Inkscape

Misc

In order to save something, it must be converted a “path”
- Path >> Object to Path
The bottom row of buttons is determined by what tool is selected in the left panel
Rotate object
- Option 1
  1. Click select tool (>> select object if necessary)
  2. Select object a second time to get the rotation arrows
  3. Hold ctrl (in order to rotate in descrete degree units, e.g. 45, 90) or don’t if want to rotate in continuous degrees
  4. Click, hold, and drag one of the arrows to rotate the object
- Option 2
  1. Click select tool (>> select object if necessary)
  2. Hold ctrl+shift and rotate using mouse wheel
Convert object to path
- Notes
  - To perform certain actions between 2 or greater objects, then need to be paths
    - e.g. Creating 3d objects by Nick’s union-method or by using Extensions >> generate from path >> Extrude
  - Bottom bar (middle, below color palette) shows what you the type of thing you’ve selected. Should say path or group of paths is that’s what you got.
- Steps (object)
  1. Select object with select tool (S key or left panel, top)
  2. Path >> Object to Path
  3. Object >> ungroup
  4. Path >> union
- Steps (stroke or outline)
  1. Path >> Stroke to Path
  2. Path >> break apart
  3. Path >> union
Remove outline from an object
- Hold shift and click the boxed X at the far left on the color bar (bottom, far left)

Keyboard shortcuts

Grab and object and move it to a different location
- Click on select tool then just click, hold, and drag object
Zoom-in/out
- Hold ctrl and zoom using mouse-wheel
“1” zooms out to 100%
Pan around canvas
- Press and hold mouse wheel and drag mouse
Scale up/down object
- Select an object (may need to convert to path first)
- Shift+ctrl and scale by dragging arrows around object
Select different layers
1. Use the select tool to click the upper most layer of an object
2. Check out the fill color below the color bar (bottom) to tell you which layer you have
3. Hold alt and click the same spot again. This will select the next layer underneath.
4. Check out the fill color below the color bar (bottom) to tell you which layer you have
5. Repeat until you have the desired layer selected.
Align objects
- ctrl+shift+a

Set-up

Remove or set page border to desired size
- ctrl+shift+d
- Choose page size or untick “Show page border”
- Can also set the canvas measure to pixels
Set to pixels
- 3rd row >> towards end (usually set to mm)
View set to custom
- View >> tick Custom at the bottom of the menu
Zoom to 1:1
- View >> Zoom >> Zoom 1:1
Open Align and Distribute objects
- Symbol: horizontal bar graph,
- End 2nd row
- Set “Relative to” to Last selected
Open Edit Objects colors, gradients, etc
- Symbol: half triangle + diagonal paintbrush,
- End 2nd row

Images

Convert to a vector object (path/bitmap)
- Probably worthwhile to duplicate the image before breaking apart so you have a reference of how everything fits together
- Steps
  1. Drag png into Inkscape
  2. Select image (if not already selected)
  3. Path >> Trace Bitmap
  4. Choose Single Scan (Black and White) or Multiple Scans (Color)
  5. Choose Algorithm
    - All do a little something different
    - Autotrace seems good for B&W images
    - Mess with settings to see if it improves
    - Some algorithms can be very computationally expensive, so monitor resources
  6. While selected, Path >> break apart
- Defaults for opitions
  - Speckles: 2
  - Smooth corners: 1
  - Optimize: 0.20
- After conversion and break apart, recommend selecting whole object and lowering opacity to get a sense of the different layers.
Clipping
- Example taking a square portrait and cutting into an oval
- Steps
  1. Drag image into Inkscape
  2. Select the circle tool, (left-panel, top)
  3. Click and drag circle to an approximate shape
  4. Change fill color (right panel or bottom color bar) and reduce opacity (right panel)
  5. Click and drag the center of the circle (there should be an “x”) to the center of the area you want to preserve after clipping
  6. Click and drag edges of circle by nodes to finalize shape
  7. Switch to select tool (left panel, top)
  8. (Circle should be already selected) Hold shift and click outer edge of photo to also select photo
  9. Object >> clip >> set

