editing gradient mesh on fill vs stroke
Hi Friends, I was just about to make a bug report, because it looked like as soon as I applied a gradient mesh to a stroke, it would break the mesh I had just applied on the fill (and vice versa). But at the last minute before I posted, I noticed some buttons on the control bar that I had not noticed before. Why do we have to click a special button to be able to edit the mesh? Why can't we just select the object and edit, like with everything else in Inkscape? There must be some reason? I see that by clicking both buttons, and leaving them engaged, we have normal expected behavior. But I'm still curious why it's made like this. Also, I wonder if having both buttons enabled should be the default?
Thanks for comments, brynn
Brynn,
With mesh gradients it's possible (in fact, very easy) to get mesh nodes that sit on top of other nodes or handles, preventing them from being used. For example, create a rectangle and apply a gradient mesh to the fill. Now switch back to the rectangle tool and try to resize the rectangle using the handles at the top left or bottom right: you'll probably find that the nodes of the mesh get in the way. The only way to get to the resize handles, without moving the nodes, is to turn off their visibility via the buttons on the mesh tool toolbar.
Also, when dealing with objects that have a mesh on both the fill and the stroke, it can sometimes be useful to turn off the nodes for one or the other, in order to more clearly see what's happening, or to move nodes without them accidentally merging with nearby nodes of the other class.
Mark
On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 11:46 AM, brynn <brynn@...3089...> wrote:
Hi Friends, I was just about to make a bug report, because it looked like as soon as I applied a gradient mesh to a stroke, it would break the mesh I had just applied on the fill (and vice versa). But at the last minute before I posted, I noticed some buttons on the control bar that I had not noticed before. Why do we have to click a special button to be able to edit the mesh? Why can't we just select the object and edit, like with everything else in Inkscape? There must be some reason? I see that by clicking both buttons, and leaving them engaged, we have normal expected behavior. But I'm still curious why it's made like this. Also, I wonder if having both buttons enabled should be the default?
Thanks for comments, brynn
Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
Hi Mark, Thanks for the info :-) When I follow your instructions - rectangle, mesh, back to rect tool - the mesh nodes are not visible when I switch to Rect tool. As I recall, there is a way to keep the gradient nodes visible and editable with the Node tool and a few other tools. But I don't have those options enabled. So that would be a way to access the shape handles, without turning off the mesh nodes.. As far as fill nodes and stroke nodes getting confused, on the canvas where I was working, the fill and the stroke are on different objects. They aren't even on top of each other.....well, maybe they have a slight overlap 5 or 10 px approx. The problem is I select the stroke object, and it has no nodes. I have to go for that button, even though there's no real reason for it to be turned off. Then I select the fill object, and now it has no nodes. At first, I thought I could leave the buttons enabled and have the expected behavior. But they seem to disable themselves when the other one is selected. So that's quite frustrating. Of course I can see when it's all the same object, how they can get confused. I wonder if there would be some way for Inkscape to detect if the stroke and fill are on the same object or not?
Thanks again, brynn
-----Original Message----- From: Mark Crutch Sent: Monday, February 13, 2017 4:47 AM To: Inkscape User Community Subject: Re: [Inkscape-user] editing gradient mesh on fill vs stroke
Brynn,
With mesh gradients it's possible (in fact, very easy) to get mesh nodes that sit on top of other nodes or handles, preventing them from being used. For example, create a rectangle and apply a gradient mesh to the fill. Now switch back to the rectangle tool and try to resize the rectangle using the handles at the top left or bottom right: you'll probably find that the nodes of the mesh get in the way. The only way to get to the resize handles, without moving the nodes, is to turn off their visibility via the buttons on the mesh tool toolbar.
Also, when dealing with objects that have a mesh on both the fill and the stroke, it can sometimes be useful to turn off the nodes for one or the other, in order to more clearly see what's happening, or to move nodes without them accidentally merging with nearby nodes of the other class.
Mark
On Sat, Feb 11, 2017 at 11:46 AM, brynn <brynn@...3089...> wrote: Hi Friends, I was just about to make a bug report, because it looked like as soon as I applied a gradient mesh to a stroke, it would break the mesh I had just applied on the fill (and vice versa). But at the last minute before I posted, I noticed some buttons on the control bar that I had not noticed before. Why do we have to click a special button to be able to edit the mesh? Why can't we just select the object and edit, like with everything else in Inkscape? There must be some reason? I see that by clicking both buttons, and leaving them engaged, we have normal expected behavior. But I'm still curious why it's made like this. Also, I wonder if having both buttons enabled should be the default?
Thanks for comments, brynn
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot _______________________________________________ Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Check out the vibrant tech community on one of the world's most engaging tech sites, SlashDot.org! http://sdm.link/slashdot
_______________________________________________ Inkscape-user mailing list Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user
Brynn,
When I follow your instructions - rectangle, mesh, back to rect
tool - the mesh nodes are not visible when I switch to Rect tool. As I recall, there is a way to keep the gradient nodes visible and editable with the Node tool and a few other tools. But I don't have those options enabled. So that would be a way to access the shape handles, without turning off the mesh nodes..
You're right - there's a checkbox in the preferences of the Node tool to turn on/off gradient editing. I don't know if it's enabled by default, but I don't recall ever changing that setting. The fact that I didn't know about it until you mentioned it suggests that I probably haven't.
I wonder if there needs to be two or three checkboxes though. I don't mind having the handles for linear and radial gradients visible in Node mode, as they're rarely positioned over the normal editing handles in the drawings I create. Mesh handles, on the other hand, always end up getting in the way. I would prefer to be able to leave the handles enabled for linear and radial, but have them disabled for meshes. Time to file a feature request...
Mark
participants (2)
-
brynn -
Mark Crutch