it’s free.
Awesome! I’ve got Inkscape installed already and have tried making some of my designs into vectors but they got rejected for one reason or another. What would really be sweet is a tutorial somewhere on how to make vectors in Inkscape like you have for the commercial programs.
My guess (without seeing what you made) is that you had overlapping objects. If you had any object that used both a fill and a stroke, the stroke would overlap the fill. There are some tutorials on the Inkscape website itself: http://inkscape.org/doc/
If what I mentioned above IS your problem, here’s how to fix it:
after you’ve made your object with a stroke and a fill…
1) duplicate that object (Edit > Duplicate)
2) keeping the duplicate selected (so don’t click anything), select Path > Stroke to Path
3) keeping the pathed stroke selected (it will look the same, but again, don’t click anything), duplicate it
4) select your original object by clicking on its fill
5) in the object’s style menu, turn off its stroke, leaving only the fill
6) select both the original object and the top-most duplicate of its stroke
7) select Path > Difference
All done! You should have two filled paths with flush edges. The principles and concepts of the steps that I just outlined should be applicable to creating flush objects from overlapping objects in general.
Joe - thanks so much for helping us with Inkscape. We are very excited to check it out.
Lindsay
You’re very welcome! It seems like the perfect thing to go along with Spreadshirt’s vector printing for those who don’t have commercial vector graphics programs.