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Inkscape for Mac
by Victor Domingos 05 Jun '07

05 Jun '07

I have just tried MacPorts and I found an interesting thing. With MacPorts, Inkscape displays correctly the Portuguese localization. However, this version has a drawback in the fact that it has no support to drag-and-drop. With the official Inkscape.app, I am able to drag svg files into the inkscape icon in the Dock, and it open the file to me... Victor Domingos http://lojamac.com/blog

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Re: [Inkscape-user] greyscale to sepia?
by Tony Vigil 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

I tried something very similar a couple weeks ago and got a very decent effect. Here's what I did... 1) Import image 2) Create a sepia colored rectangle and move to the bottom 3) Duplicate the image and the rectangle 4) Change the new rectangle's color to white 5) Mask the white rectangle with the new image 6) Move the masked rectangle below the original image 7) Set the opacity of the original image to 75% In most cases, it would probably be much easier to just break out the image editor and do the work there. - Tony ----- Original Message ---- On Mon, Jun 04, 2007 at 11:35:35AM -0400, John R. Culleton wrote: > Have a background image for a book cover that is grayscale. It > resembles, and may have been taken from, an old engraving. > I imported it from a jpg file. > > It would be nice to have it in sepia like an old time photo. Is there > a way to tint it in Inkscape? Create two rectangles the same size as the image. Make one sepia coloured, put it behind the image, and then set the image as the rectangle's mask. Then make the other rectangle black and put it behind the first rectangle. I tested this briefly on a silhouette-against-sky image I had handy, and it seemed to work but I wasn't very happy with the result: it made the lights far too sepia-ish and the black too black, but you could probably get better results by tweaking the colours a bit. It seems like you're using the wrong tool for the job, though. Using one of the Gimp colour tools, or one of its scripts, would give you much more flexibility about adapting to the contrast in the input image and jiggling the range of colours in the output.

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The death of PyXML
by Aaron Spike 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

PyXML died a neglectful death a ways back now. I failed to notice. And I was too much in denial to listen to the many many kind individuals who tried to tell me. We've been relying on PyXML for the python extensions. Now we need to replace it. I'm sure anyone who has ever worked with extensions will be happier when it is gone. The major requirements I can think of are: - Unicode support - Excellent namespace handling - Excellent XPath support (more than just basic support, many XPath features are too useful to be without) - documentation for new extension devs - in distribution or easy to obtain anything else? If I was left to my own devices and I had to do something right now, I would start with LXML. (Not a big vote of confidence that the front page of the website is offline http://codespeak.net/lxml/ check the google cache :-)) LXML uses the ElementTree api as much as possible, this API is coming standard with python 2.5 so I expect people will be getting familiar with it. It is a wrapper around libxml2 so it has a lot of power behind the scenes (adds things like xpath and xslt support). I'm not sure how things sit with the easy to obtain issue, but there are binaries available for win32. Not sure about OSX. And everyone on linux compiles everything anyway. :-) Aaron Spike

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selection problem
by Georg P. Israel 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Dear All, it seems that I have from time to time the problem that I can't select my drawing objects anymore! Just for your information, I am using Inkscape Version 0.45.1 on M$ Windows XP. I can double click on them, but nothing gets selected. The only way to select them is by opening the XML tree viewer and selecting the item there. Does anybody know how to overcome this issue?? Best regards Georg P. Israel

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Re: [Inkscape-user] How to achieve a "reverse mask" function?
by Valerie VK 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

> I see how useful this would be, but I think you're out of luck because > this > behaviour is defined by the SVG standard, not Inkscape. ... oh. :'( Thanks! I guess I'll have to do things the hard way. ____________________________________________________________________________________ Boardwalk for $500? In 2007? Ha! Play Monopoly Here and Now (it's updated for today's economy) at Yahoo! Games. http://get.games.yahoo.com/proddesc?gamekey=monopolyherenow

