Is there a way to force Inkscape to use portrait or landscape mode?

The Problem: I have a set of labels going to a label printer and they are all in portrait except this one, and the printer is giving me problems in printing it.

The label in question 131mm width and 108mm height. In document properties it is set to landscape and custom size (131x108). If I change page orientation to Portrait then the width changes to 108mm and the height to 131mm. If I manually change the custom size back then it automatically sets it to landscape. If I set the width add height both to 131mm then the page orientation is grayed out.

Is there not a way to force the page orientation I want?

Thanks in advance. I've searched the forums, FAQ, and online documentation without success. Using Inkscape v0.47.

I'm writing to ask if you ever found a solution to your problem, as I am experiencing precisely the same difficulty, with no solution at hand. I am trying to output pages in InkScape in portrait mode that have a longer width (9 inches) than height (7 inches) so I can print a book through a POD publisher. They require pages to be in portrait mode. I hope you had some luck. Any info you could share would be greatly appreciated. Thanks in advance. tlandis100

Welcome tlandis100!

I can't say what surprises me more -- that a reply was never posted to the original topic (although I guess it could have been deleted for some reason...), or that you actually searched the forum before posting your question, lol. Thank you so much for that!

I'm sure others probably know a better solution than this. But my first thought would be to set the page in portrait orientation, set the width to your required width, and set the height to anything larger than the width. Then center your content on that page (a few different ways to do it, let us know if you need help). The resulting "white" spaces above and below your content, are not really white. They're transparent. (Inkscape does not use the checkerboard pattern that raster graphics programs use, to indicate transparency.)

So it sounds like, for some technical reason, the publisher requires the portrait orientation. It seems to me that the publisher surely must publish books that are wider than tall??? But since the resulting "white" parts are really transparent, they won't be recognized as solid white space, and should be ignored -- I'm guessing.

And as for the labels, I'm not sure if the same trick will work. Again, the "extra white space" is transparent....but....?? Would you be able to set the printer to accept it in the landscape orientation, or are these labels all on one sheet?

I have the same problem. Label is in roll as a "portrait" mode where longer edge is top and shorter is the side edge. To send printer the correct label the mode should be portrait. Landscape label is similar size but it is rolled 90 degrees rotated. So it is not direct decision that when width is more than height it would be automatically landscape.
Not solved.

Hello,

The solution to this problem seems easy, just rotate you drawing, or resize your page...

On the other hand, three different users have the same problem, in diferent times!!

What is wrong??

Could you post a sample image, And a draft of what you want??

hulf2012 wrote:Hello,

The solution to this problem seems easy, just rotate you drawing, or resize your page...

On the other hand, three different users have the same problem, in diferent times!!

What is wrong??

Could you post a sample image, And a draft of what you want??

*Cough* tree swing development images.

brynn wrote:(although I guess it could have been deleted for some reason...)

One year anniversary, although this was years after the original post.


[ontopic]

Tomi Lehmus wrote:I have the same problem. Label is in roll as a "portrait" mode where longer edge is top and shorter is the side edge. To send printer the correct label the mode should be portrait. Landscape label is similar size but it is rolled 90 degrees rotated. So it is not direct decision that when width is more than height it would be automatically landscape.
Not solved.

What are those "labels" meaning? Could you clarify?[/ontopic]

Well, he can't just rotate the whole image, because then labels which were.....usually shorter than wide, become wider than tall (what?!).

But I also want to be clear about the problem. What do you mean by "Label is in roll as a "portrait" mode where longer edge is top and shorter is the side edge."

1 - "Label is in a roll...."??
2 - When you're talking about "portrait" mode, do you mean the page (of labels) is in portrait form, or are you describing the orientation of the labels themselves?

Are you saying that the printer requires portrait mode; but that the page is actually in landscape orientation; so you set the page size to a landscape orientation, but want Inkscape to still be in portrait mode?

Edit
I see what you mean (if I have understood the problem). If you set the page size to a landscape orientation, Inkscape automatically switches to landscape mode. If you switch it back to portrait mode, the page size automatically is changed. If you set up a square page size, the orientation mode options are grayed out!

If I've understood the problem, we probably need to think about a new feature request. But still not sure if I understand....