Text

Notes
- After conversion from object to path, text is no longer editable
  - I think this means stylistically - like font family, bold, text size, etc.
Add text to canvas
- Click Text Icon (left panel, bottom)
- Symbol: AI
- Left panel >> middle
Paste text from outside source
- Click Text icon (left panel, bottom)
- Drag out a box big enough to hold the text
- ctrl+v
Change Font
- ctrl + shift + T or Text menu >> Text and Font
Add outline color to text
- Option 1
  1. Select tool (arrow, left panel) >> select object
  2. Click “stroke paint” in right panel >> choose color
    - HSL (Hue, Saturation, Luminosity) and A (alpha, aka opacity)
    - Enter a hex color
  3. Click “stroke style” and adjust width
    - May want to use pixels
  4. In “stroke style” window, you can select select a type of “join” that give smooth edges or pointed, etc.
- Option 2
  1. Select tool (arrow, left panel) >> select object
  2. Hold shift and select color on the palette bar at the bottome of the screen
  3. Adjust hue, stroke width, join, etc. in the right panel (see option 1)
Break apart text into individual letters
1. Object to path (see Misc section)
2. Ungroup
Text Portraits
- PNGs get a texture of words (or numbers)
- PNGs
  - If you have colors, convert png to greyscale (extensions >> color >> grayscale)
  - If pngs has layers, all layers need to have opacity = 1
  - PNG background probably needs to be black to get maximal contrast
- For numbers (useful as a logos for data packages), just knit a Rmd and copy/paste the numbers. It’s suprisingly hard to find a document online that’s full on numbers to copy and paste.
```
---
title: ""
output: html_document
---

```{r, echo=FALSE}
  options(scipen=999)
```
`r stringr::str_remove_all(toString(sample.int(1e4, 1e4)),",")`
```
To paste text, select text tool (left panel, bottom), place cursor on canvas, ctrl+v
- Don’t create a text box to paste text into or paste it, select it and reshape it (see below)
Text >> “flow into frame” is required but it’s picky as hell
- If you use text that isn’t generated by an extension inside Inkscape, you have to paste it directly onto the canvas and NOT into a text box or other shape. Otherwise, “flow into frame” will not work.
  - The dashed line is actually a string of text but I’ve zoomed out so much that you can’t tell. You have to work with the text in this form (e.g. font, color, spacing, et.) before you selecting it and using “flow into frame” to place into some shape of container.
    - If you try to paste it into a text box and “flow into frame” the text disappears or is placed outside the box like some funky glitch.
Selecting the text and not the shape
- Once you’ve flowed the text into a shape, you’ll need to center the alignment. First, you have to select the text before selecting the text tool and aligning
- Steps
  1. Click outside the shape to deselect all objects
  2. Zoom into the box, so that the text is pretty large
  3. Place selecting arrow on a letter or number of text and click
  4. Check bottom status bar to confirm “Text-in-shape” has been selected.

Shapes

Circle
1. Select circle in left pane,
2. Move cursor to location,
3. Hold ctrl+shift
4. Drag mouse outward/inward until desired size
Line
- Steps
  1. Click draw bezier curves (left pane, middle)
  2. Click snap-to-cusp-nodes (top row, middle) if not already selected
  3. Click location on canvas
  4. Hold ctrl and drag mouse horizontal or vertical
  5. Release mouse button then ctrl
  6. Press enter
- Color
  - Select object and convert to path using “stroke to path”
  - Choose color from bottom color bar or from right panel

Create a Background

Click square shape from left panel
From location on canvas, drag mouse outward to desired size (see size in width/heigth in 3rd row, middle)
- Or just drag until square is large enough to encase your object
Click select on left panel and select square
Click color on color bar (bottom)
- Or from right panel >> click fill >> adjust HSL or enter a hex color
If necessary, remove outline by holding shift and click “X” on color bar (bottom, left-side)
Drag square in front of object
Click “lower selection to bottom” (3rd row, left side) and adjust position fo square

Nodes

Add nodes to segment
1. Click “edit paths by nodes” (left panel, top)
2. Drag box around desired segment
3. Click “insert new nodes into selected segments” (bottom row, far left)
  - Repeat to insert desired number of nodes into segment(s)
Manipulate length or angle of segment by node
- Discrete increments –> hold ctrl and drag node
- Continuous increments –> drag node