Raster image editors such as Adobe Photoshop would encourage you to use tools which perform rather fuzzy clippings from a rough outline which you provide. The difference with a raster graphics editor is that Inkscape will allow you to work with the few nodes and handles that it created. In a way, it's akin to GIMP's Free Select Tool (the Lasso) in the sense that you freely draw the path. Using the Pencil tool to clip more complex shapes You can adjust the smoothing: the smoother the path, the fewer nodes. Simply roughly draw the outline of the flowers and leaves. For this, Inkscape's Pencil will be better suited. Vector graphics editor on the other hand let you work with the Bézier curve from start to finish.īézier curves aren't the answer to everything, and certainly not to a more complex path such as the one that would describe the intricate set of flowers shown on that picture. But ultimately, they result in a large number of pixels. True, raster image editors also provide Bézier curves. With a raster image editor, this would have lead to a large number of pixels which might have been hard to work with to adjust the curve. Curves are described with handles whose angles determine curves. Taking the example of Inkscape, the Pen lets you draw Bézier curves to define the boundaries of the subject you want to clip with only a handful of nodes. As a result, you can change your mind at any point in time. I've learned to like them because they allow for a lot of precision and you can easily keep operations non-destructive in the sense that creating a seemingly complex image only requires to manage a limited number of nodes. Over the years, I've become increasingly familiar with vector graphics. This is when I decided that there's nothing for it: clipping is a tedious process which takes time, technique and a subject that's not too hard to work with. I got myself a demo version to try this out and found that the result was rather poor. I've been hearing about Adobe Photoshop offering magical tools for convincingly clipping difficult subjects e.g. involving hair in no time or effort at all. Other techniques involve painting on layer masks. There's the Fuzzy Select Tool, the Select by Color Tool, the Scissors Select Tool, the Foreground Select Tool, the Paths Tool to use Bézier curves. I've been a fervent GIMP user for the best part of 15 years, and early on already it offered a nice tool set which kept on growing even since to tackle the clipping problem. 2 How About Clipping with Raster Image Editors? Fair enough, that's going to be clipping from now on. Looking it up in Wikipedia thankfully takes you to the English translation of the article which they call clipping path. And on this occasion, the French have come up with a rather good one that the English couldn't match: détourage. It's interesting, this, as it is one of the rare words where there is no convincingly specific term to describe the technique. While raster image graphics editors are traditionally used for this, I recently found I like using vector graphics ones for their usability and flexibility. Turns out vector graphics are convenient for this purpose too.
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