I'm trying to create a door hanger for a local project. The door hanger will be 4.125" x 11.0". I want to import an image (which will likely be 2848x2136 pixels), then clip a portion out of the image to fit my document, and use it as background for the document (without scaling or distorting the image portion that I select).

Now, I likely can do this indirectly, by assuming a DPI value for my document, converting the size to pixels vs inches, separately crop a section out of the picture, and import the cropped image. But before I did all that, I wanted to see if that's something the program will already do directly?? Can anyone advise me on this??

If this is already discussed in a faq or document somewhere, feel free to post a link or other pointer. I tried looking through the menus and the help screens and didn't see anything that I recognized as related, but I'm new to Desktop Publishing and likely don't know the terminology that I need to know.

Thank you for any help that you can provide!!

The magic word in your post is Clip You can look up the clip function on http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/

Hiya, microUgly!! Thanks for the tip... (the clip tip, as it were).
That link actually doesn't connect at the moment, but I'll look up clip in the online help,
and check that link in the morning; it might be sleeping now!!

Hopefully, I'll find all my clipclues there!!

The basic idea is:

1. Import the image with File -> Import.
2. Draw a rectangle over the part of the image you want to keep. Make it partially transparent so you can see the image underneath.
3. Select the image and the rectangle and then do Object -> Clip -> Set.

Then only the portion of the image covered by the rectangle will remain. And if you realize you need a different section of the image (smaller, bigger, totally different), you can do Object -> Clip -> Release, move the rectangle, and set it again in the right spot.

kelan wrote:And if you realize you need a different section of the image (smaller, bigger, totally different), you can do Object -> Clip -> Release, move the rectangle, and set it again in the right spot.

You can do some edits without releasing the mask. If you're working with a rectangle you should be able to resize it. If you need to reposition it, rather than moving the clipping object move the clipped object. You can do this by "entering" the clip by double-clicking or pressing Ctrl + Enter - this will let you select the photo instead of the clip. [Incorrect]

microUgly wrote:You can do some edits without releasing the mask. If you're working with a rectangle you should be able to resize it. If you need to reposition it, rather than moving the clipping object move the clipped object. You can do this by "entering" the clip by double-clicking or pressing Ctrl + Enter - this will let you select the photo instead of the clip.

Is this new in 0.46? I'm using 0.45, and I can't change anything about the clip without releasing it. I don't see a way to resize the clipping rectangle, nor can I enter the clip like a group, by double-clicking or pressing Ctrl-Enter. If I make a one-object group of the object, and then clip the group, I can reposition it like you describe, but not if the object is clipped directly.

kelan wrote:Is this new in 0.46? I'm using 0.45, and I can't change anything about the clip without releasing it.

Sorry, you're absolutely right - you can't.

I thought you could move the handles of the clip without effecting the content - you can't.

The reason why I thought you could enter the clip is because I always group my objects before clipping them - even when I'm clipping a single object. You can enter a group within a clip. I do this so I can add more objects to the clip later, if needed. The ability to group a single object is only available in 0.46.

Sorry for the mis-information.