Tracing Tips & Tricks — #1 Where to Start

Today I’m beginning a series that’s LONG overdue. It’s about tracing — how to turn an image such as clip art or a photo into a cut file. I’ve taught this as a class at the All Things Silhouette Conferences for years and am finally starting to do it here in written form. Throughout the series, I’ll cover types of images we trace and all the options in the Trace panel. We’ll start with very simple images and progress through harder ones and into photographs. Buckle up — it’s a long ride! This lesson is a general overview.

Note: This post contains affiliate links. That means if you click the link and purchase something, I may receive a small commission. You pay the same price. This helps me to be able to keep my business going and provide more tutorials.

One of my favorite movies of all time is Apollo 13. SPOILER ALERT: The scene where they make it back safely and the control room erupts in cheers makes me cry EVERY.SINGLE.TIME. Even thinking about it makes me tear up (like, literally, right now). Why did they go to the moon in the first place if it’s so dangerous? Because every human wants to explore new things and to expand possibilities.

What in the world does that have to do with tracing? That’s what tracing can do for those of us who use Silhouette machines. It enables us to go beyond the basics and have virtually unlimited possibilities for designs.

What is tracing and why do I need it?

When you first started out using a Silhouette, there’s a good chance you tried to cut an image and only got a square. That’s because you may not have understood that Silhouette Studio can read 2 types of images:

1. Raster images are print information. They are made up of tiny squares of color called pixels. Combined the pixels are called a bitmap. Raster images are things like clip art, photos and images created in programs like Paint or Photoshop. The only thing Silhouette Studio can do with raster images is print them to your home printer. Raster image file types are–

• • • JPG
    • PNG
    • BMP
    • TIFF
    • GIF
    • WMF
    • Printable Patterns from the Silhouette Design Store

If you try to cut these, you only get the outer edge square of the set of pixels. The one exception is a new Preference option in version 4 (possibly only in Beta versions right now) for setting PNG files to autotrace as they open. I’ll go over that more in a future lesson.

2. Vector images are made up of points connected by straight and curved line segments. (For a more complete understanding of these points, see my point editing series beginning here). They are created in programs like Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Inkscape. The software interprets these points and lines as cut information — “Start here and cut a straight line to this point. Turn in a new direction and cut a curved line segment of such and such depth to this point, etc.” These can be printed, but only if you alter them a bit. Vector image file types are–

• • • SVG (can be opened in Silhouette Studio with Designer Edition and above)
    • DXF
    • GSD
    • files in the SDS (other than Printable Patterns)
    • Fonts

Tracing helps you turn a raster image into a vector image. The machine can cut the resulting lines. 

Let’s talk a bit more about types of designs you use in Silhouette Studio–

• Text you type in regular fonts or shapes you create in the software are only vector information. This is why if you’ve ever tried to print those from Silhouette Studio you get a blank page. It only prints if you fill it with color or a fill pattern or raise the line thickness. That’s adding raster information.
• Images purchased in the Silhouette Design Store have the cut lines, so you don’t have to trace those. The only SDS designs that do not have cut lines automatically enabled are the Printable Patterns (fill patterns), which you don’t open as a shape. (Although technically you can. See more about that in my series on using fill patterns).
• Print and Cut designs from the SDS are a combination of raster (print) and vector (cut) parts. They should include a cut line to cut around the outside of the image.
• Full color fonts have fills already. They would print something because those fills are raster information. And because the outer edges of the letters are vectors, they would cut.
• Vector files such as SVGs you purchase from other sources may have fills or a raised line thickness and would therefore print. These also cut of course. But if they do have a raised line thickness, they may cut in unexpected ways. In earlier versions of the software, you had to set them to Cut. In version 4, there is a Preference setting that allows you to choose the cut style when importing SVGs.
• New in version 4 (and possibly only in Beta versions right now) is another Preference setting to automatically trace PNG images. This traces the outer edge only. I’ll go over that more later in the series.

What about Other file types?

