Inkscape Beginner’s Guide

by Bethany Hiitola

Create attractive layout design, logos, brochures, icons, and more using the Inkspace vector graphics editor Overview In Detail 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 editor—all 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. What you will learn from this book Approach As part of Packt's Beginner's Guide series, each chapter covers an aspect of working with Inkscape, with plenty of screenshots and practical examples. Who this book is written for This book is intended for beginning graphic and web designers who want to expand their graphic software expertise. General familiarity with a graphics program is recommended, but not required.

Genres: Computers

279 pages, Paperback

First published May 18, 2012

Reviews

[Chris · Rating 5 out of 5]

Inkscape is a vector drawing program, much like Illustrator, but free AND open sourced. This book is very detailed, assuming you know knowing of vector drawing, and possibly of any kind of digital drawing. It starts out very slow, describing what vector graphics actually are, how to install Inkscape, ect. Then it actually allows you to explore the interface by small little projects, such as basic drawing tools, starting to modify objects, using layers, and stylizing text. Towards the end, it starts touching on topics most well experienced vector artists use on a daily basis, or haven’t even discovered yet, such as using filters to stylize your objects, different options for stylizing text, and making custom looking text, as well as manipulating nopn-vector images inside of inkscape, and even using the XML editor to directly modify the SVG, which gives you an intro into how shapes are actually stored, which can of course be used by different programs (such as HTML5’s ‘canvas’ tag), due to it being an open format for vector graphics.

If you’re new to creating art working with a computer, new to vector drawing, or even want to transition from Illustrator to Inkscape, this book will get you from clueless to experienced in no time.

[Peter Herrmann · Rating 1 out of 5]

I bought this book in 2017, five years after published. Most of the downloadable images, etc needed to step through the examples and tutorials are now gone .. website indicated in the book no longer found. I have submitted a request to the publisher for updated info. If I do not get an adequate response then this book will have been a waste of money. If I do hear a response (today is Mar 31, 2017) I will revise this review and rating. Otherwise it stands, and buyer beware!

(Also the author's own website referenced in the book is no longer).

[Anastacia Mkhondo · Rating 3 out of 5]

Most of the links don't work, but I used my own photos, so it's not too bad. I did learn a lot from this book. I can now use the software and the author explains well. The only problem I have is that most of the examples in the book aren't about what I want to do. For example I still have a problem with using the bezier tool to draw real objects. I think the bezier tool is the most important to learn.

But overall it's a great book, it's just outdated a bit. Even with the recent Inkscape version I could still follow along, there hasn't been much change.