Hello, welcome to this tutorial on how to use Inkscape, a free and
outstanding vector drawing software that works on Windows, MacOS, and
Linux. Inkscape is able to manage Scalable Vector Graphic (SVG) files which
are made up of textual markup language and processed faster on the web than
JPG and PNG images, with also a smaller file sizes without compromising on
quality.
In just 13 minutes we will cover all the main basics of Inkscape.
Don't forget to check the video description to discover our complete Udemy
course on InkScape with greater discounts!
When opening Inkscape its welcome screen will appear. You can set the
canvas background to either light or dark, adding transparency represented
by a checkerboard. Under Keyboard choose the shortcuts to use and on
Appearance adjust the interface options, switching to any dark theme if you
want.
To start with a new document, switch to Time to Draw and select the ready
document template size and orientation that suits your need.
The new document opens on the main interface, with the canvas at the
center, the Toolbox with its tools on the left, and several panels on the
right we are going to see. On top the tool controls bar collects properties
and options for the current tool or selected object, while at the bottom
you get the color palette and Status bar. You can go to View, Show/Hide to
show or close bars or rulers.
To manage the document and the canvas properties, go to File, Document
Properties... Under Display, set the document size, its orientation, the
measurement unit and the canvas color and transparency. You can also enable
the Page tool to adjust the page size directly on the preview.
Let's start drawing vectors with InkScape. The first section of the Toolbox
collects all the tools to draw regular shapes. Just enable any tool and
click and drag on the preview to drop a rectangle, ellipse, polygon, star,
3D cube, or spiral. Make sure to check the Status bar at the bottom to get
useful hints and tips.
The second section of the Toolbox is used to draw vectors freehand by
brushing on the canvas. With the Bezier or Pen tool you can drop
consecutive segments by clicking on the canvas and also curves by clicking
and dragging on it. You can close the shape or finish with the tool by
double-clicking. On top you can change the drawing mode according to your
needs.
Enable the Freehand tool to draw freely by clicking and dragging. Switch to
the Calligraphic tool to drop artistic paths, adjusting trace properties on
top.
To add text to your document, enable the Text tool. Click once to drop
single-line annotations, or click and drag to drop a text paragraph. If
part of the content is hidden, you can enlarge the box until its red
contour turns back to blue.
The tool controls bar on top allows you to set font family, style, size,
distribution, spacing, and orientation over the selected box or part of the
text. To change the text color and appearance you have to open the Fill and
Stroke dialog that we are going to see in a while.
To check your drawings, you can zoom in and out with your mouse wheel while
holding down the CTRL (or the CTRL+CMD on Mac). Hold down the Spacebar key to
pan around instead.
Inkscape provides several graphic aids and snappings. Two rulers on top and
on the left show the cursor position with the measurement unit fixed for
the document.
From the top right corner you can set all the snapping options. You can
enable or disable all the snappings or turn specific snappings ON or OFF,
for example Bounding boxes for object edges, corners and centers; Nodes for
cusp and smooth nodes of paths and Alignment to align as you move the
object. You can get more snapping options by switching to the Advanced
mode.
Enable the Select tool and click on any object to select it. This shows a
dashed box around it, which you can drag to move. You can also use the
black node to scale it, holding down the CTRL or CMD key to save its aspect
ratio. Make sure to check the Status bar at the bottom to get useful tips
on how to edit the object.
Click once again within the box to rotate and skew the object. You can also
cut, copy, and paste the selected object with CTRL (or CMD) and X, C, and V
respectively. If you make any mistake, use CTRL (or CMD) and Z to undo.
The tool controls bar on top shows the properties for the selected object.
You can rotate the object by 90 degrees, flip it horizontally or
vertically, adjust its visibility when overlapping other objects, and
precisely set its position, width, and height. You can also enable the lock
button to save the aspect ratio. These values are updated as you edit the
object on the canvas.
When you double-click on any object you enable the corresponding drawing
tool for it. For example, double-click on a text box to enable the Text
tool so that you can type in. Double-click on a rectangle to enable the
Rectangle tool and drop another rectangle or adjust it shape.
If you double-click on freehand paths you enable the Node tool. Select any
node and show handles to edit curves, according to the node type. Diamonds
are cusp nodes and squares are smooth nodes with tangent handles. You can
also click on a node while holding down the CTRL key to change its type.
Drag any node to move it or use its handles to shape its curve.
Double-click on a path to add a new node and use the Backspace key to
remove to selected node.
You can use the same Node tool on shapes to adjust corners, straight lines,
resize any object or adjust any star shape with some limitations. To
completely customize these shapes you may convert these to paths by going
to Path, Object to Path.
If you convert text to a path, this is turned into a group of text letters
that you can edit with the Node tool.
To adjust any object appearance go to Object, Fill and Stroke... to open
the Fill and Stroke dialog. Under Fill and Stroke paint you can apply solid
colors, linear, radial or pattern gradients to either the object fill or
its stroke.
To manage any gradient enable the Gradient tool. Click and drag on the
object to apply another gradient and move its nodes to adjust it. You can
also select a node to edit its color or transparency and double-click on
the gradient line to add more nodes. Click elsewhere to apply the gradient.
On Stroke style you can add dashes, patterns, and markers to endpoints and
midpoints. At the bottom of the dialog, you can apply Blur and Transparency
to the entire object, including its fill or stroke.
To select multiple objects you can click and drag on the canvas and pick
all the objects within your rectangular selection area. This way you can
move, scale, and edit the objects together. Press the Escape key to
deselect all.
You can also right-click and go to Group to group these objects and move
and edit these always together.
With Inkscape you can also work with Bitmap images. To import one go to
File, Import and browse for the image. At this point you can move, scale,
or edit the image just like any other object.
You can also go to Path, Trace Bitmap to convert the image into a vector
path, selecting between a single or a multicolor scan mode and then editing
it as a vector object.
To manage the objects and groups inside your document, go to Object, Layers
and Objects... By default, all of these are collected within a single layer
called Layer1, used to collect a large list of objects. You can click on
any object or layer to select it, using the eye button to hide or show it,
and the lock button to prevent modifications on it. You can also
right-click to duplicate or delete and click and drag to change the order
of visibility.
To create a new layer, use the second button on top and drag any object
onto it.
To save your entire document, go to File and select Save As. You can save
it as an InkScape or a Plain SVG file to be able to open and edit it again
or use it on the web.
To export your design, go to File and then to Export. On the Export dialog
on the right you get a quick preview and four options you can choose.
Select Document to export the entire document, Page to export a single
page, Selection to export only what you have selected on the canvas, or
Custom to export a specific region, taking as reference the top left corner
of the page.
At the bottom set the destination folder and the file format, such as SVG,
PNG, or PDF. Make sure to select PNG, to preserve transparency. The
background is rendered according to the canvas options, set from the
Document Properties dialog as seen.
If you're interested in learning more about Inkscape, make sure to check out our
complete Udemy course from the video description! Do not forget to visit our
YouTube channel and our official website for more tips and tricks on graphic
design!