This is my first half hour with inkscape. I'm trying to create a couple of concentric circles with text between them - like the rim of a coin.

I created the first circle. I managed to get the text to 'follow the path' of that and go round it.

Then I tried to create a second larger circle. But it won't do it. It makes a tiny collection of little squares or somesuch instead. It will not create a circle.

am I doing something wrong or is my program playing up?

regards,

ab

I don't really understand what you are describing to be able to diagnose the problem. Are you able to post the file?

1. Click on the ellipse tool
2. Click on the very right button in the second tool bar (tooltip="Make the shape a whole ellipse, not arc or segment").

You can also turn arc/segment thingies into full ellipses by selecting it with the ellipse tool and then hitting that button.

Or at least a screen shot of the "collection of little squares" could be helpful

I'm trying to write text in a circle too (with a logo in the middle).

I can't even make an unfilled circle which is just a path for the text to follow, never mind put the text on a circular path.
Completely and utterly unintuitive program. It would be quicker just to print it, cut the letters by hand and stick them in a circle.

Hi,

and thanks for the replies. I failed to check the 'notify me...' box so I didn't know you'd posted. Sorry.

I've overcome some of my struggles with the circle tool. The manual helped a bit and just trying helped a bit.

It seems the tool 'remembers' how you last left it or something. I've kinda gotta disentangle it from ellipse mode and segmented pie shapes and whatnot and get it to draw plain circles. Well, I can do that now.

And I want two concentric circles and I found I couldn't draw one inside the other and I couldn't draw one outside the other and I couldn't drag and drop one onto the other because it would obliterate it.

well I've got that sussed, too, somehow, I'm not sure how, but I can now draw two concentric circles. great stuff.

and it was a major hassle getting the text to follow the 'path' of the circle and now I find that easier. or I just did, anyway. i don't know if I did it the right way but it seems to me that selecting with the arrow tool and using the shift key at the same time the way you serially select files from a directory in windows enabled me to serially select the text and the circle I wanted it to follow and then 'follow path' made it follow the path.

You beaut. wonderful.

So I'm doing alright and gaining confidence in this great prog.

But my current hassle is that now I've got the text following the circle I don't want it there! I want it equidistance between the two concentric circles. Rather than sitting on the inner one. Or: if I could make the inner path that it is following and touching transparent that'd have the same effect. I don't need the inner path as anything else but a path, it doesn't need to be seen. It is best if it is not seen.

Can that be done?

regards,

ab

abrogard wrote:And I want two concentric circles and I found I couldn't draw one inside the other and I couldn't draw one outside the other and I couldn't drag and drop one onto the other because it would obliterate it.

This sounds like maybe you drew the smaller circle first and the larger circle second. The reason that's a problem is that a newly created object is always put at the top of the object stack (called the z-order). So when you tried to move the smaller circle onto the larger one, the larger one was really the one on top, and it obscured the smaller one. In Inkscape, every shape and path you create has a place in the object stack. Objects lower in the stack are drawn "below" objects higher in the stack. You can change where an object appears in the stack to get the effect you want. Take a look at this section of the manual:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Z-Order.html

abrogard wrote:But my current hassle is that now I've got the text following the circle I don't want it there! I want it equidistance between the two concentric circles. Rather than sitting on the inner one. Or: if I could make the inner path that it is following and touching transparent that'd have the same effect. I don't need the inner path as anything else but a path, it doesn't need to be seen. It is best if it is not seen.

You can make it invisible by setting its fill and stroke to None. See this section of the manual:
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Attributes-Fill-Stroke.html