A Guide to Inkscape/Shape Tools

100% You will need to know how to draw basic shapes before you can draw more complex shapes. This page will teach you how to draw these shapes. The shape tools are useful because they allow you to make and manipulate basic forms easily. All shapes have control handles that can be dragged to manipulate various aspects. Sometimes it's better to use the shape's resize handles, instead of the Selector's generic resize abilities. While the Selector resizes relative to the document, the shape tools will resize relative to the object. Experiment with both to see which works best for you. (Use Ctrl Z to undo any changes you don't want to keep.) To restrain the resize handles, Ctrl Drag them. This limits movement to 15-degree steps. To change the step size, go to ‣File ‣‣Preferences ‣‣‣Behavior and choose <Steps>. Rectangles 32px right|thumb|200px|Rectangles and Squares tool Keyboard Shortcut: R or F4 The Rectangles and Squares tool has a total of four shape handles. The two square handles (☐) control the size (width/height) and the two round handles (⭘) control corner rounding (Rx/Ry). Hold ctrl while dragging one of the square handles (☐) Ctrl Drag to create a width to height integer-ratio square or rectangle (e.g. 1:1 square or 3:1 rectangle). Hold shift while dragging a square handle (☐) Shift Drag to draw a square/rectangle from the center out. Hold both ctrl and shift while dragging a square handle (☐) Ctrl Shift Drag to draw a integer-ratio square or rectangle from its center. To make the corner rounding the same (even) Ctrl Drag one of the rounding handles (⭘), as the handle is moved from the corner the other rounding handle will move at the same ratio. Another option for rounding is to use the Rx and Ry numeric-value boxes on the Rectangle's Tool Controls bar. To reset the corner rounding use the Rectangle's Tool Controls bar, and click the 'make corners sharp' button, last item on the Tool Controls bar. For help with the Rectangle and Circle's Tool Controls bar features, mouse-over 🖰 a button or numeric-value box for a pop-up message. You can also Right-Click a numeric-value box for a pop-up menu of pre-set values. center|thumb|900px|Rectangle: Statusbar highlighting of Tool Tip message Command keys (Ctrl, Shift and Alt) based Tool-Tip messages can be read at the bottom center of the user interface in the Statusbar. The tool tips are dynamic and will change based on (1) current edit being performed (2) mouse-over 🖰 of one the shape handles (3) press and hold one of the three command keys (Ctrl, Shift and Alt) will update with the associated tool tip, i.e., while in the Rectangles and Squares tool hold the Ctrl key and the tool-tip message will update. 3D Boxes 32px right|thumb|200px|3D tool, with x,y,z shape handles Keyboard Shortcut: X or Shift F4 The 3D Box tool is an easy way to create a nearly 3-dimensional shape. Inkscape is a two dimensionial x/y vector editor, there is no 'z' axis within Inkscape. Each dimension can lie on either parallel or converging edit lines. These edit lines are shown in different colors, so that users can distinguish one line from another: red lines reflect the X direction (width); blue lines reflect the Y direction (height); yellow lines reflect the Z direction (depth). To select only one side of a 3D box, Ctrl Click it. Ellipses 32px right|thumb|200px|Ellipse, Circles and Arcs tool Keyboard shortcut: E or F5 To draw an ellipse, circle, or an arc select the Ellipse Tool, and drag from the top left to the bottom right. The ellipse tool has a total of four handles: two square handles control the size and aspect ratio; two circle handles control the angle of the arc. Mouse-over 🖰 your cursor on one of the square or circle handles and the Statusbar (bottom center) message will update and display the handle's available edits and any Ctrl, Shift, and Alt key edits (if available). Dragging the circle handles outside the ellipse makes a segment (pie chart); dragging them inside creates an arc.  Alt+Click one of the circle handles to completely close the ellipse. Stars and Polygons 32px right|thumb|200px|Stars and Polygons tool Keyboard Shortcut: * or Shift F9 To switch between creating a Star and Polygon, click either the star-shaped or polygon-shaped icon in the Tool Controls bar of the Star/Polygon tool. The Star Tool has two shape handles, one tip (  ⃟  ) handle for tip adjustment, and one base (  ⃟  ) handle for base radius editing. Ctrl+Drag  the tip handle in order to stretch the star without rotating, and Ctrl+Drag  the base handle to change the ratio of the two handles without skewing. The Polygon Tool only has one shape handle, the single tip (  ⃟  ) handle can be used to lock the tip radius (rotation). Ctrl Drag  the tip handle in order to resize the polygon without rotating it.  