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Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program, 3rd Edition
- By Tavmjong Bah
- Published Nov 6, 2009 by Prentice Hall.
- Copyright 2010
- Dimensions: 8-1/2 X 10-7/8
- Pages: 480
- Edition: 3rd
- Book
- ISBN-10: 0-13-705173-5
- ISBN-13: 978-0-13-705173-1
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Product Author Bios
Tavmjong Bah is a reformed physicist living in Paris whose writing about Inkscape combines his love for technology and culture. An active member of the community,Tav is a registered Inkscape developer and has quite a few patches to his credit. His nom-de-plume is the title granted to him by the paramount chief of the Nso, a Cameroonian people.
Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program, Third Edition, is the guide to the Inkscape program, with coverage of versions 0.46 and 0.47. This authoritative introduction and reference features hundreds of useful illustrations.With Inkscape, you can produce a wide variety of art, from photorealistic drawings to organizational charts. Inkscape uses SVG, a powerful vector-based drawing language and W3C web standard, as its native format. SVG drawings can be viewed directly in browsers such as Firefox and Opera. A subset of SVG has been adopted by the mobile phone market. Inkscape is available free for Windows, Macintosh, and Linux operating systems. Systematic coverage of the entire Inkscape program begins with eleven tutorials ranging in difficulty from very basic to highly complex.
The remainder of the book covers each facet of Inkscape in detail with an emphasis on practical solutions for common problems.The book is filled with valuable tips and warnings about the use of Inkscape and SVG. Find dozens of Inkscape illustrations from the book in the online color supplement available at http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/.
Updated for Inkscape v0.47, this new edition includes complete coverage of new features, including updated Pen and Pencil tools with new spiro, polyline, and sketch modes; the new Eraser tool; and the new Snapping toolbar with improved snapping. Advanced topics include the use of Inkscape’s powerful tiling tool, built-in bitmap tracing, and SVG use on the Web.
Complete Coverage of New and Improved Inkscape 0.47 Features
- Live Path Effects for tasks such as adding patterns along a path while maintaining complete editability
- Over 200 pre-built SVG filters for adding textures, manipulating color, and so forth
- A tiling tool to create complex tilings with thirteen different symmetries
- Clipping and Masking objects
- An integrated spell checker
- Built-in bitmap-to-vector tracing
- The ability to export to more than a dozen graphics formats, including PDF and PostScript
- The ability to import from more than two-dozen graphics formats, including PDF, Adobe Illustrator, Coral Draw, AutoCad, and XFig Graphics
- Complete vector drawing program supporting the W3C SVG standard
- Three path-drawing tools (Pencil, Pen, Calligraphy)
- Five shape-drawing tools (Rectangles, Ellipses, Stars, Spirals, 3D Boxes)
- Linear and Radial Gradients
- Pattern fills
- Tweak Tool for fine adjustment of paths and colors
- Eraser Tool with both Vector and Bitmap modes
- Sophisticated snapping for precision drawing and aligning objects
- Extendable through scripting; over a hundred scripts included
Related Article
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14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
A solid reference book, though not without downsides, By
This review is from: Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (Digital Short Cut) (3rd Edition) (Kindle Edition)
Actually, i have just read the 4th edition of this book in a digital format, which Amazon sadly lacks for sale for Kindle. The 4th edition has some improvements due to the new version of Inkscape being released since the 3rd edition were written, so i recommend using the newer book.At the time when i read the book i had no knowledge of Inkscape, and being only slightly familiar with other vector drawing software. The book offers information on all of Inkscape's tools and the basic use of them, but instead of just telling how they work the author starts out with tutorials which include using most of the tools, so you can get a feel of them. The tutorial are written assuming you will do them in particular order, thus the later ones are mentioning the thing you did in the previous ones, but aren't telling you how to do them all over again. I don't know why other reviwers had problem with this, i am myself are greatly annoyed by the contrary - when authors write out each step... Read more
20 of 22 people found the following review helpful
Not Very Comprehensive, By
Amazon Verified Purchase(What's this?)
This review is from: Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (3rd Edition) (Paperback)
This might be a good basic guide to Inkscape but it is not the comprehensive guide that was expected. It once again falls back on referring you back to a previous section when stepping you through a tutorial instead of including those steps necessary to complete a task in the current tutorial that is being used. Some of the steps in some of the tutorials also make assumption as to the knowledge level of a person using this book as a guide. The author might understand what is being written, but the author is not the one paying to use this book.It does not get into the nuts and bolts of the program either. Not enough detailed information is given for all of the various functions of Inkscape. A complete and total explanation, with examples, of every item in every menu is what is needed, not just what the author thinks might be important. Not recommended for someone looking for a complete and comprehensive guide to Inkscape, recommended for someone looking for... Read more
7 of 7 people found the following review helpful
Informative but not user friendly, By
This review is from: Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (4th Edition) (SourceForge Community Press) (Paperback)
I bought the ebook version. I find the book informative but Tavmjong's writing is too technical and not user friendly in anyway. I wasted time just trying to figure out the sine and cosine to place a star in chapter 1. The examples are not easy to follow as he doesn't give a full step by step instructions. He tends to forget that some people are just starting out with Inkscape. I can't say I'm too impressed with his presentation and I personally don't think it's worth the price. I was looking forward to using the book but now I look at the screen with frustration.
