Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook: 109 recipes to create scalable vector graphics with Inkscape

In this chapter we will learn how to manipulate color in our drawings, while learning some time-saving tips in the process.

You'll be happy to know that Inkscape provides many facilities that manipulate color in a variety of ways, in the most commonly used color models, such as CMYK and RGB.

Gradients, when applied in a tasteful manner, can greatly enhance the overall effect of a drawing. Being so versatile, we will often use them in later chapters.

In this recipe we will change the Fill and Stroke color of a rectangle using color chips from a palette.

Objects in Inkscape can be made partially transparent by manipulating their opacity level, so that the background and the objects below them show through.

The default Canvas background color in Inkscape is fully transparent (zero opacity), and therefore invisible. Although this isn't indicated by a checkerboard pattern like in some other graphics applications, when we export our drawing to the PNG format, the background (Space around objects) will be transparent.

In this recipe we will create a number of objects with different levels of transparency applied to them. The final result should resemble the following screenshot:

Using only flat colors on objects doesn't allow us much freedom in our artistic expressions; most often we want to use smooth blends of different colors, also known as gradients. Gradients have more uses than we can count, but are most often applied to make objects stand out in some way, by creating a realistic or appealing look. They can be applied to fills and strokes of objects.

By using the Gradient tool we can choose two end colors (Stops) and create a smooth transition between them.

Blending isn't limited to only two colors, and gradients can have many intermediate color stops in between the end stops. By default adding a stop to a gradient creates a linear blend between colors, but by moving the stops we can make it non-linear.

Inkscape comes with a Gradient tool that allows on-canvas editing of gradients, making the whole process quick and easy to master. It can also be accessed through the Fill and Stroke dialogue.

Along with linear gradients, Inkscape also comes with radial gradients. In radial gradients color stops define different circle radii and the color blends between them.

Everything we've learned about linear gradients can be applied to radial ones as well. Radial gradients also have some special features, we will take a look at them throughout this recipe.

In the following recipe, we will create a radial gradient by taking inspiration from an iconic image in sci-fi cinematography.

Inkscape comes with several patterns ready to be applied to either fill or stroke of an object. Most of them are vector based but there are also three bitmap patterns available.

It is often necessary to create your own pattern which can be quite easy with the Object to Pattern option.

This recipe will provide an overview of the basics of pattern editing in Inkscape.

It's hard to imagine any graphics application without a Dropper tool (often also called color picker). In Inkscape, you simply select an object, select the Dropper tool, and click anywhere on canvas to assign the color under the cursor to the object fill (or stroke if you hold Shift while clicking). This works as expected if the object you are picking from is fully opaque.

There are more options when picking the color from a partially transparent object and this is what we will investigate in this recipe.

Mouse gestures are a way of accomplishing certain tasks simply by moving or dragging your mouse in a certain manner, and are often employed in applications and games to improve the user experience. Inkscape comes with mouse gestures available in the style indicator at the bottom-left of the screen. This is where the dragging to change hue, lightness, or saturation begins.

Most often we will want to change the lightness and saturation of a color. Website color palettes often include several colors that vary only slightly in lightness or saturation, and in illustrations we often add highlights and shadows that use the same base color with modified lightness.

Color Gestures offer a way to do this interactively so we see the changes in real time on screen. It's much easier to hit the correct shades this way, unburdened with numbers and only relying on visual feedback.

In this recipe we will go through several gestured...

Inkscape comes with several extensions that change the object color according to a certain set of options and conditions. These extensions can be found under the menu Extensions | Color. It is easy to guess from their names what each of them does (Grayscale, Less Light, More Saturation).

In this recipe we will use the RGB Barrel extension to very quickly create several copies of the same icon but with a different overall color palette.