Hi:
I use inkscape to draw diagrams, text and mathematical formulas using the calligraphic tool. I don't found a way to change the resolution of this tool. I understand by resolution the minimal size of a trace that will be registered. For instance, to draw the point over the letter i I must trace several dots until I get one not too big, and still is too big for me, and a small one is not registered. I understand that it is not possible to get infinite resolution but I am asking for a way to change it.
Thanks.

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

After you engage the Calligraphy tool, if you look up just above the canvas, across the top is the tool control bar. It changes for every tool that you use. There are many settings there for configuring the Calligraphy tool. For example, the width. Or with the Presets, you can choose a different type of pen tip, sort of.

I don't clearly understand what you're asking though. I understand the dot over the "i" well enough. But you used the word "trace", which has me a little confused. It may be just a difficult translation, if you're not a native English speaker?

Or do you use a graphics tablet? Are you talking about pressure sensitivity?

Hi brynn:
Your are right two times: I am not a native English speaker and I am using a graphics tablet (Wacom).
I am using trace in the sense of stroke or short line made with the calligraphic tool.
I think is not a matter of width or pressure sensitivity since I have changed these parameters and my problem remains the same.
Let me explain a little more my problem: Using the pen of the graphics tablet I draw a circle with a small radius and I can see the circle on the inkscape window, now I draw another circle but with a smaller radius and now the circle is not drawn on the inkscape window and the following error message is seen on the terminal (on Linux):
** (inkscape:1863): WARNING **: Failed to create path: invalid data in dc->cal1 or dc->cal2. I assume that the message is warning that the drawing was too small to be drawn. I am sure that the stroke is detected (but not drawn) because I can see the X-Y coordinates numbers changing when I am doing the small stroke.
Therefore I assume that there is a minimal length stroke (set by inkscape and not related with the width) that will be drawn and this minimal length is the parameter that I would like to change.
Thanks.

looks like same bug reported in here
https://bugs.launchpad.net/inkscape/+bug/247166

Oh, good catch, spaventapasseri -- I would have chased that around forever, before learning it was a bug!

According to the last entry in that bug report, it is incomplete. So perhaps, amorales, you can help by providing additional info? I would suggest waiting for a member named "~suv" to reply. I do see a link to a related bug report, so perhaps it is complete enough -- I'm not sure. But ~suv will know

Or not to short change spaventapasseri. Perhaps he knows whether info from amorales will be helpful?

amorales wrote:(…) For instance, to draw the point over the letter i I must trace several dots until I get one not too big, and still is too big for me, and a small one is not registered. (…)

Looks more like #263166 “CALLIGRAPHY TOOL: Tool should allow for ink dots / dotting” to me (rather than the other bug mentioned earlier). Please read the discussion in the comments section of the report (it is considered not a bug report, but a feature request - the tool was designed differently, and it does not seem possible to implement changes easily without sacrificing some of the original characteristics of the calligraphy tool).

amorales wrote:Using the pen of the graphics tablet I draw a circle with a small radius and I can see the circle on the inkscape window, now I draw another circle but with a smaller radius and now the circle is not drawn on the inkscape window and the following error message is seen on the terminal (on Linux):
** (inkscape:1863): WARNING **: Failed to create path: invalid data in dc->cal1 or dc->cal2. I assume that the message is warning that the drawing was too small to be drawn. I am sure that the stroke is detected (but not drawn) because I can see the X-Y coordinates numbers changing when I am doing the small stroke.

Could it not be a timing issue more than an issue of small sizes? (described as 'steps to reproduce' in comment 3 of bug #247166: "The trick seems to be to use very short strokes, clicking the left button on and off quickly." )

You are aware that you can create real dots with the pencil (freehand) as well as the pen (bezier) tool (in straight line mode) by using 'Ctrl+Left mouse button click'? The size of the dots is relative to the stroke width and can be adjusted in the tool preferences for pen and pencil.

~suv wrote:

Off topic:

brynn wrote:According to the last entry in that bug report, it is incomplete.

No, it is not.

What's unclear about the status change at the bottom of the last comment there?

Code: Select all

Changed in inkscape:
status:    Incomplete → Confirmed

The confirmation was done based on a more recent report which turned out to be a duplicate of bug #247166.

I was hoping I had qualified my comments enough to be clear that I wasn't sure (by saying "I'm not sure"). I thought "Incomplete → Confirmed" meant that it is confirmed to be a bug but that the report is incomplete (more info needed). I thought that when a bug is confirmed, it then gets ranked low, medium, high, critical, or something like that. So since it doesn't indicate any ranking, I thought more info was needed. You know I was just trying to be helpful, right?

I apologize if my lack of understanding has caused any problems.

Hi suv:
Indeed, #263166 "CALLIGRAPHY TOOL: Tool should allow for ink dots / dotting", contains a large discussion of the same problem that I am reporting.
I mentioned a dot over an i only as an example of a short stroke, but the idea is to improve inkscape to have the possibility to do shorter strokes, not only small dots. This would be an improvement, but the warning "** (inkscape:1863): WARNING **: Failed to create path: invalid data in dc->cal1 or dc->cal2" issued when inkscape did not draw a short stroke some times gives place to an erratic behavior, as for instance: needing to give two strokes to obtain only one, I think is a bug.
Thanks.

It seems that the problem has been identified and discussed thoroughly so this is just a suggestion for a workaround perhaps! Check your fill and stroke dialog and make sure that you are use the fill rule nonzero instead of even-odd, this can give better results with the .