Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program

587 Pages·2008·23.74 MB·English

Inkscape
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing
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English, Française, Español
Inkscape
Guide to a Vector Drawing Program
2nd Edition
Tavmjong Bah

0.14 (Documenting version 0.46)
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Inkscape
Available in PDF form from SourceForge Community Press.
This book has a website with additional material. Go to: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/.
Suggestions and corrections are welcome and can be sent to tavmjong @ free . fr.
Copyright © 2006-2009 Tavmjong Bah
This book in HTML form is available for personal use only. It may not be reproduced and
distributed in any form without the consent of the author.
Abstract
Inkscape, Guide to a Vector Drawing Program is THE GUIDE to the Inkscape program. The
web-based version is linked directly to under the program's Help menu. This book is both an
introduction and reference for the Inkscape drawing program. With Inkscape, one can produce
a wide variety of art, from photo-realistic drawings to organizational charts. Inkscape uses
SVG, a powerful vector-based drawing language and W3C web standard, as its native format.
SVG drawings can be directly viewed by web browsers such as Firefox and Opera. A subset of
SVG has been adopted by the mobile phone market. Inkscape is available free for Windows,
Macintosh, Linux, and Solaris operating systems. The first third of the book is devoted to eight
tutorials that progress in difficulty from very basic to very complex (three additional tutorials
were written explicitly for the PDF version). The remainder of the book covers each facet of
Inkscape in detail. Updated for Inkscape v0.46, the book includes complete coverage of new
features including: SVG filters, "Live Path Effects", the 3D box tool, and the Tweak Tool.
Advance topics covered include the use of Inkscape's powerful tiling tool, built-in bitmap
tracing, and SVG use on the web. The book includes plenty of tips (and warnings) about the
use of Inkscape and SVG.
Table of Contents
● Acknowledgments
● Introduction
● 1. Quick Start
● 2. Files
● 3. Changing the View
● 4. Editing Basics
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Inkscape
● 5. Positioning and Transforming
● 6. Geometric Shapes
● 7. Paths
● 8. Text
● 9. Attributes
● 10. Tweak Tool
● 11. Paint Bucket Tool
● 12. Clipping and Masking
● 13. Filter Effects
● 14. XML Editor
● 15. Tiling
● 16. Tracing Bitmaps
● 17. Connectors
● 18. Effects
● 19. SVG and the Web
● 20. Customization
● 21. Using the Command Line
● 22. Challenges
● A. Inkview
● B. File Format
● C. Spheres
● D. List of Dialogs
● E. Tips for Illustrator Converts
● Glossary
● Index

Acknowledgments
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Chapter 1. Quick Start
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing
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Inkscape » Quick Start
Chapter 1. Quick Start
Table of Contents
● The Anatomy of the Inkscape Window
● The Swedish Flag - A Short Example
● The European Flag - A More Elaborate Example
● A Hiking Club Logo - An Exercise in Paths
● The Northern Pacific Railway Logo - A Tracing Example
● A Box for Cards - An Isometric Projection
● A Can of Soup - A Three-Dimension Drawing with Gradients
● A Vine Design - A Tiling Example
● A Neon Sign - Animation
● A Bank Note - Security Features
● A Bottle - Photorealism
Let's get started. Inkscape is a very powerful program. However, you need to understand only
a small part of it to begin drawing. This section gives you an overview of parts of the Inkscape
user interface and then leads you through the creation of a few drawings. We will use a
number of examples:
● Swedish Flag: A basic introduction to Inkscape using simple rectangles.
● European Flag: Includes drawing stars and precisely placing objects.
● Hiking Club Logo: Introduces text and is a serious foray into paths.
● Northern Pacific Railway Logo: Shows how to create a drawing from a photograph with
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Chapter 1. Quick Start
the help of the auto-tracing routine. Layers are also introduced.
● Box of Playing Cards: Shows how to use Inkscape to draw a simple isometric projection
of a three-dimensional object. It utilizes precise transformations of objects.
● Can of Soup: Another demonstration of how to simulate a 3D object in a 2D drawing. It
introduces gradients.
● Vine Design: Demonstrates how to create a pattern that can be used as a base tile for a
repeating pattern. It introduces the powerful Create Tiled Clones feature of Inkscape.
● Neon Sign: Introduces using Inkscape for animation.
● Bank Note: Uses a variety of Inkscape features to produce a "secure" bank note.
Patterns and scroll work are featured.
● Bottle: Creates a photorealistic drawing of a spritzer bottle. Tracing, gradients, and
blurring are used.

Help The Anatomy of the Inkscape
Window
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Chapter 2. Files
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing
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Inkscape » Files
Chapter 2. Files
Table of Contents
● Opening and Saving Files
● Importing Files
● Exporting Files
● Printing Files
● Vacuuming Files
This section covers the manipulation of the files that are used by Inkscape. This includes the
files for storing your drawings in the Inkscape format, and for importing and exporting drawings
in other formats. All the commands to manipulate files can be found under the File menu.
Several of the commands can be also be found in the Command Bar (New-default, Open,
Save, Print, Import and Export Bitmap).

A Bottle - Photorealism Opening and Saving Files
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Chapter 3. Changing the View
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing
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Chapter 3. Changing the View
Table of Contents
● Panning the Canvas
● Zooming the Canvas
● Miscellaneous View Commands
The view presented by the Inkscape window can be changed in many ways. The changes can
be divided into two types: those that change the way drawings appear and those that change
how the Inkscape interface appears. A few of the latter type of changes are covered in other
chapters such as Chapter 5, Positioning and Transforming, for Grids and Guide Lines, and
Chapter 20, Customization, for changing parts of the GUI.
An Inkscape drawing can be viewed in many different ways. The view can be changed by
panning and by zooming the canvas. The Inkscape window can be made full screen. Multiple
views of the same canvas are possible. An Outline or Wire-frame mode is available as well as
a Icon Preview window.

Vacuuming Files Panning the Canvas
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Chapter 3. Changing the View
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Chapter 4. Editing Basics
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing
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Chapter 4. Editing Basics
Table of Contents
● Undo and Redo
● Selecting Objects
● Copying, Pasting, and Deleting Objects
● Clones
● Ordering Objects (Z-order)
● Groups
● Layers
We discuss here some of the basic editing concepts of Inkscape, including: undoing and
redoing changes, selecting objects, copying and deleting objects, and grouping objects. It is
assumed that you have some familiarity with Inkscape by having worked through some of the
examples in Chapter 1, Quick Start, or through the tutorials included with Inkscape (Help →
Tutorials).

Miscellaneous View Commands Undo and Redo
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Chapter 4. Editing Basics
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