The Inkscape Interface

There’s no doubt about it, Inkscape is a powerful design application. As such, there is a multitude of tools and functions to get the results you’re after. When you open Inkscape for the first time, it can seem a bit overwhelming. Worry not – we’ll have you up to speed in no time!

In this chapter, you will learn about the various parts of the Inkscape user interface, what they are used for, and how to navigate them. Knowing your way around will dramatically speed up your work in Inkscape, as you will spend less time searching for the tools you need, which of course leaves more time for using them.

By the end of this chapter, you should have a good idea of where to find things easily in Inkscape.

In this chapter, we will cover the following topics:

• Navigating the interface
• The Menu bar
• The Tool bar and Tool control bar
• The Desk and Page area
• The Swatch Palette
• The Color Indicators
• The Layer Info Indicator
• The Status bar
• The Docking area and dialogs
• The Commands bar
• The Snap control bar
• The Display Transform Control