There are a few other file types to understand with respect to using them in Silhouette Studio:

• PDF files can be opened with Designer Edition and above. You can open a PDF file as vector or image–
  
  • Vector: the software automatically converts the lines into cut lines without tracing. This is especially helpful for hand-drawn images of pattern pieces. If you open as a vector the lines are smoother and straighter than with a trace of the lines.
    
    The red lines indicate cut lines. Here’s a close-up of how the pieces would cut out–
    
  • Image (raster): it is print information just like any other raster image. Notice the square cut line around the outside.
    
    If I then trace it, here’s what I get.
    
• PES, DST, EXP, JEF, and XXX are embroidery file types that can be opened in the Designer Edition Plus and above. With applique embroidery files that have a placement stitch layer, you can use the placement lines as cut lines. Regular embroidery files/lines and fonts are useful primarily as sketch files, but would need some work (such as creating an offset) to be useful as cutting files. These open like other vector images with the cut lines already present and set to cut.
• Ai, CDr and EPS  In Adobe Illustrator, Corel Draw, Inkscape or other vector imaging software, you can save as an SVG or EPS file type and open with Designer Edition and above. In Business Edition, you can open an Ai, CDr or EPS file directly without having had to save it as SVG. Ai and CDr files, like PDFs, give you the option to open as a vector or image. When opened as a vector, they do not need to be traced. Since those programs can design in layers, files open in layers in Silhouette Studio if created that way in the other program.

How can I figure out the file type?

You may not know what file type an image is. Here’s how to tell–

• Look at the file extension — the letters after the . in the file name. Compare that to the lists in the previous sections.
• Open the image in Silhouette Studio and pull it off to the side of the mat area. If you see a white background, it’s a raster image.
  
  This isn’t foolproof, as files such as PNGs have a clear background when created and may or may not have it when you open them in Silhouette Studio (depending on that Preference setting we talked about).
  
  But if it’s there, it’s definitely a raster image.
• Open the Send area and look for the cut line.
  • If you are in simple mode or cut by line mode, then you shouldn’t see any cut line around that image because by default raster images come in on No Cut.
    
    Even if you set it to Cut or Cut Edge, will only be that square we talked about.
    
  • That outer edge square cut line will be on by default if you are in cut by fill or layer, because the square has a fill and is in a specific layer.
    
  • Just remember our exception about PNG files and autotrace. Since it traces only the outside edge and not inner pieces on autotrace, you can still tell that the original image was a raster.
    

How Do I Obtain Images for tracing?

There are many places to get images for tracing. You can scan your own drawings. Images from the internet or photos can be used. You can create images in programs like Paint or Photoshop. Anything that has been saved as one of the file types listed above can be used.

This brings up the question, “Is that really legal?” This is a complex question with many answers. But I can give you some general direction–

• It is NOT ever legal to trace a trademarked image and then sell something made with that image. Just because an image is available on the internet does not mean you have permission to use it for commercial purposes (to sell). The moment a person creates an image, it is their intellectual property and is automatically trademarked. They own all the rights to it (as long as it’s their original design). If it has a watermark across it, then it is there for a reason. Be considerate of those who take the time to design images and who deserve to receive the benefits of that. We are all creators and know we don’t want someone stealing our work. In this series, I’ll give you some suggestions on how to find images you can use even for items you sell.
• If you are making it for personal use, that is a trickier area. Most often, a company or school won’t come after you for making a t-shirt to wear yourself. However, I have actually heard horror stories from users who made shirts to wear at that fun theme park in Orlando and were asked to remove them.

The bottom line is to be smart and be considerate.

What about…?

I find that when my students begin to trace, there are some very common questions–

• What do all the options in the panel mean?
• Why is it so jagged when I trace?
• Why can’t I get all the colors to trace?
• How do I get the separate colors as separate pieces?
• Why is it making double lines?
• Why can’t I ungroup the pieces?
• How in the world do you do photos?
• What’s new in the latest software versions?

By the end of this series, I will have answered all of those.

Up Next

In Lesson 2 of this series, I’ll discuss the different graphic styles and how to pick the right images to trace.