Thanks again for replying!

    > We have both stroke and fill, would it be okay in these cases to only
    > display the stroke?

I would agree that the stroke is what matters with these tools, but maybe that would not be fair to the user or the abilities of these tools, I think. I am sending a roughly updated sketch. Opinions?

    > Basically we've rolled our own xpm, so we can do what we like. And even
    > with the current color indicators it already uses an alpha channel.

Great! Thanks for the info.

    > So, I wanted to ask... or suggest... Can we do the same in Inkscape and
    > use svg instead xpm? While still using the tool-cursor-color indicators,
    > of course ;)...

    > Hmm... My personal feeling would be that I want my cursor to really be
    > as barebones as possible and while previewing the color can be useful,
    > letting the full power of svg loose on our cursors seems like a bad
    > idea. Even now I purposefully opted to just only support for painting
    > with fill and stroke, and not all colors of the rainbow.

The rainbow! :) Hehehe! As soon as I read it, a 'Rainbow Tool' went thru my head! Exactly what we always needed! :) LOL! Just kidding! Just kidding.

But seriously, thank you very much for your explanation! The reason I asked about SVG is to see if some of the user-interaction-scenarios I have done before in my research, could be implemented in Inkscape. Most of those have solid research data to support them as useful and effective, and I was thinking, why not ask? :)
So, how to put that 'SVG' power to a good purpose? Besides the colors and bling you mentioned ;) (I am afraid I am not skilled with the 'bling' at all). So far, I have managed to filter just a few simple examples. They are very, very rudimentary, but I would like to know if any of you think it could be useful, and of course, your own ideas…
thanks in advance!

-Inkscape Accessibility.
Some of us can't see as good as others can. Using vectors, we can provide an ability to scale the cursor so that people with 'not-perfect-sight' can be happier with the Inkscape, enjoy and be creative! Scalable cursors and tool icons, might not be a huge bump in the accessibility, but would be a good and friendly step forward.

-Icons with deeper meaning.
What we did with the introduction of the color on the cursor is simply telling the user what's the color at the time of use. This approach could be even smarter.
a) For example, imagine that you look at the *toolbar* and see: that all the shape icons have red fill and black stroke. That gives the user 2 advantages:
1. to know in advance the color of the shapes.
2. to streamline workflow a little based on that knowledge. e.g. purposefully clicking first on the palette to change the fill color to green…
Already existing functions in Inkscape provide a lot of choices to implement with the icons. Of course, a good survey would show which ones are really good, if any. ;)

b) Dynamic tool icon
For example, a tool cursor icon, that changes appearance depending on the Tablet pressure, angle, speed or inclination. This would be nice for some, don't you agree?

-Even more 'bareboney' cursors ;)
Human perception tests show, that a small, high contrast, pixelated image demands more attention than smoother, antialiased one. Antialiased is also more (better?) readable than a jagged one. In practice, comparing 2 icons of the same size, one jagged and one AAliased, the AAliased one seems to work better.
…

there. Not sure if SVG is necessary for any of these. If you have any comment, please tell me. Thank you.
Alex

..now about that 'rainbow tool' ;)...