Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Overview of this book

Inkscape is an open source vector graphics editor with an intuitive user interface that has enough depth to make quality graphic designs with an attractive layout comparable to what you would make using Illustrator or CorelDraw. But choosing the right tool and the best approach to creating the desired effect can be challenging. Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook makes it super-easy for you to make your own vector-based graphics with the powerful Inkscape editor. Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook provides you with the latest recipes to quickly create scalable vector graphics. Recipes in this book teach you about some of the most useful time-saving features in Inkscape accompanied by a list of keyboard shortcuts that you can easily memorize. In addition to covering use of Inkscape tools and their advanced features, examples from the recipes uncover solutions to common graphics problems. The book starts off with familiarizing you with the tools and techniques in Inkscape that you can use to draw 2D shapes, calligraphic shapes, and 3D boxes easily. It then guides you through the most common color-changing steps performed in Inkscape along with some convenient procedures that can save your time when dealing with colors. It explains drawing using linear and radial gradients, which are irreplaceable, usage of clones to create interesting effects in illustrations, and live-path effects that can help you speed up constructing a shape and make the process more natural. You will learn how to make those tweaks on some of the ready-made filters, and in the final recipe we will create a filter from scratch. This practical book also contains recipes showing how to use Inkscape as a raster editor and how to achieve photo-realistic effects in Inkscape. For each important technique and skill, you'll see some simple recipes, then some more advanced recipes followed by an explanation of how Inkscape works to produce the desired effects in your illustrations. By the end of this book you will be confident enough to create your own vector-based graphics with Inkscape.

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Credits

About the Authors

About the Reviewer

www.PacktPub.com

Preface

Free Chapter

Creating and Editing Objects

Introduction

Creating and editing 2D geometric shapes

Creating freehand and straight lines

Editing paths using the Node tool

Creating paths using the Pen (Bezier) tool

Creating smooth paths with Spiro Spline

Creating calligraphic shapes

Using the Eraser tool

Creating and editing 3D boxes

Creating and editing text

Clipping

Masking

Path operations

Editing Colors

Introduction

Changing fill and stroke color using a palette

Making objects partially transparent

Creating linear gradients

Recreating HAL 9000 using radial gradients

Patterns

Picking and assigning colors with the Dropper tool

Adjusting hue, lightness, saturation, and stroke width using Color Gestures

Different color icon sets using RGB Barrel

Speeding Up Your Workflow

Introduction

Autosaving documents

Designing plate rims using Layers

Geometric illusions using Grids

Creating a simple flashlight using Guides

Creating a stylized flower using Snapping

Leaflet design using Align and Distribute

Creating your own custom color swatches

Creating your own color palette

More time-saving tips

Importing drawings from OpenClipArt

Creating and Editing Clones

Introduction

Drawing clock dial markers using clones

Drawing a colorful grid of tiled clones

Changing icon colors using tiled clones

Drawing clock dial markers using tiled clones

Creating halftones using tiled clones

Creating a bokeh effect using tiled clones

Creating a kaleidoscopic pattern using tiled clones

Drawing a tree with cloned leaves using the Spray tool

Clipping with clones

Live Path Effects

Introduction

Bending paths

Using Pattern Along Path

Using Envelope Deformation

Interpolating sub-paths

Stitching sub-paths

Creating gears

Creating hatches (rough)

