Converting text into a path is something i do often and its always three steps (Convert To Path, Ungroup, 'Union' or 'Combine').
Would it make sense to have a button for that ?

Why? You already can achieve the result you personally seem to need most often when outlining text objects - using the keyboard shortcuts it's actually quite fast. This use case though is a rather limited one which only makes sense for text objects which have the same style for all content (and only if you need to further process the result with other commands which can't operate on groups) - on the other hand it will fail for anyone outlining more complex text objects (since the result will loose any specific styles (e.g. colors) applied to partial content of the text object to be outlined).

Quoting from Inkscape's past (the Release notes for Inkscape 0.47):

• Other features
  • Converting text to path produces a group
    Converting a text or flowed text to path (Ctrl+Shift+C) now produces a group of paths, one path for each glyph of text, instead of a single monolithic path as before. Apart from easier manipulation, an additional advantage is that if your text contained styled spans (i.e. fragments with different color, opacity, or other properties), these styles will be preserved by the corresponding glyph paths after the conversion. You can still easily get a single path out of such a group by selecting it and doing Combine (Ctrl+K).
  • Combine works on groups
    The Combine command now works transparently on groups, i.e. combines paths inside selected groups at any level of grouping.

~suv wrote:You already can achieve the result you personally seem to need most often when outlining text objects - using the keyboard shortcuts it's actually quite fast.

Outlining ?
Am i missing here something ?

Espermaschine wrote:

~suv wrote:You already can achieve the result you personally seem to need most often when outlining text objects - using the keyboard shortcuts it's actually quite fast.

Outlining ?
Am i missing here something ?

Sorry - I referred to 'outlining' as in 'Converting text to path by replacing each character with the outline (path) of the glyph used in the font to represent the character'. In Inkscape: select text object and apply menu 'Path > Object to path'.

Right.
So to answer you question: Why ?

From a users point of view i want to execute ONE action: convert text into a path. Instead i have to execute THREE actions.
Either as finger acrobatics with the keyboard shortcuts or even more tedious, going three times through the menu.

All the other operations are always one single action.

In Gimp combining three actions into one, would be a script. I dont know if such a thing exists in Inkscape, but i think it would be cool to have a button for that.
Maybe as an option that i can activate in the Preferences.

I know what you mean, Espermaschine! I think that would be a nice convenience.

~suv, the use case is not limited, imo. For any Inkscape document which includes text, and which is destined for the internet (for several reasons including Inkscape's Flowed Text) it would be quite nice to click

1 - "Text to Path" button

instead of

1 - Path menu > Object to Path (or key shortcut)
2 - Object menu > Ungroup (or key shortcut)
3 - Path menu > Combine (or Union) (or key shortcut)

OR If Object to Path would convert text into one whole path, instead of each character is a path, and then all the paths are grouped.

That's actually the part of the whole process that bothers me. If it would just convert the whole text selection into 1 whole compound path, then ungrouping and combining would not be necessary.

I never have understood why object to path changes text into a group of individual paths. I've never found a use or purpose for that.

brynn wrote:I never have understood why object to path changes text into a group of individual paths. I've never found a use or purpose for that.

My guess is: you get single letters without needing to perform a 'Break Apart'. Which is good, but i think you will need a word as a single path a lot more often than single letters.

Most texteffects require a single path (Perspective, Bend, Bezier Envelope, etc.).

brynn wrote:the use case is not limited, imo. For any Inkscape document which includes text, and which is destined for the internet (for several reasons including Inkscape's Flowed Text) it would be quite nice to click

Not much else I can do than explain as I did, and fully quote the reasons given in the release notes why this change had been implemented back in Inkscape 0.47. You can also search the mailing list archives (inkscape-devel) for some related comments around that time and earlier.