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Using Inkscape for webdesign
by Victor Domingos 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

What I really miss in Inkscape, in order to make it a great tool for webdesign, is an easy way to make a split bitmap, with custumized slices. Similar to what we can find in ImageReady or Fireworks. I believe that some Gimp builds also have a feature like that, called Web-o--tine, but in GIMP there seems to be a little flexibility in slice creation. Is there any feature like that in the current development roadmap for Inkscape? Victor Domingos http://lojamac.com/blog

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Printing a big SVG in a moosaic of pages
by Alberto Simões 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hi I have a big SVG (a big graph rendered by GraphViz) and I would like to print it. It doesn't fit an A4 or A3 page. I tried to convert the postscript generated by GraphViz to a PDF file, and I get it cropped because it doesn't fit the bigger page supported by GhostScript (A0). Thus, I would like to create a moosaic of A4 or A3 pages from inkscape. Inkscape loads the svg file quite well, and I can scale it to fit the paper I want, but there isn't a simple method (that I know) to fit the SVG file into, say, 3 A4 pages (one in top of the others). Is there any easy solution? Thank you Alberto -- Alberto Simões

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How to achieve a "reverse mask" function?
by Valerie VK 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Currently masks works like this: - white areas are left opaque - black and transparent ones become invisible - greys are in-between What -I- would like to achieve is the following: - white And transparent areas are left opaque - blacks are invisible - greys are in-between To achieve that effect with the current mask, I have to make a white object big enough to cover the whole object I want to work with. And this becomes cumbersome to work with because I either end up having to hide (cover) the whole object with the "mask" first (before applying) or on the contrary, move the mask underneath where it's harder to see and edit. In bitmap programs this isn't a problem because you can access a mask or quick mask mode separately and fill the whole thing up. You can't easily fill a whole layer with Inkscape though. Do the rest of you know of any work around? Is there some magic place where by-chance, I can just click a "Mask behavior: leave transparent areas opaque" option? Because that would be really handy. Possible applications: - making easy editable "holes" in objects, including textures for laces and such. - blurring edges at selective areas (and not the whole part). I want to try to achieve a vector fur effect this way. I've seen a few CGs where fur effect looks like vector in most parts, but some selected tips are blurred. If this option really doesn't exist, are there any plans to implement that "Mask behavior: leave transparent areas opaque" option I've mentioned? Pretty please? ____________________________________________________________________________________ Be a better Heartthrob. Get better relationship answers from someone who knows. Yahoo! Answers - Check it out. http://answers.yahoo.com/dir/?link=list&sid=396545433

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Node edit tool for multiple objects
by Stathis Sideris 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Hello all, I think that one of the very few things that Illustrator does better in comparison to Inkscape is that fact that its node edit tool allows editing the nodes of multiple objects at the same time. I think the procedure is: select multiple objects with object select tool, switch to node select tool, select nodes from separate objects, move. I do realise that doing a "Combine" on the objects would allow me to edit their nodes in such a way, but this involves 2 extra steps (Combine/Break apart). If this functionality is added to the node edit tool, it may make sense to have a switch (checkbox) to determine whether to limit it to one object editing or multi-object editing. Or a related theme, there is no way to scale/rotate a subset of the nodes of an object in Inkscape (rather than rotating/editing the whole object). Does anyone else think that those things would be useful? Stathis

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Re: [Inkscape-user] forum?
by Valerie VK 04 Jun '07

