Greetings everyone,

I've been using Inkscape not for a long time and this is my first post here. I find the software to be very versatile and useful for those who enjoy doing vector artwork. Though for my personal taste there are couple of things that I would customize if it's possible regarding visual appearance and user interface. Sorry if this kind of questions have been discussed already or this isn't the right place for them.

My primarily question – is there a way to change (maybe through some hacking) the shape of the resize tool handles. I would like them to be smaller, and have square shape (or something less noticeable, not diamond-like) and gray in color. My objective here is to focus visually on the art during the work, hiding various handles as much as possible.

Also I would be thankful for any tips regarding customization of user interface (pictograms, icons, tints) that are available by some-“ini” files editing or just image replacing in specific folders.

Welcome to the forum!
To my knowledge, there's no way to change the interface, besides options that are already available in the interface and various dialogs. I suppose if you knew how to code in whatever is the Inkscape language you could do it. I believe under Linux there is some way to globally change icons, but I couldn't give you details about it.

My objective here is to focus visually on the art during the work, hiding various handles as much as possible.

Yes, I understand what you mean here.
But I do NOT know what you mean by "resize tool handles", because there's not a resize tool. Are you talking about the nodes which are displayed using the Node tool? The nodes can be either diamond- or square-shaped, but indicate the type of node, and therefore relate to the functionality, ie - wouldn't make sense to change. If this is what you mean, and you have so many nodes that it's hard to see the path, you could use Path menu > Simplify, once, to reduce the number of nodes without significantly changing the path. Or do you mean the 2-sided arrows using the Selection tool? OH! Do you mean the little circles, squares and diamonds on ellipses, rectangles and stars (respectively) that are used to change the various dimensions of those shapes?

Well, in any case, the only way you could change whatever it is about the interface, would be to change the source code, afaik....which for most users means no, the appearance of the interface can't be changed (except as I said, where options are already available, eg - View menu > Show/Hide, Inkscape Preferences > Node tool > Path Outline, etc.).

I DO think it would be a nice new feature though, to have the option for regular sized handles or tiny handles, speaking of all handles in general, as well as nodes. Like for example, the tiny diamond-shaped handle for Dynamic Offset. That would be nice.....but I think the argument, for nodes at least, would be this -- if you do see a tiny node, amongst a bunch of regular sized nodes, it means that you have to nodes directly on top of each other. Honestly, the development team has done an amazing, spectacular job with the Inskcape interface, imho, and I think you'd be hard pressed to change it, without losing functionality.

PS - If you do know how to code in the Inkscape language (whatever it is ), maybe you'd like to join the development team and create such options, for others to enjoy as well? You could always join the mailing list (http://inkscape.org/mailing_lists.php?lang=en), and maybe have a more technical discussion of this issue there, or maybe even at Launchpad (Inkscape bug tracker).

I'm sorry I couldn't be more help

brynn,

Thanks for the reply – I am glad that you see what I mean from the perspective of an experienced user. “Resize tool handles” are selection tool 2-sided black arrows of course ^) - if I ever would be able to re-code anything in the source this is what I'll start from Though I hope that the developers indeed will think about implementing some options here – as visual perception of the drawing is quite important thing I believe.