Inkscape Tips

Inkscape Basics

These are the basics you should understand in order to use Ink/Stitch. If you have never used Inkscape before, we recommend following an Inkscape tutorial before using Ink/Stitch.

Vectors

The items inside your Inkscape file are vector images, which use mathematical equations to define shapes. They are made up of points called nodes, and segments that connect the nodes. You can edit vector shapes by moving the nodes and changing the angles of the segments with the Node Tool, or by using Inkscape’s other tools. When you use the other tools, like stretching a shape with the Select Tool, Inkscape is actually editing many nodes at once behind the scenes.

A vector shape is closed when it makes a complete loop (like a circle or square) and every node connects to two others. A shape is open when it has two loose ends that don’t connect (like a spiral or straight line). The outline of a shape is called the stroke and the area inside a closed shape is called the fill.

Read more about how vectors work at Sketchpad.net

Drawing and Selecting

The icons along the left side of the window show all the tools for creating and interacting with your design. Inkscape has several tools for creating different kinds of objects, such as the Rectangle Tool (F4), Ellipse Tool (F5), Star Tool (*), Spiral Tool (F9), Pencil Tool (F6), and Text Tool (F8). Most of them are used by dragging across the canvas where you want to place the corners of your shape. Each drawing tool has unique options (shown in the Tool Controls bar above the canvas) that you can play around with to get different results. Learn more about creating Shapes, Paths, or Text at these links.

The top icon in the Toolbox panel is the Select Tool, which you can also activate by pressing F1. Click an object with the Select tool to drag it around the canvas and to display handles for transforming it. Clicking the object once shows handles for resizing it, and clicking it a second time switches to handles for rotating it. Hold down Shift to select multiple objects at once. You can also select many objects at once by dragging around them. Learn more about transforming objects here.

Another way to select objects is to open the Layers and Objects panel (Object > Layers and Objects... in the menu) and click on a name in the list. You can select objects this way no matter what tool is active.

In order to use a menu command on an object (e.g. to convert it to a path), you must select the object first.

Objects and Paths

An object is any piece of your file that you can manipulate individually. You can see a list of all the objects in your file by selecting Object > Objects... in the menu. Knowing how your objects are defined is very important to your embroidery files, so it’s a good idea to keep this window open when working with Ink/Stitch.

There are many types of objects in Inkscape, such as paths, rectangles, circles, polygons, spirals, and, text. Different tools create different types of objects, which each have different rules about how to work with them.

A path is the most basic representation of a vector shape: it is just a series of nodes and segments that describes the shape. Once a path has been made, you can only use basic tools to edit it, and it works the same way no matter what the path looks like. Other object types store the information about the shape in more specific way that allows you to change it easily. For example, after drawing a polygon object with the Star Tool, you can use the tool controls to quickly change the number of corners on the shape. If you drew the same shape as a path instead, you would need to manually move each point in order to add more corners. However, paths can be altered into any shape you like, whereas other types of objects have constraints on their shape.

Ink/Stitch can work with all kind of object, but still need text to be converted into object.

You can convert any object to a path by selecting that object (either by clicking on it with the Select Tool or clicking its name in the Objects panel) and then pressing Shift + Ctrl + C or selecting Path > Object to Path in the menu. Once it becomes a path, you can use the Node Tool to make precise changes to the points and curves.

Be careful when you convert objects to paths, because there is no way to convert paths back to objects. For this reason, you may want to duplicate your object first and convert the copy into a path, saving the original shape in case you decide that you want to edit it later.

Special objects are good for:

  • Text or simple geometric shapes
  • Changing the geometry of a whole shape
  • Starting point for a new design

Paths are good for:

  • Making precise changes to a small section of a shape
  • Drawing unique freehand shapes
  • Preparing your finished design for embroidery

You can check an object’s type in the description that appears in the status bar at the bottom of the screen when it’s selected. Note that you cannot tell whether something is a path by looking at its name in the Objects panel, because Inkscape gives names like “path1234” to circles and spirals as well as to actual paths.

Stroke and Fill

Bring up the Fill and Stroke panel by pressing Shift+Ctrl+F or selecting Object > Fill and Stroke... from the menu to control the color and style of a path’s fill and stroke. The exact color and style of your path are mostly irrelevant to the embroidery file, but you do need to know how to edit them because Ink/Stitch uses stroke style to determine what kind of stitch to use and inserts thread change prompts based on whether paths are the same color.

