I have read the instructions about opening two files using the same instance of Inkscape but I cannot copy successfully an object from one document to another. It ends up being rasterised when I paste.

I have both documents visible in the "Window" menu in XQuartz/X11. I opened the second document by choosing File-Open from the first.

Is this a bug?

I dont remember having problems in 0.47.

Mac OSX 10.6.8
Inkscape 0.48
XQuartz 2.7.4

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

That behavior is caused by a bug. Here's info: http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... or_objects Normally the suggestion is to use Duplicate instead of Copy/Paste. But when pasting between docs, that won't work.

Instead, you could leave the object where it is, and do File menu > Save a Copy. This will make another identical file, then you could delete the stuff you didn't need. I should say that that's a reasonable solution if it's just one, or a few objects, that you need in a different file, AND you need it copied into a new file. If you need to paste an object into a previously existing file, then someone else will have to answer. I'm not sure about that situation with a Mac. (Or maybe the FAQ covers that?? It's been awhile since I've actually read it, since I'm a PC user.)

Brynn, I always use Duplicate (ctrl + D), then cut and paste to a 2nd Inkscape, and it's always worked beautifully.

There used to be a glitch on some older versions a few yrs back where it wouldn't paste if you opened up a new instance of Inkscape, but I just tried it and it even pasted just fine on the new instance.
Suggestion - try this: click on File, New, then on default (or whatever page size), then duplicate, cut, and paste onto the new doc.

This doesn't work. I have duplicated, cut from one doc, pasted in the other and the object is STILL rasterised.

Thank you, Brynn. By following the suggestion in the link you gave, I was able to recover normal functionality and have now successfully copied a vector object from one doc to another.

Seems daft that you should need to disable an X11/Quartz clipboard preference, but it worked.

Yeah, I don't use a Mac, so I don't understand much about it. But I'm glad you figured it out

The problem still persists on my Mac running OS 10.9.1. However, I was able to get around it by saving one document (containing what I wanted to paste) and importing it into the other (File: Import...). I deleted everything from the import except what I wanted to paste, and it was workable as vectors (lines and text).

So, for mac users, in X11 preferences > Pasteboard uncheck "Update Pasteboard when CLIPBOARD changes".
This worked for me, hope it can help others.
n.

Hi! I use Windows, and I found an other way to paste.
Save the document1, open document2, click File > Import > Import document1.

(document1 is from where you copy, document2 is where you paste into)