I'm new to Inkscape, but very enthusiastic about using it. Before I request this feature, I'd like to pitch it here to the forum. I've looked for it, but since I'm new, maybe it's there and I just haven't seen it.
It would be very useful to be able to vary a stroke's properties along its path. I think most naturally, by node.
Say you could draw a curve, and have one end be a certain width and color, and at the other end a different width and color, and different again at other nodes along the curve. The properties would gradually change from one node to the next.

you can vary the color by using gradients, although not every case in your request can easily be reproduced that way, but you can if you use more than one object.

Varying stroke width has already been requested variable width strokes

There are new features in development builds that let you apply shapes to Pen and Pencil strokes, see here viewtopic.php?f=5&t=1425&p=7268#p7268

If stroke properties could be varied along the path, would that allow you to combine paths, without one path having to take the properties of the other? It's so frustrating sometimes, to have to get involved with layers and aligning and etc., when it would be so simple to just combine paths.

Or would the other combined path just take on the varied properties of the other path?

There is no mechanic to vary the property of a path along it's length so there is no science to predict how it would behave when combined.

I used to have this idea, too, but now I would simply apply "stroke to path". At first I didn't like it, but after I've got used to it, i's actually quite handy. Also, I doubt that svg supports varying strokes.

Can i assume by properties you mean width?
(im going to make this assumption for the sake of my response here, because in this case i can definitely see a benefit)

To realise this IE the ability to alter the stroke width individually at any point along its length ETC you could introduce a new system that would allow center line and edge line editing modes for all objects.
Giveing you the ability to alter the width of a line at any point along its width......
I.E "blurring the line" (ie the metaphorical line that is the difference ) between a solid object and a line.....
And to achieve this you could as i suggested create seperate edit modes for edge or centre line editing regardless of how an object was created....

The way i see it traditionally in your vector app you have the demarcation that is line/fill iE an outline or a closed solid....
these are fundamentally different to the computer and also are different logically....
I.E a line is a line and a solid shape is a solid shape.... simple right?
Yes in theory a line is infinitely thin.......but what of stroke width....
So now your line has body! I.e to define it, it is only a center line but as it has a stroke width it is actually a soild! but it is edited by center line and has a fixed width....! (sorry to waffel on im getting to the point)

This is well and good.....
Ok so you create an object with the line tool, you give it a width of say 1mm then you decide you want to put a buldge or lump in the side of it.........
In inscape you have "stroke to path" function.....
with this you convert your path to a solid shape so that its outlines are then what is edited and its original center line is lost!
But does it have to be this way?

What i would propose is a system that is a win win for every one...
I.E currently you have "stroke to path" (what i would call an edge edit for a center line input)
I am saying you could have a:
"path to stroke" capability!!!!!!!! (iE what i would call a center line edit for any solid object)
(i realize this would not make sense for a cirlce but it definitely does make sense if your object started its life as a line and then was coverted to a solid with the "stroke to path" function...

What i am proposing is that even if you do convert your line to a solid in this way that it should still remember its rough center line and then even though it may have had an edge edit (bulge) like a snake that swallowed a bowling ball....
That you should still be able to do a center line edit on this object and that this should transform the bulge or any edge edits made along the path to reflect the changes make via the center line edit!!!

I hope this is not too complex for everyone to follow....
and to extend this idea you could just have a center line edit tool which would be a way to edit any shape by a center line...
IE a center line generated automatically by the computer, one already there as it was created as a line in the first place or perhaps you could even define your own center line if need be....

But anyway it would be like a centerline edit or edge edit......and you would not have to convert the object to do this as it would be two seperate edit modes.....
awesome i think...(P.S. i know this is probably going to be quite difficult from a programming perspective but i think it is a great idea)

So getting back to the original post.....
With in this framework you could also perhaps have the ability to add in additional width lines anywhere along a center line...
I.e a current line has only one fixed width... this new architecture would allow a width to be applied to any part of a stroke. and how quickly it returns to the default line width could be controled in a few different ways/options...
I.E to the next center line node...by as specified amount (distance along the line.)...

