I just installed Inkscape on the new system76 Pangolin I purchased for the fledgling Outdoor Gear Company, "PigEpax, LLC" that I'm struggling to form. I would like to use them (computer and program) to create patent application suitable drawings for my ideas. However, as soon as I opened the first tutorial and made some rectangles, I noticed right off that mine are not transparent. And I quote, "As you can see, default rectangles come up blue (yes), with a black stroke (outline, yes), and partly transparent (not at all, totally opaque)..." It goes on to say this can be changed later and I'll get there, but I'd at least like to start out on the right foot. Is there a way to restore default settings, create initial settings, or a simple explanation on how I can have semi transparent blue rectangles with black strokes from the get-go? Thank you for help in advance, I look forward to talking with you.

Richard

Hmm, I tried to "Post Reply" to thank everyone, but it said "Bluebearbevis is already signed in, so I'm editing instead. We'll geder. Interestingly enough, the tutorial did explain later how to change fill/stroke, and I discovered the combinations to be infinite. Good to practice the hotkey combinations I am thinking (thanks for the tip) and yes, I love my Pangolin, not only for preinstalled Ubuntu on a system designed and built for Linux, but for system76's awesome support too. Thanks again all.

R

Hello and welcome to the forum!

First I want to say that this is relatively a minor issue for Inkscape, and that you don't really need to change the opacity. Because it's not very likely that you'll ever want a rectangle of that color and opacity in a finished drawing (ie - you're gonna change it anyway). But I do understand that you want to make sure you have everything covered and understood.

I assume you have placed the newly drawn rectangle over something else to know that it's not partially transparent. Here's how you can make it partially transparent, so that every time you draw a rectangle, it will start out partially transparent. Please note that if you want to make a one-time change, it's a very different process And you'll be using both here -- first we'll make a one time change, then we'll make it permanent.

• Draw a rectangle or select a rectangle that you've already made.
• Make it the color and opacity that you want every rectangle you make to look like when you first draw it. (If you need help with this, lmk and I'll explain step by step.)
• Don't deselect it, leave it selected.

• Go to File menu > Inkscape Preferences > Tools > Shapes > Rectangle.
• Where it says "Create new objects with:" put a dot in "Use this tool's own style".
• Just below that is a bar that says "Take from selection". Click that bar. You will see the Fill and Stroke colors just above that change to whatever you've set for the rectangle on your canvas

Now, every rectangle you make will start out just like you have it now, every time. I don't know if maybe the default has been changed with the newly released version 0.47, while the tutorial was probably written for an earlier version. But in any case, if you find all the shapes are opaque, you can use the same process to change them all.

Let me know if you have any questions. And also, please see my signature for links to some excellent instructions and tutorials. You can find even the most basic processes explained very well for new users.
All best

First off, thank you for purchasing from System76 (I bought a Starling from them myself a while back). ^^

And love the name of that company, for very obvious reasons to me.

*oink*

It's possible the tutorials may not be entirely up-to-date -- not sure, it's been ages since I've checked them. But ultimately, you do have to be prepared to adapt to some slight deviation in the descriptions -- I mean, for all we know maybe the writer accidentally changed the opacity of his Inkscape rectangles before writing that passage.

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In any event, let me help you with this....

If you're using a Pangolin, that means you're using a *buntu Linux, no?

To hard-restore any program to its default settings, go into your Home folder, display all hidden folders (in Gnome/Ubuntu, you can do this by pressing CTRL+H) and then just delete the one that says ".inkscape".

The reason we want to do it that way, aside from it being a sure-shot solution, is that I don't recall Inkscape having a global "restore defaults setting" of its own -- all default switches are handled on a per-tool basis.

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And in fact, you may have to define it at a per tool basis anyway, because for the life of me I cannot remember a single instance version where Inkscape came with semi-transparent rectangles. ^^;

1) First, create a rectangle. As you say, it will have a black stroke and a blue fill, but it will be opaque.

2) Summon the Fill and Stroke properties widget -- since I use it religiously, I've already memorized the keystroke CTRL+SHIFT+F and I urge you to do the same. Otherwise, you can open it from the Object menu above or in the right-click menu of the rectangle.

3) Notice the Fill and Stroke properties widget has two sliders underneath the color selection, one that says "Blur:", the other "Opacity, %". Move the Opacity slider to the left slightly, or change its cell value for 80 (=80% opacity). That should get it to be semi-transparent.

4) There! You now have your default rectangle! Breathe in the glory of a job well done for about 10 seconds.

5) Done basking in your accomplishment? Good! Now let's actually SAVE this as your default.

6) While still keeping that rectangle selected, go to the left toolbar where you first selected the Rectangle Tool icon , and double-click on it to summon the Inkscape Preferences window in a way that it conveniently drops you into the Tools>Shapes>Rectangle section.

7) The Rectangle preferences are modest: it basically has a single section that reads "Create new objects with:", and two radial button options: "Last Used Style" and "This tool's own style". Notice that the "This tool's own style" option has a Fill setting of blue and a Stroke setting that hopfully reads "unset". (again, if that's not what it reads, don't worry it's unimportant)

8) And now for the difficult part.... click on the "Take from Selection" button to have the style from your rectangle be the basis of the new default style -- you will see the blue bar changed slightly to reflect the semi-transparency.

9) Close the Inkscape Preferences window and try drawing a rectangle. If it's a semi-transparent, give yourself a pat in the back.

