Help! How can I create an outline on a vector image?

[motoxguy 0]

I had posted this in the Inkscape forum but is not really Inkscape related. I just need to know how to do this in any application that will get the job done. I have some ready made vector shapes in .eps format. I need to add a border to them to use as a paint mask. see my attached image. This seems to be such a simple thing to do but I cannot for the life of me get it done. In the pic you see the eps arrow I start with, then on the right is how it needs to be cut on the vinyl. Anybody have a simple solution to do this?

[Guest Terry]

Well I don't know what programs you have but in Flexi or Adobe Illustrator it is just one click and it's done.

[CyberSultan 6]

Is this what you are looking for?

http://forum.uscutter.com/index.php/topic,6013.msg40314.html#msg40314

If so, it is pretty easy to do.  Just take your image in Inkscape, remove the fill, add a stroke around the vector image, then create a new fill (with the fill bucket icon) using the "Grow/shrink by" settings (on the toolbar) with a negative value (i.e. 5pt).  This will create a line inside the image.  This fill feature bases the quality of the result off the size of the image it can see on the screen, so make sure your window is maximized and the image fills the screen.  This will provide the best result.

Maybe there is a better way, but it takes only a few seconds to do this way.