khouse!
When you scan an image into your computer, it gets saved in a raster (often called "bitmap") format, such as JPG, PNG, BMP, or several others. As a raster image, it will not be directly editable with Inkscape. For info on the difference between raster and vector graphics, please see the first "General" section of the
Inkscape FAQ (item# 1.2).
However, just because it's not directly editable by Inskcape, doesn't mean there's no way to use it.
Possibly, it can be converted to vector relatively easily, using Path menu > Trace Bitmap. Or if it can't be easily traced, you might be able to "manually" trace it using Inkscape's Pen/Bezier
or Pencil/Freehand
tool (or possibly even Calligraphy tool
). Or the Paint Bucket tool
can be used to generate general shapes from the raster image, if they are solid colors in the scanned image.
So to provide details about how to approach using the scanned image, we'll need to know a little about it, or maybe you can show a screenshot. Is it sketched, black on white? Or are you talking about a photo?
The answer may be similar for the clipart, unless you have acquired vector clipart.
The first step, is File menu > Import, to bring the scanned image (and clipart, if it's raster) into Inkscape. After that, it depends on the image, and your goals, to determine what to do next.
The format you need in the end, depends again on your goals. Will you be doing your own home screen printing (I've seen kits on tv) or will you be taking the images to a professional printer, or screen-print business. Or maybe you're thinking more about fabric paint?
I haven't seen any tutorials specifically for this. I know of an older one, that's more for producing comics, that won't be much help. Having seen a few message like this though, maybe I'll write a tutorial myself?
But meanwhile, we can help you through the process here
First, please tell us about the scanned image (or show a screenshot), and also tell us how you'll be making the clothing.
