Customizing Inkscape

Change keyboards shortcuts

There is no user interface to customize shortcuts yet but you can edit <Inkscape install directory>/share/keys/default.xml, or add a custom keys/default.xml in the user Inkscape preferences directory to define new shortcuts or remap (override) shortcuts from the shared keymap file.

In order to share the same shortcuts as other softwares, following configuration files are shipped with Inkscape (look at the <Inkscape install directory>/share/keys/ folder):

• acd-canvas.xml for ACD System Canvas 11;
• adobe-illustrator-cs2.xml for Adobe Illustrator CS2;
• corel-draw-x4.xml for Corel Draw X4;
• macromedia-freehand-mx.xml for Macromedia Freehand MX;
• xara.xml for Xara X, Xara Xtreme and Xara LX;
• zoner-draw.xml for Zoner Draw 5.

Moreover:

• right-handed-illustration.xml is a configuration for users who want to draw with the right hand and access all shortcuts with the left one;
• inkscape.xml is the default Inkscape shortcuts configuration file.

Change the user interface

Change icons

Icons are all in an icons.svg file located in <Inkscape install directory>/share/icons/. It can be overwritten or modified by the user (be sure of what you do).

Alternatively, a custom icons/icons.svg file can be loaded from the user Inkscape preferences directory (it will override existing icons from the shared icons file, and fall back to icons from the shared icons file if some are missing in the custom one).

Examples of existing icons.svg:

• Default one from the Inkscape repository;
• a Tango Icon Set for Inkscape can be sent in the <Inkscape install directory>/share/icons/ directory, you can rename it.
• SimpleGrey Inkscape theme by Scnd101.

From Inkscape 0.93 onwards, Inkscape's icons are no longer taken from the icons.svg file. Instead, the application looks them up by name from the system, in the "normal" way, as described by the Freedesktop standard. In brief, you can now just install SVG (or PNG) files with the appropriate names into your <Inkscape install directory>/share/icons/ folder.

Change the theme/skin

In GTK, a theme is defined in a gtkrc file. On Windows, the Inkscape one is located in <Inkscape install directory>/etc/gtk-2.0.