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Table of Contents
Acknowledgments x
About the Author xi
Overview of What Is in This Book xii
Introduction xiii
How to Use This Book xiii
Vector Graphics xiv
SVG xvi
The Inkscape Program xvi
Help xvi
Chapter 1: Quick Start 1
The Anatomy of the Inkscape Window 1
The Swedish Flag—A Short Example 5
The European Flag—A More Elaborate Example 17
A Hiking Club Logo—An Exercise in Paths 20
The Northern Pacific Railway Logo—A Tracing Example 32
A Box for Cards—An Isometric Projection 39
A Can of Soup—A Three-Dimensional Drawing with Gradients 44
A Vine Design—A Tiling Example 56
A Neon Sign—Animation 66
A Bank Note—Security Features 82
A Bottle—Photorealism 94
Chapter 2: Files 103
Opening and Saving Files 103
Importing Files 104
Exporting Files 107
Printing Files 120
Vacuuming Files 121
Chapter 3: Changing the View 122
Panning the Canvas 122
Zooming the Canvas 122
Miscellaneous View Commands 123
Chapter 4: Editing Basics 126
Undo and Redo 126
Selecting Objects 126
Copying, Pasting, and Deleting Objects 129
Clones 130
Ordering Objects (Z-order) 131
Groups 132
Layers 133
Chapter 5: Positioning and Transforming 136
Inkscape Coordinates 136
Transformations 137
Snapping 144
Alignment and Distribution of Objects 150
Chapter 6: Geometric Shapes 154
Rectangles and Squares 154
3D Boxes 156
Ellipses, Circles, and Arcs 159
Regular Polygons and Stars 160
Spirals 162
Chapter 7: Paths 165
Bezier Curves 165
Creating Paths 166
Editing Paths 177
Path Operations 186
Chapter 8: Live Path Effects (LPEs) 189
Bend 190
Construct Grid 191
Envelope Deformation 191
Gears 192
Hatches (Rough) 192
Interpolate Sub-Paths 194
Knot 194
Pattern Along Path 195
Ruler 198
Sketch 198
Spiro Spline 200
Stitch Sub-Paths 201
VonKoch 204
Chapter 9: Text 208
Creating Text 208
Selecting Text 209
Editing Text 210
Formatting Text 211
Kerning, Shifting, and Rotating Characters 214
Text on a Path 215
Text in a Shape 216
Chapter 10: Attributes 218
Fill and Stroke Paint 218
Stroke Style 239
Chapter 11: Tweak Tool 244
Tweaking Objects 244
Tweaking Paths 245
Tweaking Colors 246
Chapter 12: Eraser Tool 247
Eraser Touch Mode 247
Eraser Cut-Out Mode 247
Chapter 13: Paint Bucket Tool 248
Simple Use 248
Filling Fidelity 249
Filling Multiple Regions 250
Closing Gaps 250
Adding to a Fill 251
Chapter 14: Clipping and Masking 252
Clipping 253
Masking 253
Chapter 15: Filter Effects—Preset 254
Use of Preset Filters 254
ABCs 255
Bevels 256
Blurs 257
Bumps 258
Color 260
Distort 261
Image Effects 262
Image Effects, Transparent 263
Materials 264
Morphology 265
Non Realistic 3D Shaders 266
Overlays 267
Protrusions 268
Ridges 268
Scatter 269
Shadows and Glows 269
Textures 270
Transparency Utilities 271
Chapter 16: Filter Effects—Custom 272
Basic Use 272
Filter Effects Dialog 273
Mini Tutorial—A Drop Shadow 274
Color Filter Primitives 277
Compositing Filter Primitives 279
Fill Filter Primitives 283
Lighting Filters Primitives 287
Pixel Manipulation Filter Primitives 289
Complex Examples 298
Chapter 17: XML Editor 302
Basic Usage 302
Editing XML Nodes 303
Examples 304
Chapter 18: Tiling 306
Symmetry Tab 307
Shift Tab 310
Scale Tab 314
Rotation Tab 316
Blur and Opacity Tab 318
Color Tab 320
Trace 322
Tricks 326
Chapter 19: Tracing Bitmaps 329
Single Scans 331
Multiple Scans 333
Common Options 336
SIOX 337
Chapter 20: Connectors 338
Creating Connectors 338
Modifying Connectors 339
Routing Connectors 339
Chapter 21: Extensions 340
Arrange 341
Color 342
Generate from Path 351
Images 361
Modify Path 361
Raster 370
Render 372
Text 387
Visualize Path 389
Web 391
Chapter 22: SVG and the Web 394
Simple SVG Display 394
Adding Links 397
Using Style Sheets 398
Using JavaScript 400
Simple Animation 401
Chapter 23: Customization 404
Inkscape Preferences Dialog 404
Inkscape Configuration Files 404
Chapter 24: Using the Command Line 408
General Options 409
Export Options 409
Query Options 412
Chapter 25: Challenges 413
Red Spiral 413
Knot 413
Squares 414
Pine Cone 414
Spiral Gyral 415
Appendix A: Inkview 416
Appendix B: File Format 417
Default Template File 417
SVG Groups with Objects 418
Groups of Objects 418
Paths 419
Defs 420
Appendix C: Spheres 421
Sphere with Gradient Shading and Shadow 421
Sphere with Hatched Shading and Shadow 421
Sphere with Dot Shading and Shadow 422
Sphere with Text Shading and Shadow 422
Appendix D: Solutions for Challenges 423
Red Spiral 423
Knot 425
Squares 427
Pine Cone 428
Spiral Gyral 430
Appendix E: List of Dialogs 431
Appendix F: Tips for Illustrator Converts 433
Key Mappings 433
Terminology 433
Glossary 435
Index 439
Sample Pages
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Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (Digital Short Cut), 3rd Edition
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