Generating VonKoch fractals

Extensions

Introduction

Setting Color Markers to Match Stroke

Using Whirl

Rendering 3D polyhedrons and wireframe spheres

Rendering barcodes

Rendering calendars

Using Render Grid, Cartesian Grid, and Polar Grid

Rendering spirographs

Rendering L-systems

Rendering functions and parametric curves

Rendering printing marks

Playing "connect the dots" with Number Nodes

Creating irregular edges

SVG Filters

Introduction

Blurring

Creating irregular edges using filters

Using lighting effects

Creating a red wax seal

Creating a brushed steel effect

Creating a water surface effect

Filtering all objects in a layer

Creating your own filter from scratch

Putting it All Together

Introduction

Creating a wallpaper

Exporting a wallpaper in different formats

Hatching over a photo using the Calligraphy tool

Creating a coloring book using the Paint Bucket tool

Rail sleepers using markers

Creating a woven straw mat

Assembling a modern chair using the 3D Box tool

Creating a flow chart using connectors

Raster and Almost Raster

Introduction

Exporting to PNG with different dpi

Importing raster images of different dpi

Isolating part of a raster image

Using raster extensions

Creating gradient meshes

Painting a mosaic using the Tweak tool

Tracing bitmaps

Manually tracing a red wax seal

Creating a photorealistic mobile phone

Web Graphics Preparation

Introduction

Creating "Aqua" style buttons

Creating a reflection effect

Creating curled stickers

Creating a golden award with a ribbon

Repeating backgrounds using Tiled Clones

Creating a button to use with the CSS Sliding Doors technique

Creating rollover images

Creating small icons and favicons

Creating a 960 Grid System template

Creating a web page mockup

Slicing a web page mockup for website use

SVG in Websites

Introduction

Creating an interactive map for a web game

Creating an editable business chart

Creating a navigation menu

Creating an interactive physics simulation

Creating a slideshow presentation with JessyInk

Draw Freely

Introduction

Compiling the document metadata

Command-line interface (CLI)

Compiling development builds on Linux

Modifying an existing extension - Darker extended

Creating an extension - object guides

Customer Reviews

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Creating calligraphic shapes

The Calligraphy tool comes with a lot of options to change the resulting shape as if we are changing how we use the calligraphic pen or we are using a different brush to create our objects. This recipe will introduce us to those options.

How to do it...

The following steps will show how to use the Calligraphy tool:

1. Select the Calligraphy tool (Ctrl + F6 or C) and create a wavy calligraphic object. Notice how the options from the toolbar affected the shape.
2. Increase the Width: to 70 and Thinning: to 85 and create another wavy object with a similar hand stroke like in step one.
3. Set Width: to 30 and Thinning: to 0 and create another similar shape but this time change the pen width by pressing the Left Arrow and Right Arrow in turns. Draw slowly to enhance the effect.
4. Create another wavy object but this time alternate between Home and End keys while drawing. This will abruptly change the pen width from minimum to maximum.
5. Set the Width: to 40 and alternate between the Up Arrow and Down Arrow keys while drawing. This will change the pen angle as we draw.
6. Set the Angle: back to 30, set Fixation: to 0, and Caps: to 3, and create another wavy object. Notice how the ends are capped.
7. Set the Tremor: to 40 and create another wavy object. Notice the irregular edges.
8. Set the Tremor: to 0 and Wiggle: to 80 and create another wavy object. Notice how the object shape doesn't strictly comply to our mouse movement.
9. Set Wiggle: to 0 and Mass: to 45 and create another object. Notice how drawing it feels slow. We have enough time to move the mouse in the desired direction creating smooth transitions.

There's more...

The Calligraphy tool can't be experienced fully without a hardware graphics tablet. If you have one, plug it in, configure it using the Input Devices... option under the File menu and have fun creating new and elaborate calligraphic shapes.

Erasing using Calligraphy tool

Holding Alt while creating calligraphic paths will work as an eraser on selected objects. This can be convenient when we need to quickly edit objects by trimming parts away because we can use all the calligraphy options or presets. Here is a very quick drawing of a star with the edges and insides treated with Wiggly preset while holding Alt to delete:

Calligraphy presets

Calligraphy tool comes with a set of presets we can use to achieve different calligraphy effects out of the box. Try them out and examine the toolbar settings to get an even better idea of how different settings can be combined.

Hatchings using Calligraphy tool

The Calligraphy tool can also be used to create hatchings; these are parallel, equidistant lines used to create patterns like those found in engravings. Select the path you want to track and hold the Ctrl key while tracking and moving to the next line to keep the path distances equal:

Changing calligraphy path colors

By default when a calligraphy object is created it remains selected, so if we want to change the color of the next object we first need to deselect the one we just created (Esc). If the workflow you like to use with the Calligraphy tool includes changing the object colors before the object is created, then deselect the option Select new path under Tools | Calligraphy in the Inkscape Preferences (Shift + Ctrl + P).

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Overview of this book

Related Content you might be interested in

Current Title:

Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook

Creating calligraphic shapes

How to do it...

There's more...

Erasing using Calligraphy tool

Calligraphy presets

Hatchings using Calligraphy tool

Changing calligraphy path colors

See also