With so many different tools, methods, and extensions within Inkscape, it can be pretty overwhelming to cover everything. Thankfully, this A to Z of Inkscape will cover the best stuff this great vector program has to offer. Most of these have links that will bring you to a quick tip or tutorial relating to that tool. So sit back and enjoy this beautifully arranged glossary of Inkscape.

A

Align and Distribute: A dialog box with plenty of actions to align both objects and paths.

B

Box Tool: A unique tool that's used to create 3D boxes by adjusting all 3 dimensions of the box.

Break Apart: A path option that can separate a collection of paths, even if they were combined.



Brush Strokes: Custom brush strokes can be easily achieved in Inkscape with the many options available.

Bucket Tool: A tool that can fill the area of a shape or paths with a color.



C

Calligraphy Tool: A drawing tool that has a ton of options to create advanced brush strokes.

Clip: An object menu that uses a selected object/path to cut a second selected object/path positioned below it.

Clone: A edit option that creates a dynamic copy of a selected object. If the original object is altered, so will the clone.

Combine: A path operation that groups the selected paths to make one entire object that inherits a single fill and stroke.

Create Tiled Clones: A very useful menu with tons of options for creating large amounts of identical, yet dynamic objects.

D

Distribute: A series of options in Align and Distribute that evenly space out multiple objects.

Dropper Tool: A tool that can find the exact color of the selected pixel or pixel area.



Duplicate: An edit option that makes an exact duplicate of your object in the same position as the original.

E

Ellipse Tool: An essential tool that creates circles, ellipses, and arcs.

Eraser Tool: A tool that can be used to delete or cut out nodes.



Export Bitmap: A file option that allows you to export your artwork as a PNG bitmap file.

Extensions: A large drop-down menu that adds convenient and interesting features to Inkscape.



F

Fill and Stroke: An essential dialog box that contains styling options such as fill color and stroke style.

Filters: A drop-down menu that has many different filters and effects to enhance your drawings.



G

Gradient Tool: A tool that allows you to edit color and positioning of gradients.

Group: An object option that conveniently groups a selection of objects or paths.



H

Handles: A visual representation of paths and bezier curves that can be dragged to manipulate the nodes that make them up.



Help: A drop-down menu that offers a good selection of help material for Inkscape.

I

Isometric Projection: A unique art style that involves a 3D art style at a particular angle.

J

Join Style: A fill and stroke option that adjusts the appearance of a joined node.



K

Kerning: A text option that adjusts the letter spacing of each specific letter of a text object.

L

Layer: A drop-down menu that contains everything you need to keep your layers organized.

Letter Spacing: A text option that adjusts the spacing of every letter in a selected text object.



M

Markers: A stroke style option that allows shapes to be assigned to start, middle, and end nodes.

Mask: An object operation that refers to the amount of color lightness in an object to set the clipped object's opacity.

N

Nodes: The basis of all vector design, but Inkscape has a few unique tricks on these.

O

Objects to Marker: An object option that allows you to use any custom object as a marker.

P

Path Effect Editor: A powerful menu that has many advanced options for altering the appearance of paths, such as tapered lines and envelopes.

Pen Tool: A vital tool that easily creates paths by clicking to create nodes. It's also used for creating bezier curves.

Pencil Tool: A tool that's used mostly to create freehand paths and nodes.

Polygon Tool: A tool that makes drawing polygons and stars a breeze.

Q

Quadrilateral Distortion: A fancy term for the useful Extensions > Modify Path > Envelope that allows the distortion of all sides of a selected path.

R

Rectangle Tool: An essential tool that creates rectangles along with the ability to have rounded corners.

Repeating Patterns: It's very easy to create large amounts of identical, yet dynamic objects, such as patterns.

S

Shadows and Glows: A filter menu options that contains a variety of shadows and glows for objects and paths.

Spiral Tool: An interesting tool that draws spirals from a surprising amount of options.

Spray Tool: A great tool that can create multiple copies or clones of an object by spraying an area.



T

Tapered Lines: A style of line that tapers in one or both directions, and Inkscape has a few ways to do them.

Text and Font Tool: A tool to add text or text boxes to your designs.



Tweak Tool: A fun tool that has different methods of sculpting objects and paths, including shrinking and expanding.



U

Ungroup: An object option that simply ungroups your grouped objects.



Upper Case Text: An extension that will convert all of the characters of a text object into their upper case form.

V

Visualize Path: A unique extension that offers four different options to generate drawings based on the selected paths.

W

Warping: One feature from using the Tweak tool that can warp a selected object or path just by dragging it.

X

XML Editor: Since Inkscape's SVG file is based off of XML, Edit > XML Editor is a powerful way to manually edit your file... if you know what you're doing.



Z

Zoom: A view menu that offers a few unique ways for zoom management.

That's the Inkscape A to Z



We went over a lot of tools, menus, and dialog boxes that make Inkscape the incredible free open-source vector software that it is. This should make a great guide to keep on hand to keep yourself in tune while working on your Inkscape documents. Thanks for reading!

