5 Best Tips for Inkscape Beginners
So you’ve just opened Inkscape for the first time and you have no clue on how to do anything. You’ve come to the right place. We’ll be going over simple basics such as how to draw a line, how to change the color of objects, how to resize the Inkscape canvas, how to add a shadow, and even how to select an area.
1. How to Draw a Line
There are 2 main tools when it comes to drawing lines in Inkscape. You have the Pencil tool for freehand drawing, then the Pen tool for drawing straight lines and bezier curves.
2. How to Change Color
Step 1
Heading up to Object > Fill and Stroke will bring up one of the most important menus in Inkscape.
Step 2
Fill and Stroke has everything you need for changing colors. You’ll see a variety of ways to find colors for your fills, stroke, as well as stroke styles.
3. How to Resize the Canvas
If you need to change the canvas size in Inkscape, head up to File > Document Properties. You’ll find many options for resizing the canvas, including standard presets. Also, you’ll find that Inkscape has a ton of flexibility with different units of measure.
4. How to Add a Shadow
Step 1
The easiest way to add a shadow in Inkscape is to go to Filters > Shadows and Glows > Drop Shadow. Here, you can select an object and adjust your shadow settings to your liking. Also, make sure to check Live preview to make the process easier.
Step 2
When you’re all set, go ahead and click Apply to see your cool new shadows!
5. How to Select an Area
Step 1
Inkscape also has 2 different tools for selecting your objects. Below we have the Selection tool, where you have to click and drag an area that fully surrounds the objects in order for them to be selected (the purple star will not be selected in this case).
Step 2
The second tool is the Nodes tool, where you can select objects in the same manner, but also select individual nodes. This is better if you’re looking to alter the way objects look because of the ability to move or delete individual paths.
There’s the Basics
Since these are the most common Inkscape questions from beginners, I figured this would be an extremely quick and helpful guide for novice users. I hope you learned enough to get started in this fantastic software. Thanks for reading!
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About The Author
Aaron Nieze
I used to create digital educational courses for graphic design, but these days I mostly linger around here and share any cool tips and tricks I come across in Inkscape.
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I am new to Inscape, have done several tutorials, and found out some new things from your very basic one. So thank you for doing this for us “non-graphic-designer” people who just want to make some graphic designs. I am 76 years old, and am making some graphics for an event at my church.
Are drawing tablets compatible with inkscape?
I am very much new to Inkscape. Can you please guide, how to cut a circle or rectangle from a given picture.
LD, Anne etc,
Good vector drawing software has quite a learning curve. This applies to Illustrator, Xara and others. Inkscape is no different EXCEPT you don’t pay for it! Inkscape is a remarkably competent drawing package that stands comparison with the best. There is a lot of good tutorial material available – you just have to provide patience and effort.
Hello, can you tell me how to set the exact size Width: 2400 and Height: 3200 , DPI: 150 or 200 for a design in inkscape? I want to post on Teespring. Thanks!
I agree Anne, I can’t understand why anyone would want to use this insane software. Why would anyone want to work inside a tiny tiny workspace and then scale it up and have all your pieces scale up that you have out scale up too so you can’t see them. Then the colors , you have to run up and down this long scroll to pick colors. Ever heard of a freaking color wheel that fits in one small 1inch by 1 inch box. I think this software was built to discourage people and make those that know about actually working software that functions in a normal and logical way the only ones in the field. I’ll stay with my old software that actually works in an expected normal fashion with easy scaling, separate layers that are complete separate which is the idea. And defined workspace that scale easily without going through menus. IDIOTIC
Sounds like you had a bad experience with Inkscape. It certainly shouldn’t have been as frustrating as it seems. Hopefully you give it another shot sometime. Take care!
PS: “CTRL+Scroll” to Zoom. Object > Fill and Stroke > Fill > Wheel for your color wheel. Layer > Layers for layer management.
Re: There are 2 main tools when it comes to drawing lines in Inkscape. You have the Pencil tool
This is probably obvious once you know, but where is the “Pencil Tool”.
I don’t see it under any of the following pulldown menus:
* Edit
* Object
* Path
How to change pencil width BEFORE drawing a line?
Thank you for this tutorial! I was at a loss as to how to even begin! I followed along with each step, while reading this tutorial, and was able to get started with some designs! Thank you so much!
This was not helpful! I can’t lock anything on the canvas to work on. If I press a square, it will disappear as soon as I try to work on it. No image locks for me to work on therefore, it is useless! 🙁