Posters in Inkscape

[Dzon_doe]

Hello,

My name is John. I am not a complete newbie, but my knowledge about Inkscape is rather poor. I use this program for the preparation of scientific posters, so I usually work with large formats (A0 and A1). I have prepared several posters so far, but in my opinion, it could be done better. Please find 2 questions below:
1. I have noticed that Inkscape is working very slow when I editing the text. I frequently noticed lags in cursor movement or even disappearing of the cursor after clicking or typing in a given text box. I operate at W10 x64, 4 GB RAM, Intel I3 CPU. Why text boxes cause so many problems? Moreover, how to resize text boxes? When I click on the text box, the white diamond appears in the right-bottom corner. But how about other handles (squares in top-left, and bottom-left corner)? Is it possible to unhide they somehow? Currently, I grab the diamond and move it randomly, sometimes squares appear, but in most cases no. It is really frustrating to me, but I'm sure that I do it wrong.
2. I think that my posters are poorly optimized. I work on an original A0 sheet, I don't use layers and import several *.wmf graphs or *.pdf tables per poster. The output file is not big but I face a lot of lags especially while working with text. Is there any good way to optimize such work? Should I work on a smaller sheet and resize a 'final ready' work? Should I import graphs and tables in another format (eps and png)? Do the layers solve something?

Thank you in advance for your help.

Best regards,
Dzon

[Lazur]

Hi.

I also have the same experience with text. When the work is mostly about typesetting and/or layouting, scribus is the suggested alternative (of indesign). Maybe that could make things easier.

In general, pdf-s are optimised for printing, and that usually also comes with lossless data compressing.
Which results in a somewhat cluttered structure for humans -or at least that's how inkscape imports them.
There are usually alot of unnecessary grouping and clipping involved (there is a deep ungroup extension for that reason).
If you elinimate all the grouping there will be no grouping too -then you'd need to click the cleanup document in the file menu -that will remove unused definitions, mostly by those clipping objects.
There could be alot of other things going on depending on how the pdf-s were saved.
Pdf or eps souldn't have a big difference in that matter.

The document's size (A0) doesn't really matter in performance.
If you import png-s instead of the vector content you could get a temporary boost -and keep a small file size since raster images don't need to be embedded- but your output won't be full vectors/scalable anymore without pixelation.
Therefore choose that only with precaution and at a reasonable image resolution. (Keep in mind how far the print will be viewed from; texts are usually printed at 300 dpi and photographs at 600 dpi.)

In general, using layers can improve performance issues when used wisely.
That is, hiding resource heavy content put on layers with hidden visibility.
Switching visibility on and off is the real key, not the structure within the document.

[brynn]

Welcome to the forum!

The text is probably not the source of the performance problems.  I would guess it's the imported raster images, if you are embedding them (rather than linking).  You didn't say what your final saved format is, that you send to the printer.  But if they need to be embedded, you could link them while you're creating the poster, and wait until right before you send to the printer, to embed them.

I'm not sure if this could be a source of the performance problems or not.  But if you drag out a text box, with the text tool, but never type any text in it, the text box is still there, and adds data to the file.  Theoretically, if you had a enough of them, they could be contributing to the performance problems.  The only way I know to select them....well, now there are 2 ways to select them.

If you press the Tab key, it selects the first object that you created.  Press it again, it selects the next one.  Shift + Tab selects them in reverse order.  So you can fairly quickly cycle through through everything in the file.  By watching the status bar, you can see when an empty text box is selected.  Note that the bounding box does not show up.  But the status bar indicates it's selected.  The status bar will say "Flowed Text (0 characters)....".  Then just press Delete key to get rid of it.

The other way is using the (still relatively new) Objects menu > Objects.  There you can easily see the text objects.  If you click on a text object in Objects dialog, and you don't see any bounding box on the canvas, it's an empty text box, which you can delete.  However, note that using the Objects dialog is known to cause performance problems.  So don't keep it open all the time.  Just open it when you need it, and close after.

Note that these empty text boxes don't get deleted with File menu > Clean Up Document.

If you convert the text to path, and it's a lot of text, that could also be causing performance issues.

If you'd like to share an SVG file with us, we could identify the specific source of the performance problems.  Or else here's a tutorial which covers all the issues I know about.  https://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php?action=articles;sa=view;article=35  (Actually, I should edit this article to include using the Objects dialog.  I wrote it years ago, before Object manager was invented.)

I don't know why the Text tool works like this.  But the first time you drag out a text box, it only has the one tiny diamond shaped handle.  But if you grab that handle and drag it again, 2 other handles show up - a square in the top-left corner, and a circle in the top-right.  They seem to work like the handles of the Rectangle tool.  I don't know why, but sometimes I have to scribble around with the tiny diamond handle, before the other handles show up.

But you don't have to make a text box at all.  When you drag out a text box, you start automatically typing Flowed Text.  Flowed Text only exists in Inkscape.  It won't show up on the internet, or in any other graphics program.  Depending what your final format is, the flowed text might not be converted. 