Shift Drag  edits the rounding of the tip handle, while Alt Drag  will randomize the tip handle. Spirals 32px right|thumb|200px|Spiral tool Keyboard shortcut: I or F9 The Spiral Tool has two shape handles an outer (◇) handle and an inner (◇) handle. Dragging the handles lengthens and shortens the spiral. The outer handle can edit the roll/unroll of the spiral, can snap angle, scale, rotate and lock the outer radius. Here are the combination of keys to support the outer handle edits: Ctrl Drag  the outer handle to roll/unroll spiral and snap angle. Shift Drag  the outer handle to scale and rotate the spiral. Alt Drag  the outer handle to lock the outer radius. Divergence Alt Drag  the inner handle to change the divergence (distance between the rolls). To make the distance really big, hold Alt and move the inner handle first towards the center, and then further in the same direction beyond the center. Spirals with a divergence less than 1 are denser towards the edges; ones with divergence greater than 1 are denser towards the center. To reset divergence, Alt+Click  the handle. Shift+Click  the handle to return it to the center. Experiment with the handles and the Shift and Alt keys to get a grip on the tool. Fill and Stroke 32px|Fill and Stroke dialogue right|thumb|300px|Fill and Stroke dialogue Keyboard shortcut: Ctrl Shift F All objects (shapes, paths and text) have a fill and stroke styles. The stroke is the outline of the object, and fill is the area inside the object. To set fill and stroke styles, Select Select and Transform objects (S) the object and go to ‣Object ‣‣Fill and Stroke... or press Ctrl  Shift  F  . The Fill and Stroke dialog has three tabs labelled Fill, Stroke paint and Stroke style. An objects fill can be set to empty, flat color, linear or radial gradient, pattern, swatch, unset (Unset paint, make it undefined so it can be inherited), self-intersections Any path self-intersections or subpaths create holes in the fill and solid Fill is solid unless a subpath is counter-directional. The Stroke style edits include: Width with unit of measure (i.e, pix, pt, cm, inch...) Join (corners); Miter, Round, Bevel Miter maximum length of the Miter join Caps (end points) Butt, Round, Square Dashes (stroke patterns) and Offset Markers for Start Start markers are drawn on the first node of a path or shape, Mid Mid markers are drawn on every node of a path or shape except for the first and last nodes and End End markers are drawn on the last node of a path or shape (nodes). Text objects only have the stroke's "Width with unit of measure" edit available. Color models provided by Inkscape (v0.91) include RGB, HSL, CMYK, Wheel and CMS. When working with the Filters menu, if you come across a filter that seems to have no impact on the object. First remove the filter from the object, ‣Filters ‣‣Remove Filters (Alt S, R. Open the Fill and Stroke Menu and use the HSL (hue, saturation, and lightness (or luminosity)) model tab, then under the lightness (L) setting try middle 128 to high 255 values. Some of the filters are dependent upon an object's lightness and when an object is too dark the filters seems to not work correctly. Contrasting (opposite) colors are very easy to select when using the Color Wheel. The color wheel has two edit icons, one lies on the outer wheel and is a straight line, the other edit icon is a circle that lies within the inner triangle. The triangle has 3 main color edit corners, the corners are full white, full black and full color (no white/black). The inner triangle circle edit (position) sets the color's darkness, lightness or neutrality (middle of triangle). Blur and Opacity, posted at the bottom of the fill and Stroke dialogue are two often overlooked edits, these two color edits impact both the fill and the stroke. The Blur % edit provides 0.0 based increments from 0.0 to 100.0, with a default of 0.0. When working with blurs it is a good idea to set the Zoom to 100% (1 Shortcut to Zoom level of 100%). The Opacity (transparency) setting is similar to the color models "Alpha" setting, the difference is that the Opacity is applied to the entire (fill/stroke) object. A setting of 0% and the color is completely gone. One of the most used 0% settings is in the default creation of gradients, one gradient stop at Opacity 100% (full color) and the other stop set to no color (Opacity 0%). Having trouble with an objects coloring? Open this dialogue and look at three edits Blur, Opacity the Alpha settings. The alpha setting is common among all of the color models (i.e., RGB, HSL, CMS, etc...). During some, not all, of the thousands of color edits a given object's fill and or stroke will have a alpha value or opacity % of 0 assigned. Going to this menu allows one to see both the alpha (fill or stroke) opacity (fill and stroke) settings under one dialogue and set them to 255 (alpha) and 100% (opacity). Interface Path Drawing Tools