Sorry to be so long winded and complicated in my explanation but i needed to explain this whole system of having seperate center line and edge line editing modes for all objects to explain how the ability to alter the width of a line at any point along its width could work......
Because to do this you would need to "blurr the line" (ie the metaphorical line that is the difference ) between a solid object and a line.....
And to achieve this you could as i suggested create seperate edit modes for edge or centre line editing regardless of how an object was created....

Sorry again for the mammoth post... i love this idea (cant you tell)

With regards to the original post: theres an LPE in development to let you do this.

Did you see the screenshot in the thread I linked above? This can already be done using Live Path effects. You can download a development Inkscape version if you want to test it.

You can create an object, lets say your snake that ate a bowling ball, and use it to stretch it along the line you draw with Pen or Pencil tools. So basically you have your center line that you can edit with the node tool, but it doesn't have equal width all over, it looks like a snake that ate the bowling ball and the snake bends with the centerline.

Yeah, thats the path along path. But theres an actual variable width thread LPE in dev too, that will let you create a stroke like you get from the callig tool but that retains its centerline and lets you come back and edit the widths

cool... if i had dared suggest these things on the talk graphics forum i would have been "booed off stage"...
but it seems common fodder on the inkscape forum....
I like what im seeing here.....seems this is a much more open forum

David Hewitt wrote:cool... if i had dared suggest these things on the talk graphics forum i would have been "booed off stage"...
but it seems common fodder on the inkscape forum....
I like what im seeing here.....seems this is a much more open forum

Well its open source software, so we're all about people contributing

As long as you keep it polite, accept that there may be reasons why things are done the way they are or cant be done the way you'd like and realise that since this is being done by people in their spare time what you see as a critical thing may not be top of our list we will generally always welcome feedback and suggestions.

this is true...and no 2 people ever have exactly the same vision of the best way to do anything i guess...
And I think most coders who do participate would probably do so for their own reasons no doubt (which is obvious).

I do feel inspired by UI design I guess... some people on the xara forum thought this was arrogant i guess IE that i was so pasionate about my own ideas... but im also pasionate about other people's ideas too when they are good ones...
A couple i have seen already on this forum are quite impressive.

Not that such enthusiasm like mine necessarily always translates well into reality...(i hear you)
I can dream though...

I have one or two ideas that i would sell my soul to the devil to get down in code LOL...
And the foremost of these is a particular way i envisage (and also actually do myself manually but I have ideas of how to effectively automate) of semi manually (assisted auto) vectorization....particularly for servicing high quality raster images...

IE specifically a tool set that the user could use to palette reduce (consolidate palette colours-something i often do manually) high quality raster images in a very controlled and user driven way so as to optimize them for picking out shapes with a view to quickly and effectively vetorizing them....

But I had best create a new thread for this when Im ready......
I was planning to post this up on the xara forum but anyway that is historyl
I am actually working on a design using this process right now....(with xara) i would have used inkscape if i had realized that it was capable...but i am already to far into this design to abandon it or stomach he doing it...

And it is coming along quite nicely.....when this is completed I will post another thread for this idea....
im hoping people will sit up and take notice when they see the potential for this technique by way of a design showcasing it.

Dont hold your breath however i'm supposed to be on holidays LOL

most of us coders got into it because we had an itch to scratch, and it snowballs from there
selective pallettisation is an interesting idea, could probably be tagged onto the front of the inkscape trace without too much effort. Will have to mention it to Ishmal if i see him online

Ishmal is a coder for inkscape trace....ok....that would be great....
keep me in the loop (if you dont mind)...
as i have alot of the tools and work steps etc already mapped out and would like to run them all by this guy to see if all what i envisage can be achieved....

Im pretty sure it can be actually as it is a realitively simple idea as with this method you dont even need to alter the image at all... so there is NO number crunching initially for that...As the way i foresee it being done is just by changing the pallete...

IE i think initially it could be only for paletised 256 colour images!
(as lets face it with vector the whole idea is not to have a different colour for each pixel ETC it doesnt have pixels only realitively much larger shapes and thus much less colours..... but obviously with filters etc and blurring these extra colours can be re-claimed....)

As i have found a bace image of 256 colours is an ample start point for this pallete consolidation process.

Im starting a new thread dood this one is well and truely hi-jacked LOL.