I lost the replies the last time I asked this...
so apologies but must ask again

I was recommend Inkscape, ArtRage, Serif DrawPlus 4 and brush 2... I am having a great time creating designs with them

the trouble is, NONE of them seem to have the option to "save as" a JPEG, PNG or GIF
???

so how do I convert what I make into an acceptable file format to upload to zazzle?

I am sure someone here has to know and can explain this in "laymans" terms

thanks so much in advance
T

thanks for your reply

I tried GIMP but was just stupefied by it...ended up uninstalling (guess I can always get it back if I need to)

I need something very simple to create with...I am not a computer wizard

I have not heard of Paint.NET

I have never used "export as" before so will have to look into those options


still open to other replies if there is more to know!

Hi in InkScape it is similar to what you had to do with ArtRage. Just go to File > Export Bitmap.

If you need any help with InkScape just let me know in this thread. I'm still new to it but I have some experience with other vector software like Freehand and Illustrator.

No problem, I'm happy to help.

I haven't played around with the settings too much with Inkscape.

When you Export Bitmap the only major area you need to be concerned with is probably dimensions (dont know about the x and y stuff) and "Filename"

Zazzle has a set of guidelines for resolution/image size here

I'm still working out this aspect actually so I'm probably not much help here being brand new to Zazzle etc.
My guess is if you want to follow the guidelines fully use the top right width/height values with the Units dropdown set to px (for pixels) then set it to Zazzle's specifications.

One thing I'm not sure about is whether "Bitmap Size" affects this much e.g. In Inkscape it asks for dpi and I'm used to 300 dpi for printing but not sure if this is what I'm to specify there for Zazzle or if it really affects it... I'll probably ask around when I'm doing designs for products bigger than a button.

If you're doing a transparent image with the white background removed, I'd say focus on the "Drawing" tab. And make sure you're saving it with the PNG extension which should be the default for Inkscape.
The Drawing tab focuses on the area which has been drawn/coloured on only.

The other tabs specify different areas of the image. "Page" just means the entire area of the page, whether it has been drawn on or not. "Selection" is for a shape or area you have selected manually. "Custom" I'm not sure...

If the "Filename" section is not pointing to the folder you want to save the image to just click Browse.

Then just click Export when you're done.

I'd just ignore x and y. I didn't touch it on mine. Possibly it has some use with moving the image left and right before saving it (but that sounds useless to me when I can just grab and drag it... so perhaps it serves some other use).

Hmm thats strange it didn't save as PNG. In the "filename" box for me it says the file/folder path and then the filename with .png

e.g.
C:/My Computer/my art/my-image.png

If it doesn't say .png or says something else like .svg maybe just delete the .svg and tack .png on the end instead.

.svg is sort of a work file for Inkscape (before you export to your preferred format, sort of like psd for Photoshop but .svg is a generic format that can be opened in other vector software), so you should have a .svg file aswell. But after exporting there should be a second file for the exported image like .png

Feel free to come back if you need to, no problem!

Cool, I'm glad you were able to get your design up with it.

You're very welcome, happy to be of help!