Tricks and tips

Generic tricks and tips

The tips and tricks are collected to share/tutorials/tipsandtricks.svg and made apart of the release. If you want to contribute further, please add your tips and tricks to the CVS copy of the aforementioned. Also, you can add them below and they will be collected from time to time as a part of that tutorial.

---

New Tips and Tricks Scratchpad

Please enter your new tips and tricks here...

How to do slicing (multiple rectangluar export areas)?

Create a new layer, in that layer create invisible rectangles covering parts of your image. Make sure your document uses the px unit (default), turn on grid and snap the rects to the grid so that each one spans a whole number of pixels. Assign meaningful ids to the rects, and export each one to its own file. Then the rects will remember their export filenames. After that, it's very easy to re-export some of the rects: switch to the export layer, use Tab to select the one you need (or use Find by id), and click Export in the dialog. Or, you can write a shell script or batch file to export all of your areas, with a command like:

inkscape -i <area-id> -t <filename.svg>

for each exported area. The -t switch tells it to use the remembered filename hint, otherwise you can provide the export filename with the -e switch.

Placing Text Along a Curve

To place text along a curve, select the text and the curve together and choose "Put on Path" from the "Text" menu. The text will start at the beginning of the path. In general it is best to create an explicit path that you want the text to be fitted to - rather than fitting it to some other drawing element - this will give you more control without screwing over your drawing.

Selecting the original

When you have text on path, a linked offset, or a clone, their source path may be difficult to select because it may be directly underneath, or made invisible and/or locked. The magic key Shift+D will help you; select the text, linked offset, or clone, and press Shift+D to move selection to the corresponding path, offset source, or clone original.

Window off screen recovery

Moving between systems with different resolutions / number of displays you may find Inkscape has saved a window position that places the window out of reach. Simply maximise the window (which will bring it back into view, use the task bar), uncheck the global Inkscape option to save window positions, save and reload.

Adding fill to Shapes drawn with the Calligraphic Pen tool

Quick tut on how to add fill to shapes you've drawn with the calligraphic pen. upload:filling_calligraphy.svg