I'm wondering if anyone can suggest how this image can be given a uniform ermine pattern fill? It's a group of several objects, and each object seems to use the pattern fill differently, so that the overall object is a mess when the ermine pattern is used to fill it.

Also, the default ermine fill pattern in Inkscape has a transparent background. I messed around with the SVG in the patterns.svg file, but I can't get the pattern to have a white background. Any suggestions on how to make it a white instead of transparent background?

About the first question: It's only a problem if you want to change (rotate, translate, scale) the pattern after you have applied it, right? That's a problem I had at least. I don't know if there's a better way, but if you do the transformation so it's looks right for just one of the objects (paths), you copy that path and use Ctrl+Shift+V (Paste style) on the other paths, and the pattern should look continuous.

When using the Node tool on a patterened object you get the pattern control handles that you can use to move, scale and rotate the pattern. They are usually positioned at the top left corner of the page but you can move them closer to the object. I guess if you snapped the pattern handles of all objects to the same point you'd get what you're after.

But I think it's easier to create one object that will be filled with pattern - duplicate all the small ones, do a union and fill it with pattern, and send it back behind the original objects. Remove fill from the original objects so you can see through to the pattern below, and keep the black strokes.

To change the pattern colors you have to edit them manually, use the XML editor. Select the patterened object, open XML editor, note the pattern reference, find the defs element near the top, find the pattern in questions there, and change the color, usually under Style attribute.

But the easiest way is to duplicate the ermine object, set its fill to white and send it back behind the pattern.

prkos wrote: ...
To change the pattern colors you have to edit them manually, use the XML editor. Select the patterened object, open XML editor, note the pattern reference, find the defs element near the top, find the pattern in questions there, and change the color, usually under Style attribute.

Not necessary. Here's what you can do to be able to later change a pattern and see the changes applied to all the objects that use the pattern:

• Create your pattern as you normally would.
• Make a linked copy from it (by selecting it and pressing Alt+D).
• Now move the copy away from the original object.
• Convert the copy to pattern (by selecting it and pressing Alt+I).
• Now use the pattern to fill another object.
• Go back to your original pattern object and change something (e.g. color)
• Zoom in and out once to force a canvas redraw (this is a bug https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/708269)
• You should now see the change applied everywhere the pattern is used.

Hope this saves you time

Great tip oxplot!