60 Free Vector Packs and how to use them

From Smashing Magazine comes this awesome listing of some of the best free vector packs available.

The Ultimate Collection Of Free Vector Packs

While the images are beautiful and many are suitable for cutting, few of them are in SVG format. Most are in EPS, PDF or AI format. Newer AI files, as well as PDFs will import directly into Inkscape. When you double click on an EPS file on a Macintosh, it will be converted to PDF automatically and open in Preview. From there all you have to do is save it and Inkscape will make it into an SVG.

Once you have imported an AI or PDF into Inkscape, click on the vector pack and begin ungrouping until you see dotted rectangles around each individual image. To work on an image, drag it off by itself or save it to a new document to do any necessary simplification, color separation or whatever. Once it has been saved in Inkscape you can then import it into SCAL for cutting.

Here’s an example, starting with one of the free vector packs from Designious.com

We open up the EPS version and save it as PDF in Preview, then open it in Inkscape and Ungroup

Then delete everything but the dolphin we were after and saved under a new name.

Customizable paper doll vectors

OK, this is a little bit of a contorted process, but if you are a paper doll fan, stay tuned. Once upon a time, there was a standalone computer program called Doll Factory from Pebble Creek Studios created so scrapbookers could print and cut out paper dolls for their pages. The product and company haven’t been heard from in years, but a demo version is still hosted on the Epson site.

Doll Factory demo download

If you do not already have a utility or driver on your computer to print to pdf, Download and install one. I use Cute PDF on my PC.

Open Doll Factory and design your doll following the very easy steps on the screen. Be sure to load up on accessories.

When you are done, go to tab 5 and click on the page that shows the whole scene in color.

Now click Print, but instead of choosing a printer, choose Cute PDF  to save as a pdf file. It will prompt you for a file name and save location. Be sure to store it where you will be able to find it.

Open Inkscape and import your new PDF. Click OK with the default import settings. Select the entire drawing and ungroup (under the Object menu).

You will see boxes appear around each element and you can rearrange them by color or however you like.

As you can see from the outline view, these shapes are already vectors and don’t need to be traced.

When you get the file how you like it, save it as an svg and import into SCAL. Once you’ve extracted all the outlines you want, just keep them stored in Inkscape files and you won’t have to go back to Doll Factory.

And there ya have it. It’s not like I didn’t warn you about the geekiness.