Design Made Easy with Inkscape: A practical guide to your journey from beginner to pro-level vector illustration
- Length: 360 pages
- Edition: 1
- Language: English
- Publisher: Packt Publishing
- Publication Date: 2023-04-28
- ISBN-10: 1801078777
- ISBN-13: 9781801078771
- Sales Rank: #611286 (See Top 100 Books)
Discover quick and easy ways to make charts, diagrams, illustrations, and UX/UI mockups with end-to-end guidance using hands-on tutorials, tips, and tricks
Key Features
- Get up to speed with vector illustration in no time
- Explore hotkey charts and tips, with best practices developed over ten years of using Inkscape
- Learn the fundamentals of vector illustration and efficiently leverage Inkscape’s powerful toolset
Book Description
With the power and versatility of the Inkscape software, making charts, diagrams, illustrations, and UI mockups with infinite resolution becomes enjoyable. If you’re looking to get up to speed with vector illustration in no time, this comprehensive guide has got your back! Design Made Easy with Inkscape is easy to follow and teaches you everything you need to know to create graphics that you can use and reuse forever, for free!
You’ll benefit from the author’s industry experience as you go over the basics of vector illustration, discovering tips and tricks for getting professional graphics done fast by leveraging Inkscape’s powerful toolset. This book teaches by example, using a great variety of use cases from icons and logos to illustration, web design, and product design. You’ll learn about hotkeys and take a best-practices approach developed over ten years of using Inkscape as a design tool in production. What’s more, this book also includes links to free graphics resources that you can use in all your projects.
Whether you’re a new user or a professional, by the end of this book, you’ll have full understanding of how to use Inkscape and its myriad of excellent features to make stunning graphics for your projects.
What you will learn
- Understand the benefits of vector illustration and the reasons behind choosing Inkscape over other non-free alternatives
- Navigate the Inkscape setup and workspace to make effective use of the software
- Explore the wide range of tools from Inkscape to create amazing and infinitely scalable graphics quickly
- Use real-world scenarios and practice lessons to learn how to create by example
- Discover tips and tricks to make Inkscape an extension of your creativity
- Convert photos to vector art and practice with professional design examples as you work with layers, shading, coloring and much more
Who this book is for
This book is for aspiring designers, developers, and anyone who wants to leverage the power of Inkscape for vector illustration. No prior knowledge of graphics applications or vector and raster graphics is required. This book simplifies Inkscape for dummies; all you need to know is how to use a mouse and keyboard.
Design Made Easy with Inkscape Contributors About the author About the reviewer Preface Who this book is for Wait, why is Inkscape free? That’s cool, but why should I use Inkscape? What this book covers To get the most out of this book Download the example files Download the color images Conventions used Get in touch Share Your Thoughts Download a free PDF copy of this book Part 1: Finding Your Way Around Chapter 1: The Inkscape Interface Technical requirements Navigating the interface The Menu bar The Tool bar and Tool control bar The Desk and Page areas The Swatch Palette The color indicators The Layer Info Indicator The Status bar The Docking area and dialogs The Commands bar The Snap control bar The Display Transform Control Summary Chapter 2: Moving and Styling Shapes Technical requirements Introducing shapes in Inkscape Raster versus vector images Drawing your first shape Fill and Stroke Using the Select and Transform tool Selecting and deselecting individual shapes Selecting multiple shapes all at once Selecting everything Fancy selecting with the Alt key Selecting objects with the same attributes Invert selection Moving shapes Cutting, copying, pasting, and deleting shapes Resizing shapes Resizing the height and width values with the Select and Transform tool Resizing shapes with Paste Size Scaling styles Rotating shapes Raising and lowering shapes Grouping shapes Flipping shapes Summary Chapter 3: Drawing Shapes with the Shape Tools Technical requirements Inkscape’s object properties The Rectangle tool The Circle, Ellipse, and Arc tools The Polygon and Star tool The 3D Box tool The Spiral tool Try it yourself Summary Chapter 4: Automatic Shape Alignment in Inkscape Technical requirements The Align and Distribute dialog Text object alignment On Canvas Alignment Rearranging options Grid arranging shapes Circular arranging shapes Automatic spacing and alignment with Smart Snapping options Try it yourself Summary Chapter 5: Node Editing – Modifying Your Shapes with Nodes and Curves Editing shapes with the Node tool Adding and removing nodes Curve handles and node types Breaking and joining lines Drawing lines and shapes from scratch Line styles Classical drawing tools Advanced curves and line options Making brush strokes with Stroke Shape Try it yourself Summary Part 2: Advanced Shape Editing Chapter 6: Fast Shape Editing with Path Operations and the Shape Builder Tool Technical requirements What are Booleans? Exploring the Combine, Break Apart, Split Path, Fracture, and Flatten operations Exploring the Inset, Outset, and Dynamic Offset Path operations Fast Path operations with the Shape Builder tool Try it yourself Summary Chapter 7: Using Text in Inkscape Installing new fonts The Text tool Font collections The Text and Font dialog Understanding variable fonts Text on a curve Flowing paragraphs into shapes Check spelling and other handy tools Try it yourself Summary Chapter 8: Advanced Shading and Coloring Technical requirements The Gradient tool The Gradient Editor The Mesh Gradient tool Pattern Fills Using blur for complex shading Color blending with Blend modes Try it yourself Summary Chapter 9: Clips and Masks Technical requirements Clips and clipping groups Clips inside clips Masking with vector shapes and images Try it yourself Summary Chapter 10: Automation with Clones and Linked Files Technical requirements What is a clone? Cloning groups Clones as clips and masks Clone management using clones of clones Leveraging linked image files Try it yourself Summary Part 3: Inkscape’s Power Tools Chapter 11: Organization Using Layers Technical requirements What is a layer? Understanding the Objects and Layers dialog Organizing projects using groups and layers Layer transparency and Blend modes Cloning layers Try it yourself Summary Chapter 12: Live Path Effects Technical requirements What is a Path Effect, and why is it live? The Path Effects dialog Using Path Effects with single-path objects Using Path Effects with groups Stacking Path Effects Limitations of Path Effects Try it yourself Summary Chapter 13: Filters and Extensions Technical requirements Using filters Making custom filters Using extensions Try it yourself Summary Chapter 14: Vectorizing with Trace Bitmap Technical requirements What is Trace Bitmap? Vectorizing to black with the Single scan tab Vectorizing to color shapes Tracing parts of a bitmap with the Fill Bucket tool Try it yourself Summary Chapter 15: Document Properties, Pages, Exporting, and Printing Technical requirements The Document Properties dialog The Pages tool The Export dialog Save and export considerations Saving for printed magazine adverts Saving and exporting for email-friendly PDFs Exporting for the web Saving for CNC cutters and engravers Exporting for print-on-demand websites Printing Summary Index Why subscribe? Other Books You May Enjoy Packt is searching for authors like you Share Your Thoughts Download a free PDF copy of this book
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