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Inkscape for mac lower object12/20/2023 People hit save with the expectation that they can continue their work later, but "saving" to a PNG (or similar) won't preserve your layers, paths, undo history, etc. * Only save XCF and export everything else - I was infuriated by that too at first but when you think about it it actually makes a lot of sense. Using i3 with multi-window Gimp is a recipe for frustration. * Multi-window interface, yeah, that's the first thing I change whenever I use a freshly installed Gimp. 1992, and most concepts and shortcuts still apply. How is this all intuitive to me? Well, I started with Corel Draw 3 ca. Shift+D brings you from a clone to the original. Explore clones: clone an object with Shift+D, mirror it with H or V, then try editing the original object. Re symmetries: look at the star tool (press asterisk). * Press space, click+drag: scroll the window.Ĭontext menus, accessible by right click, are your friends. * Space: Switch back to pointer from your current tool. * Shift+Ctrl+M: precisely transform things. * Shift+Ctrl+A: align and distribute things. * PgUp / Pgdn: move the object up / down in Z-order. * Ctrl+G: group selected objects, or ungroup a selected group. * Shift+Ctrl+F: fill / stroke dialog (if clicking on colors is not precise enough). * Cursor keys: move the selected object(s) by a small amount. When frustrated, press Esc, click the text, Shift+Ctrl+T, edit the text in a convenient dialog. Press F2 to move nodes and make segments curved. Click on places where you want nodes, press Enter to finish. * Line / polygon drawing tool (Shift+F6). * Rectangle (F4) and circle (F5) are good starting points for most things. Does different things to rectangles, circles, stars, by moving their control points. Click-drag on a path to change curvature, or click on nodes to move / edit them, or ctrl+click to add a node, or drag the spline handles. * Node pointer, the triangle, shortcut F2. Space bar switches between this tool and your other tools. Alt+click to select things under the object on top. Click-drag to select objects within a rectangle. Used to select, move, rotate, stretch objects. * An "object" is either a path, a constrained path (like a rectangle or a circle / arc), a bitmap, or a text, * A path has an outline (with color, line thickness, etc) and a fill (none, a flat color, or a gradient). * A "path" is a collection of nodes connected by Bezier splines nodes can connect them smoothly or in a cusp. While products like Adobe Illustrator are much more professional and powerful, you don't have to pay a dime for this open-source offering, and the included guide can get you up to speed rather quickly.Here's a crash concept guide to Inkscape for you. Bottom Lineĭespite its age, Inkscape for Mac still functions well and lets you produce usable content once you get comfortable with the interface and the available features. Fortunately you can change the shortcuts from the app's preferences. Unintuitive shortcuts: Inkscape for Mac comes with keyboard shortcuts that employ the Control button as the main trigger and will go against the muscle memory of everyone who is used to Mac keyboard shortcuts. To make matters even worse, you cannot rearrange your toolbars. For example, the layers are located on the status bar and are presented in a dropdown menu. Outdated interface: If you're already used to drawing tools like Illustrator or Photoshop, you will find the app a bit odd since various features are not where you expect them to be. The software is free of charge and can be downloaded separately by opening the X11 app on your Mac. X11 required: Since the software was built a long time ago, it requires additional software called X11 that no longer ships with OS X. Other supported formats include JPEG, PNG, BMP, TIFF, EPS, Postscript, etc. Multiple format support: The software's default format is SVG, which is very robust and has advanced capabilities like creating animated images.
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