Software

Hi Glenna, glad you are here.  There are some good tutorials on here in the articles section about pattern making with Gimp and Inkscape.  i am not good at pattern making, so that is as far as I can help you.

Hi Glenna and welcome..I am also from Nova Scotia. Sydney area..

I use gimp and corel draw mostly...you seem to have lots of programs

to play with.Look at some of the projects here and try to make patterns

from there..fire up scroll saw and jump in.

Glenna,

Welcome

This link will take you to Gimp and Inkscape tutorials found at this site:

http://www.scrollsawvillage.com/forum/47-village-university/

Being of unsound mind and body, I downloaded Gimp a year ago.  Watched tutorial videos and also received excellent help from some of you fine members.  However, the Gimp version I have is newer than they updated in their "Help???" section.  Have always felt that the old ways are simpler and less of a pain in the neck.  I only do 3 or 4 portraits a year.

I staple together (on the top only) the photo, tracing paper and plain paper on the bottom.  A few paper clips around the edges also.  I TRACE my patterns, while watching for bridges.  Occasionally remove the paper clips, lift the photo & tracing paper to see what I missed.  Use White Out to create anymore bridges that are needed.

Put the finished pattern in a clear sheet protector and lay it on a copy machine.

I certainly respect and admire those of you that keep showing your talent at using computer programs, but it isn't my cup of tea.

jerry

I think any program you are comfortable with and know well would work.  If you want to do portrait style patterns, a bitmap based program like GIMP and Photoshop works the best.  Most every other kind a pattern, a vector based program like Inkscape and Corel Draw works best.  I like to encourage people to use GIMP and Inkscape because they are free and I have detailed instructions on how to create scroll saw patterns with these two programs.  But all of the concepts shared in the tutorials are the same no mater which program you use.  It just depends on what you're more comfortable with.

Hi Travis, here are the apps that I use on my Mac/iPad

Affinity Designer - https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ - Mac $49.99 - 2015 Apple Design Award Winner

iDraw - http://www.indeeo.com/idraw/ - Mac/iPad $24.99/$8.99 - This is the main tool I use on my Mac

Pixelmator - http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/ - Mac/iPad $29.99

Other:

Resizeit - http://nsek.net/SYW/software/english/resizeit/index.html - Free

iResizer - https://www.iresizer.com Mac/Windows $9.99

FontBook - Built in Font viewer on the Mac

-Steven

Hi Travis, here are the apps that I use on my Mac/iPad

 

Affinity Designer - https://affinity.serif.com/en-gb/ - Mac $49.99 - 2015 Apple Design Award Winner

 

iDraw - http://www.indeeo.com/idraw/ - Mac/iPad $24.99/$8.99 - This is the main tool I use on my Mac

 

Pixelmator - http://www.pixelmator.com/mac/ - Mac/iPad $29.99

 

Other:

 

Resizeit - http://nsek.net/SYW/software/english/resizeit/index.html - Free

 

iResizer - https://www.iresizer.com Mac/Windows $9.99

 

FontBook - Built in Font viewer on the Mac

 

-Steven

Added to the list.  Thanks!  

Hi Travis

I would like for you to try "Irfanveiw" it dose many things besides resizing.

 http://www.irfanview.com/

Try it you will like it.

Bob

Has anyone used LibreOffice Draw?

It's free and there are different versions for the OS your using.

In order to create some of my first compound cutting patterns for ornaments, I've been using LibreCAD. I first became interested in using a simple 2D CAD program when I saw some uses of DeltaCAD by members of the Gwinnett Woodworkers Association, who have a lot of YT videos on scroll sawing. I use a Linux desktop and LibreCAD seemed similar. I've used GIMP and Inkscape for other things, but have not become as comfortable using those tools as quickly as I've felt a good basic understanding of LibreCAD after some YT videos showing its use.
https://librecad.org/

Oh, and one thing I've wanted to do with woodworking is to get off of a computer, so using something that's quick and easy was important before deciding to invest in learning a new program.