When I add text I do it in GIMP. I think you could probably do text in Inkscape, but I do it in GIMP. There is a Text Tool in the toolbar. When you select it, you get a set of text parameters that can be set - font face, font size, left-right-center, stuff like that.
Before you save the SVG from Inkscape, resize the image to the size you want (a little less than the size of the frame - resize the Trace so it is about 1" smaller in width and height than the frame). Then save the SVG from Inkscape and load it into GIMP.
If the text is just a signature so people know who made the pattern (or other text that will not be cut), I set the font to 18 or 20 point, any font face will do, and usually put it at the bottom edge of the frame. If the text is part of the cutting, like a name or date that is to be part of the finished work, I usually use one of the cuttable fonts like Scroll Beach Italic or Stencil and try to set it big - 80 point or bigger so I can cut it. Other fonts can be used, but you will have to add bridges to support the centers of letters like "A" or "O". If the image is too big so there is no place to put the text without overwriting the image, I increase the canvas size in GIMP to make some room at the bottom.
Loading the SVG into GIMP:
When you load the Inkscape .svg into GIMP, the Trace is black and everything else is not defined, so GIMP shows it as a checkerboard. Same happens when you increase the canvas size in GIMP - the new area will be undefined and will show up as checkerboard. That is space that has not been committed to any color. After loading the SVG, or after increasing the canvas size, with the foreground/background colors set to Black/White, you can go to [Image][Flatten Image] and GIMP will fill the checkerboard parts with the background color (White). Then the bucket tool should work as expected.
Finding floaters: Now the frame is all White background with a Black pattern on it. Make sure the Black pattern does not touch any outer edges of the frame. If it does touch, increase the canvas size a little so there is White all around the edge and do the [Image][Flatten image]. Save the image - I usually save as GIF at this stage, but JPG will also work. Now select the Fill Bucket, and click anywhere that is white. This will fill all the connected white areas with Black (it should all be connected). Any White area that remains after that fill operation is a floater, meaning the Black (the part you will be cutting out) has formed a loop. If you try to cut that Black loop, the white part will fall out like the center of an"O". Use [Edit][Undo] or Control-Z to undo the fill and get back to the B&W image.
You need to add bridges (White cuts in the Black lines) that will support those looped area, as done with a stencil font. You probably also need to clean up some extraneous lines and dots to simplify the cutting. The bridges and clean-up can be done with either the eraser or by drawing in white. For now just use the eraser and let the White background show through.
It is a lot easier to do the clean-up and bridges if you expand the image. By hitting the '+' and '-' keys on your keyboard, both GIMP and Inkscape will zoom in and out. This is a quick way to get in and out as you work.
The bucket fill will work if you make a bridge that is even 1 pixel wide, but you probably cannot cut that slim line on the scroll saw. When I work on a 5x7 I set the eraser to the 2nd smallest size to make a bridge. That usually will be wide enough to see and cut. On an 8x10 I set to the 3rd or 4th smallest to make the bridge.
Cleaning up noise and adding bridges makes a big difference in how hard it is to cut the pattern. I usually try to get 2 bridges to a small floater, or 3 if it is a bigger floater. I also look for large, weakly supported areas in the pattern and add bridges. Some bridges might be temporary - just there while cutting out a large outline, then carefully removed for cosmetic purposes, leaving just 2 or 3 small bridges for final support until the backer is glued on.
You can experiment with bridges to see how they look to you, but I found:
- anywhere that one line disappears behind another line, or one "T's" into another, I break the rearward line right where it would have touched the forward line (break the stem before it hits the crossarm of the T). Your eye doesn't usually notice a break like that.
- Use the face's hairline to add some bridges to support the face. A hair part, curl, or bald spot can be a good place for a bridge.
- If possible, add the highlight (reflected light) in the person's eyeball. This will normally be a floater, so you need to bridge it to the white of the eye. Put the highlight and the bridge at the same position on each eye.
- don't try to show space between teeth. This just muddies up the image. People like nice straight white teeth.
- don't try to show every edge of the image. The curve of a cheek or some jaw lines sometimes do not show up in the pattern, and usually it looks better without them. But if you think you need that curve in the portrait, it can be traced in GIMP before loading into Inkscape.
- especially with females, look for places to erase lines in the neck, especially if they look like a double chin. Those are much more stark in the pattern than in the photo, so removing them makes a better image.
- then there's hair - yuk. Hard to get natural in a pattern so I usually leave it close to what Inkscape produced. If you look close it's like a head full of worms, but from a distance it looks about right. It's not the 1st thing people look at - usually they see the eyes and the hair is just window dressing.
This is kind of wordy, but I hope it makes some sense. If not, ask and I'll try to clean it up. There are a lot of mechanical steps to this, followed by some artistic touch. The mechanical parts are pretty easy to explain and to learn, but the artistic part just takes practice.
Have at it.