And no, I do not agree with your argument I just quoted: to be viewable in other SVG renderers, flowed text can be converted to regular text - there is no need to convert it to path: regular text can be rendered by any modern web browser just fine.
Only if there is a strict requirement to have a fully identical appearance of (some or all) text in the SVG file on any other system independent of locally installed fonts, then outlining the text (i.e. converting it with 'Path > Object to path') is a recommended solution. It comes at a price though: the file size increases, the text content is no longer accessibly (e.g. for screen readers), no longer searchable (e.g. to be indexed by a web or local search engine), nor could the strings be offered in different translations). It appears that you both want to add 'single color, alpha' to that price, too.

Anyway - sorry for the distraction, and good luck with getting your button onto the commands bar.

Espermaschine wrote:...
From a users point of view i want to execute ONE action: convert text into a path. Instead i have to execute THREE actions.
...

It`s not quite an argument:
I want to trace raster image in ONE action, but instead I have to chose from SEVERAL options for tracing (num. of colours, background, stacking... etc.)

p.s.
I`m also familiar with that flow, but in 9/10 cases I`ll do some editing between Text to Path and Union/Combine (aside of available options for text editing). Allow me to remind you that Break apart action (in case you forgot something to do) makes a lot more steps in editing afterwards. But, hey - if you`re up for warp speeds -> Engage! ,)

Thanks ~suv. I appreciate your comments. I'm trying to look up your links, but the entire Inkscape web resources are offline right now. I'm totally lost what "single color, alpha" has to do with changing text to path. But maybe when I can read those old release notes, it will make more sense.

I'm not sure if a button on the command bar is the solution. It seems like it could be an item in the Text menu, or maybe even an extension. I don't think we've gotten far enough into a discussion, to know how it would be best to accomplish this.

First we have to understand everything, and speaking for myself, I haven't been able to read the old release notes yet.

It might be that

Only if there is a strict requirement to have a fully identical appearance....

happens more often than you are aware?? I know as a website owner, if I put a graphic on my website, with a special kind of font, I want it to look that way, no matter who views it, whether they have that font installed or not.

Here's an example: http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/inde ... article=15 I really like how that font looks for that tutorial. But I had to convert the whole page of text to paths, to make sure that font is displayed to everyone who views it. Of course, in this case, I didn't have to manipulate it further, so it's still individual characters, all grouped together. But for the site "logo" at the top of this page, and the section titles below, it was 3 steps, for each separate item on this page http://forum.inkscapecommunity.com/index.php

Maybe it is more of an issue for web designers? And it seems that web design is one of the many ways people can use Inkscape.

^What's so wrong with using a group of paths?

That the letters can easily be rearranged.
Even by accident you can enter the group and move parts.


I can hardly think of a situation where I want to use four different colours inside one text object.
But if it was for some real fancy stuff, I'd rather convert the text to path, ungroup characters and threat each letter separately.


Contrary of combining characters, the grouped solution performs much better in rendering.

Just before we disperse...

One`s routine can`t be hold as carved in stone, while one may customize or otherwise adjust the tool toward it`s preferences.
Asking for help is one thing but instead asking for tool to be changed - whole another ball part, if not another game.

There`s so many possible outputs of text and so many possible technical demands for the end result - concluding it all in just Text to Combined path is a quite statement,)
I`ll dare to imagine a toolbar with "all" buttons and I apologize for not being fully precise:

I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always
I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always
I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always
I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always
I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always I do not use Combine/Union always

"What's so wrong with using groups of paths...."

There's nothing wrong with it, if the next needed step can be done to groups (or there are no further steps). But because so many things that one might want to do with text (such as Offsets, many LPEs, some extensions, and of course path operations) can't be done on groups, it is often necessary to ungroup and either combine or union.

Color never entered in to the original question. Handling text made of different colors would be a whole other story. But it seems this may have "touched a nerve" for ~suv. If we take ~suv's poster, with different colors of text, we would never treat all the text in the same way. We would select "one" and "three" and do whatever needs to happen. And "two" would have to handled separately.

Or speaking only for myself, if I need to do something with that text that requires it to be a path, I would save coloring it until the last step - after the path manipulation is finished.

Nice one, Xav!
Works in 0.48.5 as well.

Social Experiment

Thanks Xav !