How to copy a serif to the other side of a letter?

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:14 pm

Hello folks,

I'm new to Inkscape and although I find it pretty easy to use I cannot seem to find a solution for my problem, or rather for my unresolved matter as it sounds more positive and motivated ;-)

Anyway, I am designing a logo with three letters, it is a semi serif font but I want to copy the top left serif of the capital M to the lower right. Now, how exactly can I achieve this? I've tried copying the entire glyph, turned it upside down, clipped it to the right size and it looked right but when I export the project, I have white spaces in my transparent background. Also, the vector points wont show up on the new serif part of the letter, no matter what I try... I am not sure I am able to draw the serif in there to it looks similar either as I am not a graphics designer (like at all...) or let's say YET because it is, again, a nicer way to say it.

Can someone point me in the right direction?

tylerdurden · Postby **tylerdurden** » Thu Feb 05, 2015 11:29 pm

You're headed the right way,

Convert the character to a path so you can edit the nodes. Putting a flipped copy with contrasting color behind the character can help guide you.

: Lucida Calligraphy, copy in green rotated 180* and placed below; Serif1.jpg (78.24 KiB) Viewed 3294 times

(Delete or hide the copy for final output.)

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:19 am

Oh okay, thank you so much! That worked nicely! Now I ran into a little bit of a node salad but I would think this is easy to fix?

I combined the paths using CTRL+K and it made a nice whole of the new letter, perfect so far. But on the lower edge where it should have two diamond shaped nodes it actually has four of which two are very close together (where the two shapes meet). Can I tell Inkscape to conect the two outer nodes with a straight line and lose the two middle nodes? I hope what I am writing makes any sense at all

Lazur · Postby **Lazur** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:29 am

With the node tool you can unconnect nodes at unnecessary segments, and then merge nodes together after.
Check node tool's toolbar icons.

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:41 am

I'm afraid that's not working. If I remove these two the shape gets all wonky and the outer two wont connect...

: Before; Capture1.PNG (6.92 KiB) Viewed 3271 times

: After; Capture2.PNG (16.18 KiB) Viewed 3271 times

ragstian · Postby **ragstian** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:48 am

Hi.

Node editing - moving, breaking and re-combining path's etc. is a "requirement" for efficient use of Inkscape.
The operations that Lazur suggested to "fix" the letter can be done in seconds without making the path "wonky"!

I suggest that you go through the "Quick start" tutorials in The Manual.
After completing the first few tutorials you will be a "pro"!

Good Luck.
RGDS
Ragnar

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 12:55 am

I am faily familiar with the instructions but I think the problem here is that the two paths overlapped each other and then when I combined them to one path, the nodes changed the order in which they connect. The manual doesn't say how to fix this and I had hoped someone would be able to tell me exactly what to do in this case but thanks for the manual anyway, it'll be helpful with other things.

ragstian · Postby **ragstian** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:09 am

Hi.

Okay, sorry about that!
If you instead of posting screen-dumps rather attach the svg file you are working on it would be much easier to show you how.

The "fix" is part of the node editing, note that in addition to moving nodes you can use the "node-handles" to vary the curves, you can also click and drag the curve itself.

This can be handy as well - Node Editing

RGDS
Ragnar

tylerdurden · Postby **tylerdurden** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:15 am

Howdy,
When opening the connection between nodes

, the path(s) may seem to go wacky. To quickly proceed, I select the nodes I want to join and click the join button

and make the nodes cusp

. Then, I can tweak the path by dragging on the path between the nodes and using the bezier handles (nodes still selected).

Lazur · Postby **Lazur** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:32 am

Needs some sense on the "topology". Like, it could pop out more if you set a vivid colour for the fill and lower the transparency to 50% for the drawing stage.
Maybe even add a stroke too.

Attached an example solution that works if I get the problem right from your images.

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:42 am

Oh okay, I never thought of putting the actual file in here...

Note: File removed as problem was solved. Thanks.

Maybe after taking a look at it someone can tell me what I did wrong here :mrgreen:

ragstian · Postby **ragstian** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:51 am

Hi.

To Fix - No need for any node editing!;

Selact all - Ctrl A
Ungroup - Shift Ctrl G
Break apart - Shift Ctrl K

Select the "M" and "the foot" (Serif?)
Path Union. Ctrl +

By the way - the "C" letter is taller than the two other characters - is that intentional?

RGDS
Ragnar

Lazur · Postby **Lazur** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 1:53 am

May this svg answer the problem, with the node editing way.

(I prefer this because the boolean operation -the union- recalculates the path, and may need node editing anyway.)

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:16 am

You guys are incredible! Now I got it right, thank you for your help, I will make sure to read the entire manual before any future endeavours but this needed a day one noob fix. Again, thanks so much and also for the hint with the capital C! It is not meant to be bigger, this font is just really bad but they want to keep it. I'll fix it manually.

Lazur · Postby **Lazur** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 2:25 am

It's probably a "feature" of the font. Geometrically it can appear smaller than the others if they are geometrically the same size. As far as I know the compass and ruler is just for rather theoretic aspects of typography.

Check this forum for experts:
http://www.typophile.com/forums

12ax7 · Postby **12ax7** » Fri Feb 06, 2015 3:20 am

To be on the safe side with alignments, I have narrowed it down and everythings looks nice and neat now. Thanks again, you've been very helpful.

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How to copy a serif to the other side of a letter?

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