Hi,
So, If possible I'd appreciate some help on the following issue, although I'm not positive this is exactly the right forum.
Anyway. I'm using Inkscape .48, Windows, 64 Bit.

So I had two photographs (one of computer components and the other LED bulbs), both on white backgrounds. I put them into gimp, used the intelligent cutting scissors and/or lasso tool to cut out the main images from the white. I then copied the cut portions......went to my inkscape file and pasted the images in, arranged them, etc. That looked fine in inkscape.

I then saved the file as a PDF. I tried this multiple times, sometimes clicking rasterize filter effects, sometimes not. I also changed the resolution for rasterization, ranging from 90-200. (although I don't think my problem is a raster one...). None of those settings altered the results, noted below.
In the saved PDF, there are black lines around the areas I cut in gimp. I don't understand why those lines are there, as they weren't in Inkscape.

I then saved the inkscape file as a PNG and did NOT get those lines.

So... Questions:
What is causing those lines in the PDF and how can I get them to go away? (aside from some clumsy editing in Inkscape where I apply a "mask" over offending areas).
Is this an Inkscape or Gimp (or maybe Adobe) issue?

NOTE:
All the files were too large to attach, so see these links:
PDF: https://www.dropbox.com/s/a8k9qo2dxek99 ... p.pdf?dl=0
SVG: https://www.dropbox.com/s/pcnc04rsk1128 ... p.svg?dl=0
PNG: https://www.dropbox.com/s/tcu7jyoy1f5d8 ... c.png?dl=0


Thank you for the help...I really appreciate it.
best,
a

Hi.

Interesting!
Very well written explanation also including files - 10 points!

One (possible) way to remove the "lines":
Select a pure white - check rgb values to all be 255.
Use Paint-bucket - with the following settings: Visible colors, Threshold = 1, Pixel growth = 0.

Fill in the white areas.
Save as PDF.
Lines (hopefully) gone. At least on mine system it seemed to work, why? Don't know.

RGDS
Ragnar

You have a few more options.

1) Make a large area with a traced opening to show the components, but hide the edges.
2) Make a clipping object for all or each object that hides the edges.


3) If you don't plan on adding any vector objects like text, shapes etc., you could just composite in Gimp.

Maybe it's something to do with the viewer -- because I'm not seeing any lines in the dropbox PDF file (opened in Firefox).

Hi.

brynn, you have to zoom in to 100% of original size to see the lines. Browsers scale to fit in window.
Better still - save to disk and use a "better reader" - Foxit Reader

Good Luck
RGDS
Ragnar

I still don't see any lines. Unless you're talking about where the images were cut out of the orignal, and the white page of the original has a slightly different shade of white than in the new PDF, so that you can see where it was cut. But I see that in the PNG as well.

The only way I see the lines, is if I download it, and view it in Adobe Reader. I don't see the lines in Firefox at all, even at 100%.

Firefox and Safari seem to render without lines, but other viewers seem to show the lines. Interesting, considering the browser plugin for FF and Safari is by Adobe, yet Adobe Reader native shows lines.

Thanks to everyone for their thoughts/help...
so, ultimately my fix was to recut the image in gimp, paste that on a translucent layer, then save the file as .png
Then when I imported the png into inkscape (the newest version and the one preceding that), I don't get lines.
[Although there are bounding box lines showing where the end of the translucent part in gimp was, but those lines don't actually effect the image].

That solution works, it's just not as convenient as being able to directly cut in gimp, press copy and then go paste in inkscape.
Now there are just a few extra steps..

Interesting about the rendering being different in Firefox vs. Adobe...

Oh..and Ragnar..thanks for your nice words. Your work around was similar to my first "clumsy" approach.
I created a shape and colored it the same off white that was behind the image.
Then I used a boolean operation and cut out a whole.
I converted the shape to a path and then moved the nodes around to cover the outside lines around the image (I had to look at the pdf to clearly see the lines. Or if I made the background some other color, like pink, the lines [which are really the edges of the cut image] were very easy to see against the contrasting color).

At any rate...thank you to everyone for your answers and thoughts.
I'm sorry my reply was slow.
best
a