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Inkscape Beginner's Guide

Inkscape Beginner's Guide

By : Bethany Hiitola
4 (45)
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Inkscape Beginner's Guide

Inkscape Beginner's Guide

4 (45)
By: Bethany Hiitola

Overview of this book

Learning to use Inkscape, an exciting open-source vector graphics program, broadens your software toolkit as a graphic designer. Using practical, real-world examples, you'll learn everything about the software and its capabilities so you'll be able to design anything from logos to websites.Inkscape Beginner's Guide is a practical step-by-step guide for learning this exciting vector graphics software. Not only will it take you through each menu item and toolbar, but you will also learn about creating complex shapes, text styling, filters, working with images, extensions, and the XML editoróall using real world examples.The book starts with an overview of vector graphics and how best to use them when designing for digital and print mediums. Then we install Inkscape and start learning all the ins and outs of the software. You'll build your first vector graphic while learning best practices for using layers, and build simple and complex objects with shapes and paths that will ultimately become exciting graphics to be used in your designs. Beyond designing sample logos and brochures while learning the software, you'll also learn how to use filters, install and use extensions, and the ins-and-outs of SVG and the XML Editor in Inkscape.
Table of Contents (18 chapters)
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14
B. Keyboard Shortcuts
15
C. Glossary of Terms
17
Index

Time for action — vector versus rasterized images

Now we need to figure out what elements go where and which graphic types will work best. Determine what type of graphics each of our design elements should be to best suit our needs (and the design) and make sure we have the files in that format.

  1. Photographs naturally have a lot of colors and gradients, and are often taken in a fixed size from a digital camera. That said, the files are rasterized bitmaps and can be in any number of file formats—including .tif, .jpg, .gif, or .png, and are larger in size. Photographs don't lend themselves to being vector graphics.
    Time for action — vector versus rasterized images
  2. Logos should be portable, so that they can look clean at any size and resolution. The graphics themselves are often simple with less color variation and therefore lend themselves to being vector graphics as opposed to bitmaps. We'll use a graphic-based on one in the Openclipart.org collection, which will be explained later, as an example for a company logo. You can use files of the SVG, AI, or EPS format.
    Time for action — vector versus rasterized images
  3. The company name/title and copy will be text, which is a font and vector graphic. It can still be scaled to accommodate both the boldness of the company name and also be a body copy for the brochure:
    Time for action — vector versus rasterized images

What just happened?

We took each piece of the design puzzle and determined the best file types for each element. We collected our files and got them ready for the design phase, which is up next.

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