I'm starting to get famous for getting in these funny jams with simple moves I should be able to get answers to in the help files, but end up still lost.

I'm making a header graphic for someone and it is basically a group of text objects. Three of the objects have different colors to them, so are distinct from each other in terms of filters. Then there are some spheres I'm using as bullets, so there are about 9 separate objects in all.

He says he would like to have an oversized version of it so he can know that he can scale down and know it won't distort/pixelate, but that is not a concern if I give him a vector, right? (he doesn't understand vectors yet I guess).

Anyway, the main question is, how do I get Inkscape to combine all of the objects into one object and "render" it to a locked vector that he can scale up and down to his heart's content?

I tried the obvious things like trying to "group" it, but that didn't seem to have the desired effect. If he uses it and say tries to place it into a web page design, the individual parts might not be locked together... or am I misunderstanding SVGs (very likely)? Is it that as soon as an SVG is taken out of Inkscape its component parts always lock together automatically? In other words, are the components editable only when the image is in Inkscape or another vector editing program?

thanks in advance
R

Hi Rhizomorph,
You can't Combine them if you want them to be different colors. When you combine paths, they all take on the same style, which includes color. Also, they must all be paths, and you don't say whether you converted the text to path.

Yes, the only way that components of an SVG file can be edited are in a vector graphics program. The only way the image can be used, is as a whole image. So if he inserts it into some webpage code, it's there as a whole, and the individual components can't be accessed individually. Unless....are you thinking that he could be using XML to write the page code? Still, I think the image stays whole.

It could be imported into another image, for example, but the individual pieces can only be edited if it's a vector graphics program.

I don't understand why grouping doesn't work. What does Grouping still allow you to do, that you don't want to happen?

Thanks Brynn,

I actually don't fully understand grouping yet. I understand it a little, but perhaps in this particular situation it wasn't the right thing.

The fact that SVGs stay locked together (uneditable) when not in a vector editing program is good, at least I get that now!

I still don't understand how I get an (SVG) image to be large in Inkscape (but not large simply by inflating the view to more than 100%), but maybe it's not something I really need it to do, if one can simply rescale it when it is away from an editing program.

In fact, there is my next question: if someone has an SVG image and they are, say, trying to place it into a web page layout, do they have the ability to scale it up or down in that setting (and not have to take it into an editing program to do it)?

....if someone has an SVG image and they are, say, trying to place it into a web page layout, do they have the ability to scale it up or down in that setting (and not have to take it into an editing program to do it)?

Possibly, it depends on how the page is made/coded. If you're using such a code where the image is going into a placeholder that is bigger or smaller than the image actually is, it will automatically be stretched or shrinked to fit. But there are other ways to code the page so that the image stays at the proper size. I should say that's my understanding, which is really only the very basics of making a webpage. It would be better for them to download Inkscape and scale it....unless they're really very good at coding and making webpages.

So I guess I'm answering backwards to your questions. But you change the size by scaling. That can be done in a few different ways. Using the Selection tool, hold Ctrl + Shift then grab one of the corner arrows (of the bounding box) and drag it larger or smaller. Or on the Selection tool control bar, you can change the dimensions in the H and W values. Be sure to click the lock icon between W and H to make sure the image stays in the proper proportions. Or there's Object menu > Transform > Scale tab.

If you have grouped everything together, it will be easy to scale everything all at the same time.

If the person does not know what size he wants, it would be simple for him to download Inkscape, and have the ability to scale it himself (or herself). Probably the reason he/she as asking for the larger size, so that they could scale it down with less pixelization, might be because not all browsers can display SVG images. Some are better than others, but to my knowledge, none can display all SVGs. In my opinion, it's still better to use a raster image on a webpage (PNG, GIF, JPG, etc.). But as long as you or he has Inkscape, it just takes a couple of minutes to scale the original SVG and export a PNG at the size they want.

I hope that helps

The easiest way to make SVG scale to the viewport of your browser or the DIV tag of a HTML page at all times is to make a small change in the <svg> declaration. First change the width and height values to 100% and the add the line preserveAspectRatio="xMaxYMax meet" to the svg declaration.



Come to think of it,.. this might be handy as a standard export option for web related SVG files