Hi there,

i tried latest inkscape developer version 0.48 r12685 on Windows 7 x64. I really love the symbols library - it's the visio killer feature
However I had some issues:

1. Creating a rectangle filled with some color shades
2. import object to symbol
3. Preview icon is black and white (?)

Dropping this symbol onto the same canvas again still preserves it's colors and behaves as i would expect it.

4. Now give the whole sag document a nice meta title and save it to share/symbols
5. Close inkscape and reopen (just to be sure)
6. In the new document open symbols library and drop the symbol created in step 1 to the canvas - no colors!

Is this intended or a bug? Or am i missing something here?
Also if i create symbols containing text boxes, these are NOT editable after dropping them onto the canvas. Is this intended?

So what am i doing wrong or is it a bug or should i open a feature request?

Thanks in advance for any help.

Have same question..

MaHoff wrote:1. Creating a rectangle filled with some color shades

Does "shades" refer to gradients? Gradients in (custom) symbols are not supported (known limitation), as described in the blueprint (specification document for the implementation):

In the Blueprint for Symbols dialog, Inkscape devs wrote:

• Symbols referring to external elements (gradients, etc.) probably won't work.

MaHoff wrote:Also if i create symbols containing text boxes, these are NOT editable after dropping them onto the canvas. Is this intended?

Yes. Symbols are very similar to clones - they are instances of a shared symbol definition. If you want to edit a single instance of a symbol, you can unlink it like you can do with clones (it will no longer be linked to the original symbol definition, and not update if the symbol definition itself is edited).

Inkscape's symbols feature implements the SVG 1.1 <symbol> element.

What does it means - "referring to external elements"? (i just beginning to use Inkscape). How do I make it internal ? Or maybe gradients ALWAYS are external elements? Is any ways to use gradients in symbols?
Really I have 2 problems:
1. I want to make my own symbols with gradients(higher importance)
2. I want to import symbols with gradients from Visio

Gradients definitions are elements stored and managed external to symbols, as are the definitions for markers, filter effects, patterns ... These definitions (or resources) are used in an object's style attribute for fill and stroke properties by reference (e.g. "fill:url(#linearGradient3351)" ), and thus they "refer to external elements" (to elements in the SVG source which are not contained within the symbol definition or not looked up within the symbol definition by an instanced symbol (if the symbols file was manually edited)).

These type of attributes or style properties are currently not supported for symbols as used in Inkscape 0.91.