What are Booleans?
Boolean is a term that spans the graphic design, math, and logic fields of study. In graphic design, it’s a way to take two (or more) shapes and use them to create a new shape with a path operation. For example, we may want to take a circle and a square and merge them to make a new shape.
We can do this by making a square using the Rectangle tool, and a circle using the Circle tool, and then choosing Union from the Path menu, as shown in Figure 6.1:
Figure 6.1 – Performing a Union operation on a circle and square
There are currently six Boolean operations in Inkscape, which are as follows:
- Union: Adds/merges shapes together
- Difference: Takes the top shape and subtracts it from the bottom shape
- Intersection: Takes two (or more) shapes and only leaves the intersecting parts
- Exclusion: Takes two (or more) shapes and cuts out the intersecting parts, leaving the non-intersecting parts
- Division: Takes...
