I'm trying to create a curved path with foot prints along it. The actual one will have various types of foot prints, but this one just has two feet for practice. The problem I'm running into is that it's repeating the path horizontally, more like it's a wide stroke with the pattern. Here's the results I've gotten:

(starting pattern on the right, and resulting pattern along path on the left)


I just want a single path of foot prints along the line, like in the vine example of this guide.

To get the foot prints pattern, I opened some png files in Inkscape, traced the bitmaps, selected the two feet in the position they're in, then used the objects to pattern option. I don't know if that last part is what's messing it up or not, but if I don't do that, it gives me an error box when it attempts to do the pattern along path thing.

Yeah, the last part is what you're messing up. 'Object to Pattern' is for creating repeated fill pattern - so you don't want to use this. You have to use 'Pattern along path'. If you're getting an error it may be because something isn't correct with the foot prints. What's the error? Often if it doesn't work the reason why is displayed at the bottom of the Inkscape window.

Ok, I tried again and it's working now. I wonder if I was getting the error before I found the trace bitmap option. But the following steps work:

Open png image of each foot print, select image, trace to bitmap
Copy image to page I'm working in
Group images
Select grouped images, then path
Pattern along path with vertical option selected

Thanks!!!