Inkscape Book Review : Inkscape Explained : Poised Solutions Library

The Book of Inkscape Book Review

The Book of Inkscape

Author:: Dmitry Kirsanov
Publisher:: No Starch Press
Published:: 2009
Pages:: 448

The Book of Inkscape

The Book of Inkscape Chapters

Inkscape and the World
- What Vector Graphics is and Why it Matters
- What Can You Do with Inkscape?
- Sources of Inkscape Art
- A Brief History of SVG
- Inkscape and its Competition
  - Adobe Illustrator
  - CorelDRAW
  - Xara
  - ... and Inkscape
- The Life of an Open Source Application
An Inkscape Primer
- Installing Inkscape
- Inkscape's 'Hello World!'
- Interface Overview
- Panning and Zooming
- Creating Objects
- Selecting
- Transforming
- Styling
- Saving and Exporting
- A Final Example
Setting Up and Moving Around
- Preferences
  - Inkscape Preferences
  - Document Properties
- Document Templates
- Keyboard Setup
- Page Setup
  - Document Units
  - Background
  - Page Size
- Instances, Documents, Views
- The Document Window
  - Window Geometry
- Dialogs
- Basic Zooming
- The Zoom Tool
- Panning
- Rendering Modes
Objects
- Object Properties
- the Bounding Box
- Z-Order
- Copying, Cutting, Pasting and Duplicating
- Groups
  - Use of Grouping
  - Groups and Z-Order
- Layers
  - Layer Hierarchy
  - The Layer Menu
  - The Current Layer Indicator
  - The Layers Dialog
- The XML Editor
Selecting
- The Selection Cue
- Selection and the Status Bar
- Subselection
- Selecting by Clicking: The Selector
- Selecting by Clicking: Other Tools
- Adding to a Selection
- Selecting with the Rubber Band
- Touch Selection
- Selecting Objects from Underneath
- Selecting in Groups
- Selecting with Keyboard Shortcuts
- Finding Objects
- Following Links
- Deselecting
- Selection Miscellany
Transforming
- The Selector: Moving
- The Selector: Scaling
- The Selector: Rotating and Skewing
- Center of Rotation
- Transforming with Keyboard Shortcuts
  - Moving
  - Scaling
  - Rotating and Flipping
- Transforming with Numbers: X, Y, W and H
- The Transform Dialog
  - The Move Tab
  - The Scale Tab
  - The Rotate Tab
  - The Skew Tab
  - The Matrix Tab
- Pasting Sizes
- Transforming with the Tweak Tool
- What Transformations Affect
Snapping and Arranging
- Guidelines
  - The Guideline Dialog
  - Guideline Properties
  - Guides from Objects
- Grids
  - Grid Options
- Snapping
  - The Snap Controls Bar
  - Bounding Box Snapping
  - Node and Handle Snapping
  - Snapping Preferences
- Aligning
- Distributing
  - Randomizing, Unclumping, and Removing Overlaps
  - Arranging Objects in a Table
Styling
- Style Fundamentals
- Color Models
- The Palette
- The Selected Style Indicator: Paint Commands
- The Selected Style Indicator: Color Gestures
- The Dropper Tool
  - Sampling
  - Assigning
  - Opacity
- Color Tweaking
  - Color Paint
  - Color Jitter
  - Channels
  - Usage Notes
- Color Extensions and Filters
Stroke and Markers
- Stroke Width
- Join
- Caps
- Dash Patterns
- Markers
  - Mid Markers and nodes
  - Coloring Markers
  - Creating New Markers
  - Markers Miscellany
Gradients and Patterns
- The Gradient Tool
  - Linear Gradients
  - Elliptic Gradients
- Gradient Definition
  - Sharing Gradient Definitions
- Gradient Repeat
- Handles
  - Selecting
  - Painting
  - Moving, Merging, and Snapping
- Multistage Gradients
  - Creating Middle Stops
  - Moving Middle Stops
- Transforming Objects with Gradients
- Gradient Tips and Examples
- Patterns
  - Creating Patterns
  - Editing Patterns
  - Stock Patterns
Shapes
- Shape Tools
  - Shape Parameters
  - The Style of New Shapes
- Rectangles
  - Sizing
  - Rounding
- 3D Boxes
  - Why Use 3D Boxes?
  - Drawing
  - Perspective and Vanishing Points
  - Handles
  - Styling
- Ellipses
  - Drawing
  - Handles
- Stars and Polygons
  - Drawing
  - Handles
  - Rounding
  - Randomizing
- Spirals
Editing Paths
- The Anatomy of a Path
  - Subpaths
  - Filling Paths
  - Stroking Paths
  - Bezier Curves
- Boolean Operations
- Simplifying
- Offsetting
- The Node Tool
  - Path Display
  - Selecting Nodes
  - Deleting and Creating Nodes
  - Joining and Breaking
  - Node Types
  - Moving Handles
  - Moving Nodes
- Path Tweaking
  - Width and Force
  - Fidelity
  - Push Mode
  - Shrink / Grow Mode
  - Attract / Repel Mode
  - Roughen Mode
Path Effects and Extensions
- Path Effects
  - How Path Effects Work
  - The Path effect Editor Dialog
  - Pattern Along Path and Bend
  - Stitch Sub-Paths
  - Knot
  - Sketch
  - Spiro Spline
  - Envelope Deformation
  - VonKoch
- Dynamic and Linked Offsets
- Path Extensions
Drawing
- The Pen Tool
- The Pencil Tool
- The Calligraphic Pen Tool
  - Width
  - Angle
  - Caps
  - Tremor, Wiggle, and Mass
  - Calligraphic Presets
  - Adding and Subtracting
  - Tracking a Guide Path
- The Paint Bucket Tool
  - Filling Techniques
  - Filling by Channel
  - Threshold
  - Growing and Shrinking
  - Closing Gaps
  - Style
Text
- Basic Editing
  - Selecting
- Text Object Types
  - Regular Text
  - Flowed Text
  - Text on a Path
- Text Layout
  - Direction
  - Alignment
  - Kerning
  - Letter Spacing and Line Spacing
- Styling Text
  - Non-Text Style Properties
  - Fonts and Variants
  - Font Size
- Text Extensions
- Spellcheck
  - Special Characters
- Converting Text to Path
Clones
- Creating a Clone
- Transforming Clones
- Styling Clones
- Chaining Clones
- Unlinking and Relinking Clones
- Tiling Clones
  - Size and Bounding Box
  - Symmetry
  - Shift, Scale and Rotation
  - Blur and Opacity
  - Color
  - Tracing
Filters
- Blur
  - Blur and Transformations
  - Tweaking for Blur
- Blend Modes
- Preset Filters
- The Filter Editor Dialog
  - The Filters List
  - The Stack of Primitives
  - The Parameters of a Primitive
  - The Filter Area
- Filter Rendering Options
- Exporting Filters to PS and PDF
Bitmaps
- Import
- Linking vs Embedding
- Bitmap as Pattern
- Clipping and Masking
- Retouching and Patching
- Bitmap Filters
- Bitmap Effects
- Tracing
  - Manual Tracing
  - The Trace Bitmap Dialog
- Bitmap Export
  - The Export Bitmap Dialog
  - Exporting via the Command Line
  - Icon Preview
  - Make a Bitmap Copy
- Color Management
  - ICC Color Profiles
  - Screen Proofing
  - Separating and Embedding
Tutorial: Designing a Business Card
Tutorial: Creating an Animation
Tutorial: Drawing a 3D Correct Cartoon
Tutorial: Artistic Drawing
Tutorial: Technical Drawing
Tutorial: The Rose