The way I handle this is to make the shape, copy it and then use the copy to clip the shape. thus giving it half the line weight. These should be grouped together. when you scale this group, the line will scale but you can then set the weight to whatever you want by setting the line weight to 2 times what you want, as you now only see half.

On Thu, Jun 29, 2023 at 3:16 PM inkscape-user-request@lists.inkscape.org wrote:

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When replying, please edit your Subject line so it is more specific than "Re: Contents of Inkscape Users digest..."Today's Topics:

1. Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border (hc_hc_hc@126.com)
2. Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border (Philip Rhoades)

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: "hc_hc_hc@126.com" hc_hc_hc@126.com To: Alistair K alistair.kwan@gmail.com, "W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof." < robert.funnell@mcgill.ca> Cc: Alexandre Guglielmi alexandre.guglielmi@gmail.com, inkscape-user < inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org> Bcc: Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 08:06:34 +0800 Subject: [Inkscape-user] Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border I personally agree with you, It seems there isn't a proper way to setting the size of rect without stroke change.

Bright.

*From:* Alistair K alistair.kwan@gmail.com *Date:* 2023-06-29 04:45 *To:* W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. robert.funnell@mcgill.ca *CC:* Alexandre Guglielmi alexandre.guglielmi@gmail.com; inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org *Subject:* [Inkscape-user] Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border I agree. Inkscape’s convention follows that of pre-computer technical drawing in which the centre of the line is its position. The weight (what some call its thickness but, if you learnt technical drawing by hand, it’s also a consequence of the weight that you impress upon the pencil – though not so for ink; correctly positioning an ink pen is quite a skill) has no bearing on that.

If you wish to define a shape by its outside edge, it must have no line at all. Instead, you think of it as a polygonal frame. Being still cognitively anchored in my pencils, compasses, dividers, setsquares and so on, I instinctively think first to draw both outlines from scratch.

Robert’s solution is much better: it computes the inner boundary from the outer boundary, saving a great deal of work, and eliminating many opportunities for mistakes and inaccuracies.

I conceptualise the process as follows:

If you’re starting from scratch

1. Draw a closed path for the outer boundary polygon
2. OFFSET PATH for the inner boundary polygon
3. COMBINE the two paths into a single complex polygon with a hole
4. Set NO STROKE, and set FILL to simulate the stroke ink

If you have the centre line already drawn with a satisfactory stroke weight, then

1. Convert STROKE TO PATH
2. Resize so that the outer boundary is where you want it

The only difficulty is if you leave this until late in the process of constructing a complicated drawing. By then, the clutter can make it difficult to visually recognise the two polygons that you need to unite into one. I usually give my paths a semi-transparent fill, in a colour that I’m not otherwise using, to make it easier to tell them apart from the other drawing elements.

One more complication: iIf you do use lines of various weights, those may or may not scale with your drawing depending on your scaling settings. There are many situations, such as when preparing engineering and architectural drawings, in which the line weights communicate particular meanings so must not scale at all. Scaling, in these situations, is usually to make space for finer detail, or to fit the paper for physical printing. (In the old days, scaling could be done photographically, including during the blueprinting process.) I mention this in case the rationale helps to make Inkscape’s behaviour more predictable for you. Surprises, especially surprises that look completely arbitrary, can induce a lot of stress.

If you download a variety of vector art specimens, you’ll find that many of them use no line at all for these reasons. What looks like a line is actually a filled polygon, and that makes the image scalable.

Alistair

On 29/06/2023, at 3:57 AM, W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. < robert.funnell@mcgill.ca> wrote:

Alexandre -

I think that what you are looking for is a stroke that is inside the object boundary rather than centred on the object boundary. I believe that the former is not available in Inkscape and is not supported by the SVG standard. However, I think you can get the effect you want using Path > Inset, or Path > Dynamic Offset, or Path > Linked Offset, or Path > Path Effects + Offset. They provide different levels of control.

I'm not very familiar with these tools and don't know where the best documentation is. In playing with them I used various combinations of Edit

...

Copy & Paste In Place, Object > Raise & Lower, Path > Object to Path, and

Object > Fill and Stroke.

• Robert

---

*From:* Alexandre Guglielmi alexandre.guglielmi@gmail.com *Sent:* June 27, 2023 20:07 *To:* inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org *Subject:* [Inkscape-user] Keeping the Size and Changing the Border

Hi Folks!

How to maintain the external size of an object by changing its border thickness? Every time I change the border thickness, the object size automatically changes as well. This is really annoying, because I have to resize again...but in that case the border thickness changes too. So I'm going to repeat this boring procedure until I get it.