10) Just to confirm, close Inkscape, reopen and draw a rectangle. If THAT comes out semi-transparent, then give yourself another pat in the back!

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Congratuiations, you now have what it takes to move on to the next level. ^^
Course, as you grow more proficient with vector graphics, I believe you'll end up prefering the "Last Used Style" option instead as it doesn't get in the way of more advanced Inkscape usage. ^^b

In any event, good luck and feel free to drop by for more questions.

D'oh! Brynn and I both posted simultaneously.

for the life of me I cannot remember a single instance version where Inkscape came with semi-transparent rectangles. ^^;

Interesting....I've used versions 0.44, 0.46 , and 0.47, and they all came with semi-transparent shapes. But it sounds like you have a system that allows global changes of some sort, so maybe you changed them long ago, and forgot that you did?

Yeah, but that said, I can't think of any reason why Bluebearbevis' would open with opaque shapes by default. Unless 0.47 uses opaque shapes, I changed mine, and forgot that I did

fufu, 'tis a mystery. ^.^

I use Kubuntu 9.10 now, but I've changed OSes over the years as often as I change jeans. Granted you can preserve your /home partition if you wanted to, but for the most part I like to start from scratch when installing an exciting new OS (call me a traditionalist, lol). So for the most part, I've worked with fresh sets of defaults.

Plus my copy in my Windows XP at work has opaque shapes too.

On the other hand, if you have semi-transparencies and the tutorial author had semi-transparencies, then that means they definitely exist somehow. Where are they coming from?

I reckon it's a packaging disparity. ^___^b

Hmm x 2, now it's letting me "Post Reply." Odd...

If the above statement doesn't make any sense, please see the edit of my original post. Is there a tutorial for the InkscapeForum that explains all these bells and whistles?

R

Instructions for posting messages:
After you click "Post Reply" and you're on the page where you type the message, look just beneath all the smilies and tool icons. The 1st thing there, "BBCode is ON", "BBCode" is a link. If you click that, you can see the instructional info. Don't ask me why it's so hard to find , but that's where it is

Righteous, now I'll be able to post with the most. C-quel, I am not finding a .inkscape folder in Home (+hidden). Perhaps because I haven't actually saved an image? Although, I do see a .dia (I installed Dia with Inkscape) and I haven't even worked with that program yet. I guess I'll try it and see.

Sorry, my mistake. The Inkscape devs actually did this properly and placed their configuration inside the .config folder. That's technically what all programs should do, but alas many still want to create their own configuration folders and silently spam your Home Folder, lol. ^_____^b

Also, glad everything is working out. ^^b

Forgot to mention that I also ordered a Meerkat Ion for a client. Got it late yesterday, and itching to give it a test run over the weekend. ^____^v

Okay, Dokey, I find an inkscape (no .) folder in .config, but when I opened it there where what appear to be a lot of important subfolders. Now that I'm a "partly transparent" black and blue, ah blue and black, is it necessary to delete this (inkscape) folder? Will it somehow magically (used here in the context of technology I don't quite fully undestand) reappear when I next open Inkscape? Is the Meerkat minding it's manners? Some of the ones at the Manor seem quite headstrong and vicious.

hehe, yeah don't forget that in Linux (as well as Mac OSX), hidden folders are designated with a "." in front of their name. So the parent folder usually has it (".config"), but subfolders (such as "inkscape") won't since there's no need to hide them at that point.

Also, any configuration folder in your Home directory is subject to magical reappearance if you delete it entirely, that's the beauty of it.
Course if you delete a folder with custom settings from you, of course you'll lose it since the program will recreate it using defaults (based off its stuff in the /usr/shared folder. This includes saved games and the like, which are almost always stored in these hidden directories. But on the other hand, you'd probably want to do that if you want to start any program from scratch.

In this case, though, keep this knowledge just for references purposes. Believe me, even if you do reset Inkscape back to its defaults, the rectangles will still be opaque. I can almost bet on it.

So best to just adjust that yourself and move forward with the tutorial. ^^b

Still haven't tried the Meerkat yet, but I'll find out. My client's computer is from 2000, pokey and 4x the size (installing a linux distro on it helped, but there's still a lot of modern stuff he can't do), so no matter how the Meerkat behaves its still a vast and remarkably-inexpensive improvement over what he has. ^^b

This thing is going to drive me crazy, but that is probably best left for another discussion. Does one keep going with these? I don't see any "This Solved My Problem" buttons to click like on Launchpad. I hope "they" don't 86 me for straying from "Help with Using Inkscape" as a topic, but you're client is going to love his new Meerkat. I just found out a Pangolin is a scaly anteater from Asia or Africa, so I found an image for my background. You just gotta love the whole open source experience.

I don't see any "This Solved My Problem" buttons to click

Nothing so official. When a problem is solved, people say their thanks, and the topic slowly falls down the list as new ones are posted, and become part of the great resource as is this site.

I hope "they" don't 86 me for straying from "Help with Using Inkscape" as a topic

Actually there is a way to enclose off topic comments in a little box that says "Off topic"! The button is roughly just above the smilies in my browser and it works just like Quote I'll demonstrate beleow:

Although I think this is a borderline case of off topic discussion. FYI, there is an Off Topic forum at this website too, for entire topics that don't really fit.

All best

Fantastic! Thanks again then, time to assimilate some of this knowledge I have gleaned.