Is there a way to get rid of the cursor icon on the calligraphy tool? I don't see an option in the preferences - perhaps there's a file that can be removed? The little cross hair is o.k. but the swirly symbol is distracting.

I'm using white as an "eraser" until .47 comes out with a real eraser, but I'm having trouble with the last line drawn changing color, when I select a new color, to the new color. I've been drawing extra lines off to the side to work around it, but is there a way to keep it from happening in the first place?

Is there a way to quickly set the colors with hotkeys as in GIMP, i.e. "d" setting the foreground and background colors to black/white respectively, and "x" switching between them? I'd like to get the real estate the palette's taking up if I can.

Crikey, one more, can the menubar be hidden? I found out how to hide everything else but not that one.

Jack the R wrote:Is there a way to get rid of the cursor icon on the calligraphy tool? I don't see an option in the preferences - perhaps there's a file that can be removed? The little cross hair is o.k. but the swirly symbol is distracting.

Not possible, sorry

I'm using white as an "eraser" until .47 comes out with a real eraser, but I'm having trouble with the last line drawn changing color, when I select a new color, to the new color. I've been drawing extra lines off to the side to work around it, but is there a way to keep it from happening in the first place?

You lost me at "last line drawn changing color" What do you mean?

Is there a way to quickly set the colors with hotkeys as in GIMP, i.e. "d" setting the foreground and background colors to black/white respectively, and "x" switching between them? I'd like to get the real estate the palette's taking up if I can.

There is no such thing as foreground/background color in Inkscape, so I don't see how this could be applied to Inkscape. But you definitely can customize Inkscape's hotkeys by editing XML config of a hotkeys scheme. You will need to run 'inkscape --verb-list' to get the list of all actions to which you can map a hotkey.

Crikey, one more, can the menubar be hidden? I found out how to hide everything else but not that one.

Nope

P.S. Sorry, looks like I didn't make you a happy guy after all...

I'm having trouble with the last line drawn changing color, when I select a new color, to the new color

I think this is because the last line you drew is still selected, so when you choose a new color, it changes the selected item. In The GIMP, one must choose color 1st, then draw the line. But in Inkscape, it's the other way around. Well, that's not entirely true, you CAN choose the color 1st, but if anything is selected on the canvas, when you choose the color, it gets the color. So I think you just need to deselect the line before changing the color. (Or draw the next line and then change its color.)

Is that what you mean?

Update: My info in this comment isn't completely correct. Please read down to prkos's post for the answer to this question.

Jack the R wrote:I'm using white as an "eraser" until .47 comes out with a real eraser, but I'm having trouble with the last line drawn changing color, when I select a new color, to the new color. I've been drawing extra lines off to the side to work around it, but is there a way to keep it from happening in the first place?

Is there a way to quickly set the colors with hotkeys as in GIMP, i.e. "d" setting the foreground and background colors to black/white respectively, and "x" switching between them?

Like prokoudine said, Inkscape doesn't have a notion of foreground and background colors. There's also not really a way to choose the color for an object before you create it, ie "I want this color for the next object". In Inkscape, objects are created first (and given the default styling), and styled second (if you want something besides the default). You can set the default styling for the different tools in the Inkscape Preferences (press Shift+Ctrl+P or double click the icon of the tool you want to change).

So it sounds like what's happeneng is that you've created a shape and now you want to draw white over it to erase part of it. You select white on the palette, thinking that will change the "foreground color" for the next line you draw. What actually happens is that if you have anything selected, it will be turned white. Conversely, maybe you just drew a white line to erase part of something. Now you want to choose blue for the next thing you draw. But what happens is that the white line you drew turns blue.

This is just an artifact of Inkscape's workflow (create first, style second) being opposite to GIMP and other raster drawing programs (pick style first, create second) that you're used to.

prokoudine - How about replacing the calligraphy tool swirl graphic with a transparent graphic of the same name and size? Where is it kept at? I looked through the Inkscape folder in /usr/share/inkscape and couldn't find any GUI stuff.

brynn, kelan - That's what I meant, thanks for explaining it. Looking forward to .47 and the eraser tool. . .

Jack the R wrote:prokoudine - How about replacing the calligraphy tool swirl graphic with a transparent graphic of the same name and size? Where is it kept at?

It's src/pixmaps/ in the source code tree

Jack the R wrote:I'm using white as an "eraser" until .47 comes out with a real eraser, but I'm having trouble with the last line drawn changing color, when I select a new color, to the new color. I've been drawing extra lines off to the side to work around it, but is there a way to keep it from happening in the first place?

There is an option in Inkscape Preferences > Tools > Calligraphy Select new Path, turn it off. Now when you draw a path using Calligraphy tool it won't stay selected after you finish drawing it, so you can change the color to a new one for the next object.

While in calligraphy tool click on a color, lets say red
draw a path, it will be red
change the color to green (the already drawn path will stay red)
draw a path, it will be green
...

Wow, nice tip, prkos! I just tested this and it works for any tool, as long as you have the Preference marked to use "Last used style". Meaning, if that preference is marked, you can select the color style before drawing the next object.

You can see what style will be applied to the next object by the style indicator in the upper left corner of the window.

kelan wrote:...the style indicator in the upper left corner of the window.

upper right right?

yeah it's not that different to make it work on other tools, select Last used style in preferences, and remember to hit Esc after every path to deselect it so you can choose different colors for the next.

prkos wrote:upper right right?

Yes, it's the upper right. Sorry for the confusion.

Thanks to prokoudine and prkos for the tips!

Now I've got a couple more questions.

I've had to temporarily switch back to Windows, what is the equivalent of running 'inkscape --verb-list' ?

Or if you really want to be helpful, how do you set the width function of the calligraphy tool to a hot key?

And if it's not possible, I would suggest this as a new feature

Jack the R wrote:I've had to temporarily switch back to Windows, what is the equivalent of running 'inkscape --verb-list' ?

--verb-list works in Windows, if you use aho's InkCL to capture the output: http://kaioa.com/node/42

prokoudine wrote:

Jack the R wrote:prokoudine - How about replacing the calligraphy tool swirl graphic with a transparent graphic of the same name and size? Where is it kept at?

It's src/pixmaps/ in the source code tree

Oh wait, that means I have to compile from source, doesn't it?

Yikes.