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24. June 2014

Inkscape: Problem importing PDF

Filed under: Windows — Tags: , , , , , , , , — Christopher Kramer @ 18:39

I just had problems importing a PDF into Inkscape. The PDF was an image of a graph generated by igraph for R. When importing, the circles of the vertices got replaced by the letter “q”.

I found the following workaround: I printed the PDF into a new PDF using FreePDF. The resulting PDF could then be imported into Inkscape without problems.

My original problem was that I wanted to include the graphs from igraph for R in Powerpoint as a vector graphic. As Powerpoint cannot include PDFs as graphics, I wanted to save the graphs as emf-Files. But the emf-Files exported by igraph for R look completely messed up when imported in Powerpoint. The PDFs exported by igraph for R are fine, so I wanted to import them into Inkscape and save them as emf. A bit of a long way, but it works and it does not result in an ugly pixel graphic.

Maybe somebody has similar problems and finds this useful.

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16. May 2014

Inkscape: Dialog windows do not open on multi-screen setups

Filed under: Windows — Tags: , , , , , , — Christopher Kramer @ 17:06

I am using a multiscreen setup with one small landscape screen and one big portrait screen.

When I try to open a dialog like the Inkscape settings or the document settings in Inkscape, it does not open. Or more precisely, I cannot see it because it is positioned outside the visible area. I have this problem with current Inkscape 0.48.4 on Windows 7 Professional 64bit.

The bug is known for some time but unfortunately not fixed.

But I found a great and easy workaround which I want to share with you here: Whenever you cannot see a window because it is offscreen, press [Windows-Key] [arrow-up-key]. This shortcut maximizes the current window and you can use it normally. This probably only works on Windows 7 and newer.

You can also use the left or right arrow-key to position the window on the left or right half of the screen.

Happy drawing! 🙂

10. April 2014

Inkscape: Change Arrowhead color

Filed under: Linux,Uncategorized,Windows — Tags: , , , , , — Christopher Kramer @ 18:55

In Inkscape, a great open source vector graphics program, when you change the stroke color of a path, the arrow heads still remain black. But there is a way to change their color, although quite unintuitive.

This is how it looks like:

Inkscape: arrows with same arrowhead color as the path

Inkscape: arrows can have the same arrowhead color as the path

And this is how its done:

  1. Mark the Path you want to change the color of the arrowhead
  2. “Extensions”
  3. “Modify Path”
  4. “Color Markers to Match Stroke”

That’s it!

inkscape_arrows_color

Update: Inkscape 0.91

In Inkscape 0.91, this problem is “fixed”: The arrowhead automatically gets the Stroke-color assigned and the extension mentioned above is gone. But:

Sometimes when I change the stroke color, the arrowhead does not get updated. In this case, you can adjust the arrowhead color like this:

Select the arrow, double click the color next to “Stroke:” on the lower left of the screen, it opens the window to adjust the stroke color and without doing anything in this window, it magically adjusts the color of the arrowhead.

Update: Inkscape 0.92

Unfortunately, I still have issues with the arrowhead color in Inkscape 0.92 and the workarounds above do not seem to work anymore. However, these problems only occur in old documents that I try to edit. In new documents, the arrowhead color works as expected. My current workaround is to create a new document, create the arrow I want there and then copy it into the old document. This way, I get arrows where I can edit the arrowhead color by editing the stroke color as expected.