Inkscape

How do I change size of arrow ends without changing line weight?

Asked by Gregor Shapiro

I want to change the size of the end marker of a line without changing the line weight.

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su_v (suv-lp) said : 		#1

The size of Inkscape's stock markers is relative to the stroke width (implicit markerUnits="strokeWidth"). You can choose between 3 predefined sizes (S, M, L) of the arrows from Inkscape's stock markers, but they all scale relative to the stroke width.

It is possible to define the markerUnit as "userSpaceOnUse" [1], but Inkscape does not have a GUI to change such a property of the marker definition(s) referenced in the current document. You can work with 'Edit > XML Editor' do change the referenced marker definition in the <defs> section of the current document, create a custom marker with the proper size for your current stroke width [2], or add new stock markers with attributes as you need them [3], [4].

An quick example testing two different non-scaling marker definitions (based on stock markers, edited using Inkscape's built-in XML Editor):
<http://imgh.us/markerUnits-3.svg>

[1] <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/painting.html#MarkerUnitsAttribute>
[2] <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Attributes-Stroke.html#Attributes-Stroke-Markers>
[3] <http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Customize-Files.html#Customize-Files-Markers>
[4] <http://www.w3.org/TR/SVG11/painting.html#MarkerAlgorithm>

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Gregor Shapiro (gregor-shapiro) said : 		#2

I was of course hoping for a nice GUI with a slider or an input field to change the marker of the selected line...
But I might have to do the XML editing stuff on another ocassion (this time I drew the dozen line ends by hand as vector objects (and got them nicely curved in the process)

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Francesco Montorsi (francesco-montorsi) said : 		#3

I agree with Gregor...having a nice GUI to define the size of the arrow markers would be great. Specially because the difference between L and M markers is huge (given the same stroke width)!!

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Andrew Somerville (andy-somerville) said : 		#4

Perhaps this should be a bug report/feature request instead?

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Mehdi (kroeliebuschie) said : 		#5

workaround:
- create a line with an arrow marker
- adjust the stroke Width (this changest the arrow head size)
- create line on top of the previous line without an arrow head
- adjust stroke width

this allows you to adjust the sizes independent of each other