04 Jun '07

Aye caramba! We're still on about this forum thing? Well... here are my two cents: Mailing list: It has the advantage of grouping everything together, but it's bad at fostering the "artistic" side because of its limited multimedia support and besides, lots of people find mailing lists to be hard to navigate. And bland. XD Wiki: I'm under the impression that wikis would not be the best for fostering an "interactive" community, but I admit I'm biased because I rarely use wikis except to find information (and not to interact with other people). Povray: I have even Less idea how Povray's community works. After the first hour spent over the manual (time needed to get how to get a sphere in Povray), I had decided that it was easier to draw people manually. XP Galleries: Opencanvas, as I've previously said, managed to get much exposure thanks to its art-based community, but this would not likely be appropriate for Inkscape. However, I think it would be nice if Open Clipart took on a more advanced gallery interface, a bit like Deviantart and co: Creative Common or not, someone who registers would be more likely to contribute if they were filling up "their" gallery (and can get feedback on top of that), and tagging would allow easing search and browsing. There could be entire downloadable "collections" too. On top of that, if it has a big "We recommend Inkscape" (or something in those lines) at the front, so much the better for Inkscape's visibility. No offense, but, I currently do not "get" Open Clipart's interface at all. XD In Deviantart and co by contrast, people browse and submit work practically without thinking. Blogs: Actually, I'd see a few advantages to a blog-based community. How many of you know how blog Communities work? Here's an example from the top of my head: http://community.livejournal.com/icon_tutorial If an Inkscape livejournal community were to be made for example, it'd present the following advantages: - it's as cohesive as mailing lists, really. You only have to check one place. - and for peple who already have their livejournal accounts, when they join, the community posts appear on their "Friends" list, so it's even more accessible to them - there are quite a number of people with their own blogs etc, so they'd be able to join "easily" - people can post questions, tutorials, thoughts and tips much like on the mailing list, albeit with a slightly nicer interface that allows images and such - either the users or a moderator would help "tag" the entries for easy future reference from the "Favorites" section or the "Tutorials (compilation)" section or the "Frequently asked questions" section, all easily accesible from the left bar - the only thing really is that unlike forums, threads can't be "bumped", but with the tagging it shouldn't be much problem. Besides, how often do "very old" topics resurface, anyway? Also, you'd have to revisit a topic to see any new comments, unless you're the one who started it. In practice though, it's not That much a hassle. - some people might also feel a certain reluctance to creating an account, but it's not much more work than signing up to a mailing list or to a forum, really. It's basically a mailing list's cohesiveness with many of a forum's presentation. I'm subscribed to both a few forums and a few livejournal communities of the similar categories, and livejournal communities (I admit, I know little of Blogspot and others) are indeed more cohesive and intimate so to say. Forums are better when the size of the community goes over the top, but blogs can be a good starter. Of course, I'm biased towards something I'm familiar with, but maybe the above explains a few things. In the future, I'd also suggest a more advanced "tutorial" section on the main page (and not just accessible through the wiki. I mean... geez). There are two things I think Inkscape does Very right in regards to documentation: 1. Include a number of tutorials on the basics in the very releases. Those are lifesavers. 2. Include screenshots. I give the Inkscape screenshots section 2 thumbs up because they're Really good at showing off Inkscape's capabilities. Where the suggested tutorial section is concerned, I'd propose advanced tutorials with a nice big-enough preview for advanced styles as well as simpler ones. Categories would include: - make a photorealistic car - make a photorealistic person - various other art styles - advanced technical blueprints (or whatever) - setting up a whole set of icons for webpage usage - the works This would be similar to what Corel Painter does, which is the great thing it does with Its documentation. Painter's documentation basically gives advanced painting tutorials by advanced artists. Inkscape may or may not have such advanced artists willing to contribute for now, but these will be good for exposure when available because when a user browses the webpage, as soon as they see these they'd go "This is what Inkscape is capable of. This is what -I- may be capable of, if I follow these tutorials." Sold! If the examples offered in the tutorials are good enough, the "wow" effect would be as nearly great as an advanced user gallery section with favourites etc. A section underneath would provide smaller tips for various effects. Anyway, those are my 2 cents. ___________________________________________________________________________________ You snooze, you lose. Get messages ASAP with AutoCheck in the all-new Yahoo! Mail Beta. http://advision.webevents.yahoo.com/mailbeta/newmail_html.html

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