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+--- Thread: Using Gimp for turning photos into Marquetry (/Thread-Using-Gimp-for-turning-photos-into-Marquetry)
Using Gimp for turning photos into Marquetry - jhmiii - 05-11-2025
I am looking for ideas and suggestions on how to use Gimp to modify photos for marquetry. I have turned photos into marquetry by hand. I draw outlines around different colars, transfer those outlines to veneer, cut them out on a scroll saw and assemble into a "painting in wood". An example is included below.
I am now trying to transition from hand cut to laser cut as the laser can deliver much more detail than I can do by hand. The laser requires a vector graphic of the lines to be cut. I am using LightBurn software to produce this vector graphic from a bitmap graphic. LightBurn has a great ability to outline different colors or shades of black & white. The outlines are delivered in a new layer and can be used to drive my laser.
The problem I am having is the shades of color or gray scale are too complex and convoluted in my photo. So I am looking for a way to simplify the photo so the different shades have smoother borders and there are fewer shades, no more than 20, as each shade needs to represented by a different veneer.
I am hoping that a few of Gimp's filters might work for me, but have found them complex and confusing to use.
I would appreciate any suggestions on how to use Gimp for this photo processing. This problem has probably been solved before and am happy to be pointed in the right direction. Thanks for any ideas you want to share.
Yellow tones in second photo are artifacts of the conversion from jpg to a small png, as I have no yellow veneers.
RE: Using Gimp for turning photos into Marquetry - denzjos - 05-11-2025
I tried this :
Filters / Artistic / Olify (Number of intensities - 8 or more)
Use 'Autotrace' to create paths
Or :
'Image / Mode / Indexed' (set maximum color palette 8 or more)
'Image / Mode / RGB'
Use 'Autotrace' to make paths
Autotrace :
http://gimpchat.com/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=21642
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RE: Using Gimp for turning photos into Marquetry - sallyanne - 05-12-2025
Then you need to put it back into a program that can make vector graphics as gimp is a bitmap editor.
RE: Using Gimp for turning photos into Marquetry - denzjos - 05-12-2025
(Today, 12:54 AM)sallyanne Wrote: Then you need to put it back into a program that can make vector graphics as gimp is a bitmap editor.
Yes, one can save the paths as SVG file and load them in Inkscape. In Inkscape use 'File / Save as' and select the vector type you want.