I'm a complete newbie to inkscape and vector software in general. I downloaded some vector packs and tried choosing an element in the pack, but couldn't do it.

The pack was an svg file. Also, will eps vector packs work in inkscape? Thanks for any help.

You should be able to open EPS files with Inkscape.

Where did you get the SVG "pack" from? So we can take a look as to why the files won't open.

It could be that all objects (or some of them) are grouped, you can ungroup by using the Ungroup icon on the toolbar or hitting Shift + Ctrl + G. You can always check what kind of an object is selected by looking at the statusbar.

You can also enter the group by double-clicking it or with Ctrl + click.

Thanks micorugly. I actually can open them. It's choosing a single element that I'm having a problem with.

I'll give that a try prkos. Thanks very much.

I'm still not able to select a single element from the vector pack. Do you have to select all then do ungroup.

I'm not sure if I'm allowed to post a link to the vector pack I'm using. It comes in .png and .svg I can't get either to work. Thanks for any more suggestions.

There's nothing on this forum stopping you from posting the link

It will be easier to help once we get the file in question.

ok, thanks. Here's the vector pack I'm talking about.

http://qvectors.com/nature/ecology-vector/

I can open the svg file from the zip and I can get to the objects.

It's not a very clean file though (codewise), I can see it was made in Adobe Illustrator, I don't know if all that is standards compliant but Inkscape seems to handle it ok.

When you first open the svg click in the drawing. You will see in the statusbar "Conditional group of 1 object", ungroup it. Now you will see "Group of 1 object", ungroup that. Then you see "Group of 52 objects", ungroup that. Now you have gotten to a stage where you can select each little drawing separately

Take note that ungrouping operation may take a few seconds to finish, wait till you see the change in the statusbar.

Thanks so much. I'll give that a try and let you know if it works for me.

Is there a site you recommend for quality vector graphics? thanks.

Thanks so much...got it to work. So if I wanted to use an element from the pack in something like PS elements, would I have to save the element as a separate file?

You can check out http://openclipart.org/

There is a new website for Inkscape work http://inkscapegallery.net

there are inkscapers on deviantart too http://inkscapers.deviantart.com/

but there isn't one website that completely satisfies me. Maybe someone else can advise you better...

I'm not familiar with PS Elements, if svg is supported there you can open the svg file there and delete everything you don't need, or you can save that one object you need in a separate file, don't forget to save as Plain svg, not Inkscape svg. This option is nice because (if svg is supported) you can resize the drawing without losing quality.

You can also export the drawing you need, select it and Export to bitmap. The resolution will determine how big it is, you need to adjust it according to what you plan to do with it in Elements. If it turns out too small, you need higher resolution in exporting.

Why do you mix vector and raster formats? Maybe you can do everything you need in Inkscape. Popular raster editing software in the open source world is GIMP, maybe you should try that too GIMP can open svg files (not as vectors, you have to choose the size to be rendered) I found GIMP renders certain (complex) svg files even better than Inkscape.