If you're looking to create beautiful silhouette shapes using Inkscape, then you have stumbled upon the right blog post! In this tutorial, I will show you how to create silhouettes with Inkscape step-by-step utilizing many features of the program. By the end of this tutorial, you will have the skills and knowledge you need to create silhouettes in Inkscape. The video is posted below or you can follow along in the written tutorial! 

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How to Create a Silhouette Shape in Inkscape

Import your Image

For this example I will be utilizing an image of a cow that I found on Google. Please note that it is NOT ok to just pull images off of the web, however if you are fully transforming it this way, I don't really see the issues. 

To import an image you can either copy the image from your web browser and paste it into inkscape, or save it on to your computer and drag it into the program. 

Use the colorize filter

Once the image is loaded in you're going to want to go to the menu of Inkscape to turn it black and white. With the image selected go to Filters - Color - Colorize and this menu should pop up

Ensure you have your settings on RGB mode and Live Preview is checked. It is ALSO important to ensure you have a transparent PNG. If you don't your images will turn out as a black square and not outline the image. 

Slide the RGB sliders all the way to the left as in the above menu. You should get something similar to this

Trace the Image

Now that you have a solid shape you can utilize the trace function to trace the cow. Go to Path - Trace Bitmap and this menu will pop up

You want to select Single Scan and Brightness cutoff. Ensure Live Updates in the bottom is checked. Move your threshold up as high as you would like to get the most detail out of your trace like the preview below

Once your happy with the preview click on apply and you have your shape! We do need to take it one step further though to be ready to cut things out. 

Simplify the Image

To ensure we don't have a bunch of nodes, you're simply going to go to the Inkscape menu and click on Path - Simplify. If for some reason, it smooths out way too much (like mine did below) then you don't need to use this option. 

Before with nodes:

After Simplify

So there you have it a quick and dirty way to make Silhouettes out of shapes in Inkscape!! If you haven't already go ahead and join the Facebook Group where we are creating a community of like minded individuals looking to grow their semi-passive income with digital downloads. 

Happy crafting! 

T