INKSCAPEPrepared by K. Srujana

INTRODUCTIONInkscape began in 2003 as a code fork of the Sodipodia project. Sodipodi,developed since 1999, was itself based on Rsph Levien's Gill (GnomeIllustration Application).

The name Inkscape is made up of the two English words "ink" and "scape". Inkis a common substance for drawings, and is used when the sketched work isready to be permanently committed to paper, and thus evokes the idea thatInkscape is ready for production work. A scape is a view of a large number ofobjects, such as a landscape or ocean-scape, and thus alludes to the object-oriented nature of vector imagery.

Inkscape is an open source drawing tool for creating and editing SVGgraphics. More than just a text vector editor, Inkscape provides a WYSIWYGinterface for manipulation of vector images, allowing the artist to expresshimself freely.

Like other drawing programs, Inkscape offers creation of basic shapes (suchas ellipses, rectangles, stars, polygons, and spirals) as well as the ability totransform and manipulate these basic shapes by rotating, stretching andsudden changes in direction or position.

One of the main priorities of the Inkscape project is interface consistency andusability. All vector transformations, scale, rotation and positioning (minusskewing) have keyboard shortcuts. These keys work on nodes in Node tool aswell as on objects in the Selector Tool. The most common operations have one-key shortcuts.

COMPONENTS OF INKSCAPEMENU BAR

Inkscape Menu contains the essential functions of any program, those whichconcern the application itself. There are 165 options in menu bar.

To create a new empty document, we use File > New > Default or pressCtrl+N.

To create a new document from one of Inkscape's options, use File > New orpress Ctrl+Alt+N

To open an existing SVG document, use File > Open (Ctrl+O). To save, useFile > Save (Ctrl+S), or Save As (Shift+Ctrl+S) to save under a new name.

Inkscape uses the SVG (Scalable Vector Graphics) format for its files. BesidesSVG, Inkscape can import and export several other formats (EPS, PNG).

Inkscape opens a separate window for each clipart. You can navigate amongthem using your window manager (e.g. by Alt+Tab), or you can use theInkscape shortcut, Ctrl+Tab, which will cycle through all open documentwindows. (Create a new document now and switch between it and thisdocument for practice). Inkscape treats these windows like tabs in a webbrowser, which means the Ctrl+Tab shortcut only works with documentsrunning in the same process.

We use trace bitmap option to trace or convert the original image into shadedor cutoff brightness or color image or into a gray image, it's keyboard shortcutis Shift+Alt+B. We can group or ungroup the number of objects using groupoption. We can change the text format and size of the text from text options.We can extend the colors in the extension option and if we have any doubts wecan clarify them by watching tutorials which are provided in help option.

COMMAND BAR

Command bar contains icons which are shortcuts to commands which areotherwise accessible from the menus or shortcut key commands. There are 26shortcut icons on command bar.

a. Create New Document From the Default Template.

b. Open an Existing Document.

c. Save Document.

d. Print Document.

e. Import a Bitmap or an SVG File Into this Document.

f. Export This Document or Selection as a Bitmap Image.

g. Undo the Last Action.

h. Do Again the Last Undone Action.

i. Copy Selection to Clipboard.

j. Cut Selection to Clipboard.

k. Paste Objects from Clipboard to Mouse Point, or Paste Text.

l. Zoom to Fit Selection in Window.

m. Zoom to Fit Drawing in Window.

n. Zoom to Fit Page in Window.

q. Cut the Selected Clone's Link to it's Original.

r. Group Selected Objects.

s. Ungroup Selected Objects.

t. Edit Objects' Style, Such as Color or Stroke Width.

u. View and Select Font Family, Font Size and Other Text Properties.

v. View Layers.

w. View and Edit the XML Tree of this Document.

x. Align and Distribute Objects.

y. Edit Global Inkscape Preferences.

z. Edit Properties of this Document.

CANVAS

It is the most central and important part of the interface, since it is herethat the drawing is created and viewed. It is located in the middle of the window and is represented as a blank "page" with open space around it.

TOOL BAR AND TOOL CONTROLS BAR

The Toolbox consist of vertically aligned buttonslocated on the left of the window. It contains a basicset of drawing utilities, in particular for creatingand editing shapes. There are controls forgeometric and free-form shapes and lines, text, andfills (colors).

Located directly under the Commands Bar is theTool Controls Bar.When a tool is selected in the Toolbox, the ToolControls Bar changes to show particular optionsassociated with that tool. COLOR PALETTE, FILL & STROKE

The color palette consists of different colors alongwith shades which we can see below the canvas.

Fill and Stroke consists of FILL, STROKE PAINT, STROKE STYLE where wechange the size, color, corners of any object. We can also change the picture'sopacity and blur of an image.

