How can I paint with these colors?

[dresden313]

Hello everyone! I would like to paint my vectors with these colors.. https://imgur.com/a/LrNyScu

Can this be done using Inkscape? If so how do I do this? Also is there a way to give my vectors a marker coloring effect so that the color doesn't look solid.

Thanks!

[Moini]

Do you want your objects to be patterned? What is a 'marker coloring effect'? Can you share an example that shows that?

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

To be honest, those aren't really colors.  A "color" tends to be one single color.  They really are images.  But yes, there are a couple of ways which you could use those images to fill the objects you make with Inkscape.

One way would be to use clipping.  Let's say you have a circle and you want it filled with one of those.  Here's how to do it with clipping.

1 - draw your circle
2 - import the image
3 - move the image behind your circle
4 - if you want the stroke of the circle to show around the image, then duplicate the circle
5 - select the new circle and the image
6 - Object menu > Clip > Set

The other way to do it is to convert the image into a pattern, and use a pattern fill.  Here's how to do that.

1 - import the image
2 - Object menu > Pattern > Object to Pattern
3 - draw your circle
4 - Object menu > Fill and Stroke > Fill tab, then click the Pattern Fill button, which looks like this   
5 - if you need to adjust the pattern after that, please see the manual (takes too long to type, sorry)  http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Attributes-Fill-Stroke.html#Attributes-Patterns

If by "marker coloring effect" you mean something that looks like you colored something on paper with a marker.....well, you could probably get close to faking something like that with Inkscape.  But it would take some time and a lot of trial and error.  You could only fake it if it's ok for the marker strokes to all go the same way.  I mean, if the strokes go from bottom-left to top-right, for example, they would all have to go that way.  You couldn't suddenly start making strokes going vertical for example.  Not in the same object anyway.  You could turn it around in different objects. 

And the strokes would all have to be perfectly straight.  I can't think of any way to do it, so that there are arched or gently curving strokes.  I suppose there might be some way to make a filter.....but I doubt it.

What I have in mind for faking an effect like that would be to create a gradient which repeats itself.  A single unit of such a gradient would look like the short side, or the width of the marker stroke.  I guess such a stroke would usually be darker in the middle and lighter at the edges.  When you finally have the gradient right, and set it to repeat, and it's filling your shape, I would guess you'd need a little blurring.

It won't look exactly like using marker on paper.  I would just be close to it.  You wouldn't notice any kind of texture from the paper.  It would be far better to find an image of that and use it like the other images you showed.

Just a quick comment.  Inkscape is not a painting program.  You might do better with a raster graphics program (which are often called paint programs).  Whether they could paint with an image, I have no idea.

[dresden313]

Great thanks for the answers! I really appreciate the help as I am a total newbie in inkscape.

I have another question... Let's say I draw a shape with the bezier tool and I would like to autofill that shape with nodes. Is it possible to do that automatically so that the nodes are evenly distributed without having to manually add each node?

Thanks for the detailed answer Brynn.
(I apologize for all the questions but I've really searched through google/youtube but couldn't find the answer)

[brynn]

No worries.  I was a newbie once too, and the hardest part is not knowing the right terminology, which makes it hard to search on your own.

When you say you want to fill a shape with "nodes", do you mean you want to fill it with dots?  In Inkscape, nodes are what you control a path with.  If you were to fill a shape with nodes, it would also be filled with a path.  I suppose you could make the path transparent (if you didn't want to see it).  But still, the nodes would only show up when the node tool is enabled and the path is selected.  So they would not show up outside of Inkscape (or other vector graphics program).

If that really is what you mean.....I can't think of any way to create a lot of nodes automatically.  On the Node tool control bar, the first button on the left (Add Nodes) can add multiple nodes quite quickly.  For example, if you have a 2-node path, you could select both nodes.  The first click on the Add Nodes button would add one node precisely between the 2 selected nodes.  The next click would add one node between each of those, which is 2 more nodes.  The next click would add 4 more, next click would add 8 more. 

So very quickly you can add a very large number of nodes.  And they are perfectly evenly distributed.  I suppose you could start with a path of any shape and add nodes to it.  But I can't think of any reason to do that, since they won't show up except for Inkscape (or other vector graphics program) and even then, only under certain circumstances (it's selected and the Node tool is enabled).

So I wonder if you might be needing something else, like maybe dots, or something else?  Actually filling it with dots, and then Path menu > Object to Path, would also fill it with nodes, and paths too, of course.

Well anyway, if you could explain a little more 

[dresden313]

Yes, I'm talking about the nodes that control the path. I am using Inkscape with VideoScribe and videoscribe draws along those nodes. If there are too many, the drawing slows down or if not a lot it looks robotic. So I was wondering if there was a way to have inkscape automatically distribute lots of notes along the path from point A to point B.

I'll play around with it to see what I can get

Again thanks a lot for your detailed answer Brynn!!

[Moini]

Yes, you can insert nodes automatically, with the 'Add nodes' extension:
Extensions > Modify Path > Add nodes

[dresden313]

Amazing! Thanks for the help everyone!

[dresden313]

I have yet another question. I'm learning as much as I can about inkscape but somethings I just can't find on google.

I made a trace and then I added a pattern as the fill but then when I import this .svg into videoscribe the fill is gone.

How can I combine this pattern with my vector?

[brynn]

Ooohhh, VideoScribe!  When you mentioned you wanted the nodes for VideoScribe I totally didn't connect it to the rest of your questions about those images and using patterns.

It seems that VideoScribe can't see the patterns.  We've seen that before with other programs, or sometimes even exporting to certain formats, the patterns don't come through.  Do you know if it will "see" the images themselves, if they aren't converted to patterns?  If that works, that would be your best bet.  Because otherwise, the only choice would be to draw the images with paths.  You could use Trace Bitmap as a shortcut to create the paths.

[dresden313]

It won't let me trace a bitmap around this pattern. I can see nodes around it so I went and saved it as .svg. I tried importing it into videoscribe but it's still showing up blank. I even saved it as a .png in inkscape and I get the same problem. The only way for me to see the pattern in videoscribe is when I load the original .png I have from google.

[brynn]

Well if it has nodes, it can't be a pattern.  Can you share the SVG file?  There could be something else in the file that VS is objecting to.  I just have zero experience with VS.  I only have a general idea what it does, and I have no idea what it supports or doesn't support.

But it might help to look at the SVG file.

Also, we might be getting stuck in terminology.  I'm talking about what Inkscape calls a pattern.  But you might be talking a general description of a pattern.

[Moini]

If you want to trace the pattern, which is currently a fill of a vector object, you can do Edit > Make Bitmap copy first, then use the trace dialog for tracing. This way, you can recreate the pattern as a vector object.