Hi, I'm trying to create a shape with the bezier tool and fill it with color.

I have two concerns:
1. the shape I want to make does not fill with color as expected
2. when I close the shape using the bezier tool, it makes a weird looking stroke (attached image)

Here's what I have done:
First, I tried making a triangle using the bezier tool. When I clicked on the last point to close the triangle, a weird stroke pattern occurred. I want just a simple, straight-edged triangle.

Second, I tried making a triangle using bezier. I wanted to fill it with color, but when I click on a color (let's say yellow) only the stroke line turns yellow. On the bottom left hand corner of Inkscape, it says the Fill is yellow and the Stroke is none.

When I go to the Fill and Stroke window, I selected Flat Color under Fill and the color is still yellow. When I go to Stroke Paint, I selected x (No Paint). But when I click Flat Color (under Stroke Paint), the stroke changes to gray, the selected stroke color. I notice when I zoom in, the gray Stroke outlines the yellow stroke. How can this be fixed so the stroke stays gray but the inside of the triangle fills with yellow? I'm not sure if I messed with the settings when exploring Inkscape.

Help would be appreciated thanks

Do this: Path -> Remove Path Effect
And when you create a new path with Bézier or Pencil tool, make sure that at the top, in the tool control bar, the 'shape' is set to 'None'.

Also, I'm not sure if this might have happened, on top of having the path effect. If you click with the Pen/Bezier tool, it makes corner nodes, which makes sharp corners. If you click-drag, it creates a smooth node, which is how you make bezier curves "on the fly".

I've found it's really easy to accidentally drag the mouse when setting a node. So most of the time, I use that tool in Straight Line Mode. That prevents me from accidentally creating a smooth node. Then if I really do need a smooth node, I switch to the Node tool after I finish drawing the path, and change the node to smooth, and adjust the handles. I've never been able to control making curves on the fly with the Pen/Bezier tool anyway. So it all works well for me.

The button for straight line mode is on the control bar, nearby the other buttons which control what kind of line is drawn with that tool.

Moini wrote:Do this: Path -> Remove Path Effect
And when you create a new path with Bézier or Pencil tool, make sure that at the top, in the tool control bar, the 'shape' is set to 'None'.

Thank you so much, that helped!

brynn wrote:Also, I'm not sure if this might have happened, on top of having the path effect. If you click with the Pen/Bezier tool, it makes corner nodes, which makes sharp corners. If you click-drag, it creates a smooth node, which is how you make bezier curves "on the fly".

I've found it's really easy to accidentally drag the mouse when setting a node. So most of the time, I use that tool in Straight Line Mode. That prevents me from accidentally creating a smooth node. Then if I really do need a smooth node, I switch to the Node tool after I finish drawing the path, and change the node to smooth, and adjust the handles. I've never been able to control making curves on the fly with the Pen/Bezier tool anyway. So it all works well for me.

The button for straight line mode is on the control bar, nearby the other buttons which control what kind of line is drawn with that tool.

Thank you so much for the advice!!