Inkscape

Can I do pressure sensitive "inking" in Inscape? If so, how?

Asked by ee

As an artist, I often do pencil sketches. As I am becoming more and more a fan of inkscapes vector art, I found myself wanting to know if it would be possible to "ink" these sketches in Inkscape.

In order to do this in a satisfactory way, however, I need to be able to use my pressure sensitive wacom tablet to control the weight (thickness) of the resulting line on the fly. That is, pressing lightly would render a thin line, pressing harder would render a thicker line. The line weight would need to be able to be varied across the full length of the line.

I believe this functionality exists within the calligraphy tool, but I could not see a way to make a symmetrical brush that would render a line that didn't look like calligraphy. (all the nibs are bars instead of circles/squares?)

Anyway, most line-art drawing must have a line weight variation to convey weight and interest.

Is there a way to do this in Inkscape currently? One that is coming soon?

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prkos
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ee (elliott-lilacpond) said : 		#1

Wow, that was a really poorly spelled version of "Inkscape". Inscape = Inkscape. :D

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Best prkos (prkos) said : 		#2

I don't have a tablet but I've read a lot about people using it with Inkscape, so yes you can do that. The trick is to set several options in the Calligraphy tool properly to get the same or at least similar drawing feeling as in other programs.

Turn pressure sensitivity on (its the first icon on the Calligraphy toolbar), set Fixation to 0 so you don't have bar nib (this doesn't affect line ends), to get rounded "brush" ends set Caps to ~2.5 (1 gives round caps, 5 stretches the ends a lot in an ellipse-like shape), set Mass to ~0.08 to get nice smooth lines that don't pick up on every nib shake
In my humble opinion these settings are a good starting point for inking play

Im using the development version 0.46, but I think most if not all of these options are available in the official 0.45 version

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ee (elliott-lilacpond) said : 		#3

Ok, a quick look in version .45 (what i have installed currently) shows some of these features (mass and pressure), but i don't see fixation or caps. I guess im going to have to try the development version.

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ee (elliott-lilacpond) said : 		#4

Thanks prkos, that solved my question.

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ee (elliott-lilacpond) said : 		#5

After i downloaded a nightly development build, i was able to do inking with some success. Thanks for the info.

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aras (arasbm) said : 		#6

I am using version 0.47 and dont see any pressure sensitivity options under Calligraphy. Do I need anything else to get these options? Pressure sensitivity is working in xournal.

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D Sandhu (dsandhu-mail) said : 		#7

How do I get the brush Strokes with Calligraphy tool?