If you just click once on the canvas, with the Text tool, and then start typing, you create regular text, which doesn't have those problems.  However, you have to use Return/Enter key at the end of a line.  It doesn't automatically wrap.  You can convert all your flowed text to regular text, by Text menu > Convert to Text.

[Moini]

Text *is* a common source of performance problems.

[brynn]

I've never heard that.  Did it start with a recent new version?

[Lazur]

I've never heard that.  Did it start with a recent new version?

No. It was always a burden to produce graphic material which is text based.
Don't know if that's only a rendering issue -too much css styling to digest for each character- or the renderer converting the text to a path on each "pre-rendering"/"output node" (?) or too many targets to snap to but
editing a long paragraph is way slower than compared to a word processor program.

[brynn]

I've made Inkscape files with huge amounts of text (see some of the tutorials I've made) and never had a problem with text.  As long as the text was text, everything is fine.  After doing text to path, yes, then there could be issues sometimes.

I suppose moving a very large chunk of text -- like maybe half a page of 14 pt text, in an A4 size page -- the moving might be a little slow.  But not like a nightmare slow.  Just a little ghost here and there, then it's done.

I've probably never put css styling in an SVG file though.  I wouldn't know how.

Compared to word processing?  I guess maybe, but it's kind of like apples and oranges, isn't it?  Editing text in a word processor is just way different from Inkscape.  You don't pick up and move a whole paragraph in word processing.  Instead, you move the margins, or change the layout.  You don't even have underlined text in Inkscape, you have to draw the darn line with the Pencil or Pen!  Lately you have to go into contortions to get bold or italics. 

To me, the things which make Inkscape slower than a word processor aren't related to Inkscape's performance.  It's more related to features which Inkscape is missing compared to a word processor.  And yes, I would say it's nightmare slower than a word processor.  But it's because of missing features rather than how well the program manages the bits and bytes.

At least that's my experience.

[Dzon_doe]

At the beginning, I'd like to thank all the people who have spoken.

The text is probably not the source of the performance problems.  I would guess it's the imported raster images, if you are embedding them (rather than linking).  You didn't say what your final saved format is, that you send to the printer.  But if they need to be embedded, you could link them while you're creating the poster, and wait until right before you send to the printer, to embed them.

To be honest there are several (rather small) raster graphics. Most of the graphics are the graphs in *.wmf format. But, you are right that I should link them (instead of embedding) finally I usually print pdf of the work made.

I'm not sure if this could be a source of the performance problems or not.  But if you drag out a text box, with the text tool, but never type any text in it, the text box is still there, and adds data to the file.  Theoretically, if you had a enough of them, they could be contributing to the performance problems.  The only way I know to select them....well, now there are 2 ways to select them.

You're right. There was a lot of empty text and flowed text. I clean it, thanks for the advice.

If you convert the text to path, and it's a lot of text, that could also be causing performance issues.

No, I leave the text as is.

I don't know why the Text tool works like this.  But the first time you drag out a text box, it only has the one tiny diamond shaped handle.  But if you grab that handle and drag it again, 2 other handles show up - a square in the top-left corner, and a circle in the top-right.  They seem to work like the handles of the Rectangle tool.  I don't know why, but sometimes I have to scribble around with the tiny diamond handle, before the other handles show up.

Yes, but the problem is that the other handles don't appear sometimes and change of the text field dimensions is very difficult.

But you don't have to make a text box at all.  When you drag out a text box, you start automatically typing Flowed Text.  Flowed Text only exists in Inkscape.  It won't show up on the internet, or in any other graphics program.  Depending what your final format is, the flowed text might not be converted.

If you just click once on the canvas, with the Text tool, and then start typing, you create regular text, which doesn't have those problems.  However, you have to use Return/Enter key at the end of a line.  It doesn't automatically wrap.  You can convert all your flowed text to regular text, by Text menu > Convert to Text.

After, removing the empty text boxes I understand the idea of Text (click) and Flowed Text (drag mouse). The problem with Text is that I need to end the line manually. In the case of posters, where the text is usually organized in columns or boxes, it is more convenient to 'reserve' places for text. Moreover, I usually use full justification. I will work with this both variant of text and see if there is a possibility to leave Flowed Text and work with Text only OR I will try to convert Flowed Text to Text as you say.

If you'd like to share an SVG file with us, we could identify the specific source of the performance problems.

I'm going to upload exemplary SVG when I'll back to my office (Sep 17).

Text *is* a common source of performance problems.

It is the third work with Inkscape, and I have noticed that in all cases text field are a source of the problem. But maybe if I change the method of text incorporation and watch for empty text fields it will be more convenient.

[brynn]

Ah yes, I understand what you mean about the poster and the need for the text boxes.  If you can't find a comfortable arrangement with Inkscape, you might want to try using Scribus for the text (as Lazur originally mentioned).

I don't know why the other handles don't always show up for you, on the text box.  I was testing relatively small boxes, and relatively little amount of text, compared to poster size, so maybe size or amount of text has something to do with it.  But using Scribus would solve that as well.