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Help Using Inkscape => Inkscape Beginners' Questions => Topic started by: Lusavia on January 28, 2019, 06:59:08 PM

Title: Patterns
Post by: Lusavia on January 28, 2019, 06:59:08 PM

Hello.  I have a bounded area with color fill, and am trying to add a pattern over that fill, say thin diagonal lines.  If I choose an Inkscape pattern, it replaces the color fill with the pattern, and the pattern is uneditable despite the dialogue box giving instructions to edit using the "node tool" (= edit node path??).

So question is, 1) any way to add a pattern over a color and 2) edit the pattern? ie color, stripe thickness and angle?

Thanks.

Title: Re: Patterns
Post by: Moini on January 29, 2019, 05:58:05 AM

1. Use two stacked objects for this.
2. Search for the pattern handles in the top left corner of the page.

Title: Re: Patterns
Post by: Moini on January 29, 2019, 05:59:43 AM

(and no, color cannot be edited - a pattern can be moved, scaled (with or without keeping the aspect ratio) and rotated - see also https://inkscape-manuals.readthedocs.io/en/latest/using-patterns.html and following pages.)

Title: Re: Patterns
Post by: Lusavia on January 29, 2019, 06:24:47 PM

Thanks much.  I'm seeing now that Inkscape probably isn't a good fit for projects that require more precision than eyeballing.  At least in my current project, a map.  But I appreciate your help.

Title: Re: Patterns
Post by: Moini on January 30, 2019, 11:49:46 AM

There are many ways to achieve precision, but their functionality may not be visible at first sight. Grids, guides, snapping, entering numbers, using transform dialog, custom patterns etc. etc. are all available.

Let us know what exactly you want to do, and we will most certainly be able to describe a way to do it.

The linked manual is not made for mappers, but for people who want to start out and learn to create drawings. This is why those 'precision' parts are not emphasized, or even mentioned, in it.