We can change the color formats like RGB (Red, Green, Blue), HSL(Hue-Saturation-Lightness), CMYK(Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, and Key), Wheel, CMS. Italso displays the gradient options. In stroke style we can select whether thecorners should be sharp or round corners. We can resize the width of astroke.

LAYER COMMANDS WITH HELP BARS

“Layer Commands” is located at the bottom end of the screen. These are usedto add or delete layers of images where we can assign a name. There are alsooptions called “visibility” (eye) to make the layer visible or invisible, and“lock” to lock the layers which we dont want to alter.

HOW TO USE INKSCAPE

In Inkscape we have 19 tools. They are -

1. Select and transform objects (F1)

This tool is used to select objects. Using this tool, we can add or removeobjects from selection. We can move and resize the objects using this tool.

2. Editing paths by nodes (F2)

This tool is one of the most important tools. Each object is held together bymultiple nodes and using this tool we can move the nodes (for example, wecan change a straight line into a curve). For this tool we have different optionswhich will be displayed in the Control Tool bar. Using those options we canadd nodes, subtract nodes, join nodes, join nodes with new segments, splitpath between two non-endpoint nodes (If there are 2 points in the middle of aline, the segment between them is removed), break path at selected node,make selected node corner, smooth or symmetric.

Editing paths

3. Tweak objects by sculpting or painting (Shift+F2)

Using this circle-shaped tool we can push, shrink/grow, attract/repel, roughen,edit the image colour, blur the image, and many more. We can also change thetool's width and force applied on the object using options on the top left.

Tweak Tool

4. Create rectangles and squares (F4)

This simple tool can create rectangles and squares.

5. Zoom in or out (F3)

Using this tool, we can zoom in and zoom out as we like to. There are alsooptions which allow us to zoom in with a ratio or position the screen in aparticular part of the canvas.

6. Create 3D boxes (Shift+F4)

This tools is used for drawing, moving and editing a 3D box.

3D Boxes Stars and polygons

7. Create circles, ellipses, and arcs (F5)

This tool is used to create different kinds of cirlces, ellipses and arcs. Usingedit path by nodes tool we can change a circle into different shapes.

8. Create stars and polygons (*)

Using this tool we can create stars with any number of corners. We canchange the shapes of stars and polygons by moving inner and outer nodes ofthe star. We can form different patterns using this option.

9. Create spirals (F9)

Using this tool we can create and edit spirals. Each spiral has an outer and aninner nodes which are used to increase the length of spirals according to ourchoice.

10. Draw freehand lines (F6)

We can also call this tool “pencil”, as we can use this tool for free handdrawings.

Spirals Pencil and Pen tools

11. Draw bezier curves and straight lines (Shift+F6)

This tool is also called “pen”. Using this tool we can draw a curve, delete acurve and continue the path of curve. Multiple 2D shapes can also beconstructed using this tool.

12. Draw calligraphic or brush strokes (Ctrl+F6)

This tool acts like a paint brush.

13. Create and edit text objects (F8)

Using this tool we can insert text in any fontstyle.

14. Spray objects by sculpting or painting (Shift+F3)

Calligraphic strokes

Using this tool we can duplicate an object or texta number of times, which we have selected beforeusing this tool.

15. Erase existing paths (Shift+E)

This tool is used to erase the objects.

16. Fill bounded areas (Shift+F7) Gradients

This tool can be used to fill a closed object with any selected colour.

17. Create and edit gradients (Ctrl+F1)

We use this tool to create gradients having different patterns with anyselected colours. We can use only two colors in a single gradient.

18. Pick colors from image (F7)

We can use this tool to pick an exact shade/color which we have used inanother object. This picked colour can be applied in a selected image using“Fill bounded areas”.

19. Create diagram connectors (Ctrl+F2)

Using this tool we can connect multiple objects and then rearrange themhowever we want to. This option can be helpful while constructing flowcharts.

HOW TO MAKE A CLIPART – An Example:

Here is an example clip art using basic tools.

Step 1: Write a word (“Water” in this case) in the middle of the canvas and give it a colour of your choice.

Step 2: Now duplicate that word using the keyboard shortcut Shift+D and change the color of that word to black.

Step 3: Using lower section bottom(end) icon in tool control bar it places the selected word bottom of other words as it is in the screenshot.

Step 4: Draw an oval and select the lower section bottom(end) icon on the Tool Control Bar and make sure that the color of the circle is white.

Step 5: Draw a rectangle which should cover the whole word with the oval, and use the same lower section bottom(end) icon on Tool Control Bar.

Step 6: To get the lighting effect we have to blur the oval such that it looks like light. To blur the image, we have to open Fill and Stroke (Shift+Ctrl+F) and adjust its blur.