Hi everybody !
I'm using Xfig to draw scientific graphs but it is becoming more and more difficult to work with since I've seen that Inkscape work on Mac OS X too ! I was using Psfrag package to add latex equations to my illustrations but since I need to use PdfTex psfrag doesn't work any more (I think that a lot of people wait a new release of PdfTex for that !)

Xfig offered some usefull and easy to use "classic" patterns (look at the image) but I don't find such a panel in Inkscape, it seems that I have to create myself all the patterns I want. So is there something like the pattenr palette in Inkscape or do I really need to add them myself ? (news patterns are only saved with the file but are not reusable directly in Inkscape).



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2nd question
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There is a folder in Inkscape install directory with a file where all the patterns are kept. The only interface for patterns is the one in the Fill and Stroke dialog.

This is from the readme file in that folder:
This is the directory with Inkscape's stock patterns. They are
stored in the defs of the SVG document patterns.svg. Within
Inkscape, they can be accessed via the pattern fill option on either
Fill or Stroke tab of the Fill & Stroke dialog (Ctrl+Shift+F). You
can also create a new pattern from selected objects by the Objects
to Pattern command.

I guess you can manually store your own patterns in the defs of that file so they will be available through the Fill and Stroke dialog to every file you open in Inkscape.

Thanks but it doesn't work. I've created a svg, stored it in this folder but the app doesn't "see" it.

its not enough to just have the file in that folder, you have to copy your pattern descriptions from your file into the patterns.svg. I've never tried it though so I don't know if it really works, but I'd do it by opening your file with created patterns and the patterns.svg in some text editor, and then copy your pattern descriptions from the definitions tag into the definitions tag of the patterns.svg

Unfortunately there is no patterns.svg in the Mac App. I've searched the entire App package (and in my user "application support" if you use Mac OS X too). The "pattern" folder contain only a "READ ME" text file :



I've tried to creat a "patterns.svg" in this folder adding the line



Is it the right way ?

Thank a lot for your help

I dont have experience with Macs, what Inkscape version are you using? When you go to the Fill and Stroke dialog and try to change the object fill to pattern, do you see a list of patterns there?

This is from the 0.46 release notes http://wiki.inkscape.org/wiki/index.php ... k_patterns

The pattern issue has been raised on the dev mailing list, I'll post the answer here if someone else doesnt shed some light on it sooner.

Stock patterns only work from 0.46 to get it to add them to the list in fill/stroke, you ened to save them in patterns.svg, and add inkscape:stockid="Pattern name" as an attribute to the pattern.

Simarilius wrote:Stock patterns only work from 0.46 to get it to add them to the list in fill/stroke, you ened to save them in patterns.svg, and add inkscape:stockid="Pattern name" as an attribute to the pattern.

I wrote a tutorial that shows how to define a tiling pattern and add it to the stock pattern file (Inkscape .46 and above).

http://ffaat.pointclark.net/blog/archives/143-Creating-and-Adding-Custom-Patterns-to-Inkscape.html

-Rob A>

Thanks a lot ffaat !

The official Mac OS X release is : 0.45.1 And yes it seems that this version doesn't have pattern pack as the 0.46 should.

I downloaded the lastest beta version called 0.45+devel (jan 8th) and patterns packs seems to work but not all of them and this very slow (even on my new Intel Core2Duo iMac). Nevertheless it's a great news ! further version of Inkscape will include classic patterns !