I've used the search feature and looked at a lot of the finished work but I have not found the type of examples I am looking for.

I am a noobie and am interested in in using Inkscape for my own printed forms, check-lists, stationary type stuff and diagrams. I did see some cool diagrams, however. But seeing more would be great.

Rather than looking at every bit of every post in the finished works section, can someone point me to examples of what I am looking for? Names of users and posts here will be fine. Links offsite are fine too if that is within the terms of use here. Thanks in advance!

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

I'm not sure if I've seen any images like that, made with Inkscape (here or anywhere else) but Inkscape certainly could handle it, I guess. Are you looking for forms that have already been made, and provided for download? Or do you want to make your own? Well, either way, you could try looking at Open Clipart Library.

Personally, I would use Inkscape, because I know it pretty well. I tried to learn how to use Scribus (open source desktop publishing) a couple of years ago, for making tutorials. But I guess that's a whole different approach, which was going to take a good investment of time learning. So I just stick with Inkscape now. But I think most people would think of using desktop publishing first, for a project like yours....or even just a word processor. Although I'm not sure exactly where one would look for downloadable forms....but there must be some place. Hhmmm....if you're on Windows, you might have Microsot Works installed, which I'm pretty sure has a bunch of pre-made stuff like that. Or there's the OpenOffice Suite which is another open source project, which certainly would offer that kind of thing....I think you'd want OO Base (

Thanks for the reply. I know someone who makes wonderful forms in Adobe Illustrator and I want to try something like that but use an open source tool. I was hoping to get confirmation that this could be done well in Inkscape. Actually, I know it can be done well, but I just want to see examples for additional reassurance.

My second most likely application of Inkscape would be for creating diagrams and I did find several REALLY GOOD examples here.

I think it's hard to tell which program(s) people have used to create forms (or anything really). For example, if doing a Powerpoint presentation, I'd make the designs in Inkscape, then import to PP, so you really wouldn't be able to tell where it came from. But yes, you can do great things with this program! I think more artists do 'drawings', vs business things, so there just aren't as many pics for us to view business items. I'd like to see it too, as I do some of that as well. My fav thing to use it for business things so far has been to make certificates (of award or appreciation certs, etc), because you can be creative in the design.
Hope you will share what you've done on here when you're finished!

This article is very interesting, and also shows some examples of Inkscape created svg forms.
http://www.linuxjournal.com/article/9283
Although I've never tried drawing entire documents in Inkscape ( programs like Libreoffice allow you to use the mail-merge features etc,
and they are open source, so I normally used libreoffice for creating document forms.)

[rant]
Libreoffice draw is nice for creating a detailed form, with fill-in fields etc, from your Inkscape created graphics.
I think that kind of thing is really what it's meant for. You can make nice greeting cards, stationary, memo and record forms,
or just about anything, include your svg graphic elements and the document will work the way you want your business forms and letterheads,
etc to work. Libreoffice writer is nice of course, but it doesn't give you the same freedom for
document layout that you get by using Draw.
[/end rant]

Flamingolady has a point when she mentions that its often difficult, if not impossible, to know what software was used to create a document form you
find online...and there dont seem to be a lot of articles about creating such forms with Inkscape. I suspect that most things you can create with illustrator,
can be made in very much the same way with Inkscape, so I don't doubt it can be done.

It would help if you could post an example of the kind of forms your talking about
your friend making with Illustrator, so we can see what it is your hoping to do.

Thanks for the input, which helps me clarify what I want to do. I think my main question is answered - and that I need to experiment with both Inkscape and (open office) Draw.

Since I want to not post the actual forms that my friend makes in Illustrator I started search for other examples (e.g., productivity, time management, getting-things-done) that I could post. What I did find were examples that are close enough to my needs and many of them indicated that they were made with Open Office Draw. So, maybe I am barking up the wrong tree -- or more likely, Inkscape is a capable tool for this, but perhaps overkill for forms.

One area where (I think/guess) Inkscape would be much better is to make a more compelling form, even if not any more functional. Rather than rectilinear areas I imagined rectangular areas rounded edges, these containing blank areas, lines, dots, boxes, or ovals as to fill in like a standardized test. These areas would either be grouped on the page or follow some flow, like steps or stages in a processes. All of that with some added graphical elements.

I was asking about tools to make wireframes the other day and someone offered a library of form elements they'd made which of course is long lost in an irc backscroll. There's certainly lots of this kind of stuff out there.