This panel is rather straightforward. For paths that Ink/Stitch will make into fill stitch areas, the Fill tab should be set to “flat color” (second square) and the Stroke Paint tab should have the X selected (first square). For all other kinds of stitch, select the X on the Fill tab and select “flat color” on the Stroke Paint tab. Use the Stroke Style tab to choose a solid or dashed stroke, depending on what kind of stitch you want.

Color can also be set using the palette at the bottom of the screen; click a color to use it for the fill or shift click to use it for the stroke.

Working with Paths

Use the second tool from the top, the Node Tool (also activated with F2), to directly edit the points and lines in a path. Select a path with the Node Tool to display markers on all of its nodes. These node markers can then be dragged around with the cursor, added, removed, and more. You will also see handles coming off each node, which you can drag to adjust the angles of the line segments. This tool only works on path objects, explained below–if you do not see gray points appear along the object after you select it, then it is not a path. Learn more about the Node Tool here.

Two important commands when preparing paths for Ink/Stitch are Combine (Ctrl+K or Path > Combine) and Break Apart (Shift+Ctrl+K or Path > Break Apart). For example, creating satin columns in Ink/Stitch requires two lines that are combined into one path. These commands don’t make any changes to the actual shape or to the nodes within a path; instead, they alter the way that Inkscape classifies it.

The Combine command takes all the paths currently selected and merges them into a single path object. Inkscape will now treat those paths as one unit for selecting and transforming. You can see in the Objects panel that the list contains fewer objects after a Combine. The result of combining is a compound path, which contains more than one line.

The Break Apart command takes a compound path and isolates each continuous line into a separate object. It splits up the compound path into as many separate paths as possible without deleting any segments. After using Break Apart, the Objects list will be longer.

There are other commands for combining or dividing the actual nodes in a path, in a way that changes the shape itself instead of just the way Inkscape manages it. Read about path operations here.

Layering

All objects in Inkscape are stacked on top of each other in a specific order. Ink/Stitch will use this order to determine what should be stitched first. You can view the order in the Objects panel (Object > Objects... in the menu). Ink/Stitch makes the path at the bottom of the list into the first instruction, and proceeds upward through the list. You can change the order by dragging around the names inside the Objects panel, or pressing Page Up and Page Down.

You can double click an object name to rename it, which may help you keep track of your layering. You will also see three icons to the left of each object name in this panel. Click the eye icon to hide something from view, and click the lock icon to prevent it from being edited.

Groups and layers can make it easier to manage your objects and their order. Once a group is formed, clicking one item in the group selects the entire group, allowing you to alter all elements of the group at once. To group objects together, select all of them with Shift+click, then press Ctrl+G or click Object > Group in the menu. The group also appears as a collapsible item in the Objects list, and objects can be moved in and out of the group (or from one group to another) by dragging them around the Objects panel. A group can contain other groups. However the safest way seems to be to Edit > Cut an object out of one group and then Edit > Paste it into another. You have to select an object in the destination group so that the pasted object goes into that group.

Layers function similarly to groups, but their main purpose is to more easily control how your objects are ordered. A new layer is created with the + button below the Objects list, or by pressing Shift+Ctrl+N. Objects can be moved from one layer to another by dragging in the Objects list, just like groups, but they can also be quickly moved to the layer above or below by pressing Ctrl+Page Up or Ctrl+Page Down.

Read more about layers in Roy Torley’s tutorial here.

General Inkscape Tutorials

Specific Tool Tutorials

Tracing an Image

You can convert a raster image (such as a JPEG or PNG) into a path by importing/pasting an image, then using Path > Trace Bitmap.... This is a finicky process that usually requires a lot of trial and error. It works best on images with hard edges and few colors.

Tiled Patterns

Create tiled patterns with Edit > Clone > Create Tiled Clones ....

Read more about Tiles on tavmjong.free.fr. Click through the table of contents, where you will find detailed information about all parts of the tiling dialog.

Path Editing Tools

Ornaments with Spiro
Line Shape

Tweak Tool

Spray Tool

Eraser

Live Path Effects