Thanks in advance

Alexandre Guglielmi Florianópolis - Santa Catarina - Brazil _______________________________________________ Inkscape Users mailing list -- inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org To unsubscribe send an email to inkscape-user-leave@lists.inkscape.org

---------- Forwarded message ---------- From: Philip Rhoades phil@pricom.com.au To: hc_hc_hc@126.com Cc: Alexandre Guglielmi alexandre.guglielmi@gmail.com, inkscape-user < inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org>, "W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof." < robert.funnell@mcgill.ca>, Alistair K alistair.kwan@gmail.com Bcc: Date: Thu, 29 Jun 2023 18:16:12 +1000 Subject: [Inkscape-user] Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border People,

I don't have anything of substance to contribute to this discussion except to say I find it really interesting conceptually! I have only ever been an occasional user of Inkscape over the years but have always much appreciated the huge effort that all you very talented people have put in to create this great program!

Regards,

Phil.

On 2023-06-29 10:06, hc_hc_hc@126.com wrote:

...

I personally agree with you, It seems there isn't a proper way to setting the size of rect without stroke change.

Bright.

...

From: Alistair K Date: 2023-06-29 04:45 To: W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. CC: Alexandre Guglielmi; inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org Subject: [Inkscape-user] Re: Keeping the Size and Changing the Border

I agree. Inkscape’s convention follows that of pre-computer technical drawing in which the centre of the line is its position. The weight (what some call its thickness but, if you learnt technical drawing by hand, it’s also a consequence of the weight that you impress upon the pencil – though not so for ink; correctly positioning an ink pen is quite a skill) has no bearing on that.

If you wish to define a shape by its outside edge, it must have no line at all. Instead, you think of it as a polygonal frame. Being still cognitively anchored in my pencils, compasses, dividers, setsquares and so on, I instinctively think first to draw both outlines from scratch.

Robert’s solution is much better: it computes the inner boundary from the outer boundary, saving a great deal of work, and eliminating many opportunities for mistakes and inaccuracies.

I conceptualise the process as follows:

If you’re starting from scratch

• Draw a closed path for the outer boundary polygon
• OFFSET PATH for the inner boundary polygon
• COMBINE the two paths into a single complex polygon with a hole
• Set NO STROKE, and set FILL to simulate the stroke ink

If you have the centre line already drawn with a satisfactory stroke weight, then

• Convert STROKE TO PATH
• Resize so that the outer boundary is where you want it

The only difficulty is if you leave this until late in the process of constructing a complicated drawing. By then, the clutter can make it difficult to visually recognise the two polygons that you need to unite into one. I usually give my paths a semi-transparent fill, in a colour that I’m not otherwise using, to make it easier to tell them apart from the other drawing elements.

One more complication: iIf you do use lines of various weights, those may or may not scale with your drawing depending on your scaling settings. There are many situations, such as when preparing engineering and architectural drawings, in which the line weights communicate particular meanings so must not scale at all. Scaling, in these situations, is usually to make space for finer detail, or to fit the paper for physical printing. (In the old days, scaling could be done photographically, including during the blueprinting process.) I mention this in case the rationale helps to make Inkscape’s behaviour more predictable for you. Surprises, especially surprises that look completely arbitrary, can induce a lot of stress.

If you download a variety of vector art specimens, you’ll find that many of them use no line at all for these reasons. What looks like a line is actually a filled polygon, and that makes the image scalable.

Alistair

...

On 29/06/2023, at 3:57 AM, W. Robert J. Funnell, Prof. robert.funnell@mcgill.ca wrote:

Alexandre -

I think that what you are looking for is a stroke that is inside the object boundary rather than centred on the object boundary. I believe that the former is not available in Inkscape and is not supported by the SVG standard. However, I think you can get the effect you want using Path > Inset, or Path > Dynamic Offset, or Path > Linked Offset, or Path > Path Effects + Offset. They provide different levels of control.

I'm not very familiar with these tools and don't know where the best documentation is. In playing with them I used various combinations of Edit > Copy & Paste In Place, Object > Raise & Lower, Path > Object to Path, and Object > Fill and Stroke.

• Robert

---

From: Alexandre Guglielmi alexandre.guglielmi@gmail.com Sent: June 27, 2023 20:07 To: inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org Subject: [Inkscape-user] Keeping the Size and Changing the Border

Hi Folks!

How to maintain the external size of an object by changing its border thickness? Every time I change the border thickness, the object size automatically changes as well. This is really annoying, because I have to resize again...but in that case the border thickness changes too. So I'm going to repeat this boring procedure until I get it.

Thanks in advance

Alexandre Guglielmi Florianópolis - Santa Catarina - Brazil_______________________________________________ Inkscape Users mailing list -- inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org To unsubscribe send an email to inkscape-user-leave@lists.inkscape.org

---

Inkscape Users mailing list -- inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org To unsubscribe send an email to inkscape-user-leave@lists.inkscape.org

-- Philip Rhoades

PO Box 896 Cowra NSW 2794 Australia E-mail: phil@pricom.com.au_______________________________________________ Inkscape Users mailing list -- inkscape-user@lists.inkscape.org To unsubscribe send an email to inkscape-user-leave@lists.inkscape.org