No matter what format I export from Inkscape, when I import an Inkscape-created file into Adobe Illustrator, it opens up and everything (nearly everything) has a linear white-to-black gradient. All I want is black or white graphics. What am I to do? So annoying!

Here's the Inkscape file in question: http://www.elanhickler.com/_/Amplifier.svg

Welcome to InkscapeForum!

Oh, that is a very clever way to create a dial decal, with tick marks around the circle!

I know that wasn't your question, but I had to disassemble some groups to look at individual objects. And this is very weird! Almost all your objects and paths are filled/stroked with gradients. The weird part is that the gradients only have one stop. So that must be why it looks fine in Inkscape -- the one stop is fully opaque. I don't think you could have done this with Inkscape....I mean making a gradient with one stop. Did you convert these objects from another format? Perhaps using Trace Bitmap? Or was it created originally in some other program?

I have no idea how a gradient can even exist with only one stop!!

What I suspect is that Illustrator doesn't recognize a gradient with only one stop, and automatically adds the other stop using some kind of default definition. And since the stop in Inkscape is opaque, it's adding the other end as transparent

But I can't explain how this could have happened
Ok, well if you select an object with the Gradient tool, it does display a gradient with 2 stops (beginning and end). And when you select the stops, they appear to be the same solid color (black or white, no transparency). But if you open the Gradient Editor, it shows only one stop. That part doesn't make sense.

Could you please let us know your operating system and Inkscape version? (in case this might be a bug)

Meanwhile, you should be able to fix this, by selecting each object and path, and change the color to a solid fill/stroke. (Click on black or white in palette, or Shift + click for strokes.) (Or use Object menu > Fill and Stroke, and click the light blue square button on either Fill tab or Stroke Paint tab.)

I only used Inkscape to do this drawing. Inkscape 0.48.1 that is. Windows XP

BTW, to comment on the clever tick marks: You need to create a circle around the tick marks and group it together so Inkscape knows where its center lies.

I think I know why almost everything has a gradient. It's because when I add a swatch to the color pallete (via the swatch button) it adds the swatch as a gradient. Then when I go to recall those swatches (shift click or click) then it adds the saved swatch to the object... which happens to be a gradient by default.

One thing I really don't understand is how to manage that color palette. What is a better way to add colors and only add colors that you want?

Oh interesting.....
I haven't used swatches at all, so that may well be expected behavior, for all I know. Swatches are relatively new to Inkscape, and may have a bug or 2. But again, that's for all I know

The simplest way is just to click on a little color square in the palette that runs along the bottom of the Inkscape window. If you click the tiny rectangle on the right, you can choose from some different palettes. I think you can even import a GIMP palette. So if you have a special palette with color that you use all the time, you can use The GIMP to create the palette, then import it to Inkscape. Then the colors that run along the bottom of the window are those in your special palette.

But I really prefer to use the Fill and Stroke dialog. There you can concoct any color you need, and you have a choice of....I don't know, "color editors" maybe? So for examle, on the Fill tab, you can use the color wheel with rotating triangle or RGB or HSL sliders, etc.

Then there's the color Dropper tool . So if you're working with an imported image, you can select colors from it, with the Dropper tool and use them in newly drawn elements. I use it really a lot if I'm trying to reproduce a photo.

Maybe we could both read up on Swatches in the manual: http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL ... omSwatches Although there's really not much there

Edit
Well look at that: "Solid color swatches are implemented as one-stop Gradients" I must read on....