Hi All,

I hope you guys can help me: I use Inkscape to draw maps. I use the calligraphy tool to draw rivers. This used to work perfectly fine, resulting in beautiful, smooth rivers. For some time now, I get results like this:



The problem here is that there are gaps and "jumps" in the rivers, and instead of a simple, smooth object I get... that.

I couldn't say that this is an explicit software issue; I do not think it sprang up with any particular update. I also do not recall any settings that could affect this. I thought at first that it was because my old tablet's pen's tip was very rough and worn, but it also happens with a brand new tablet.

I have the wiggling option of the calligraphy tool set to 0, as all other settings except width of the pen (naturally), and I do have pressure sensitivity for width enabled.

Any ideas would be appreciated, manually editing these rivers after drawing them is an absolute pain...


Thanks,
Nils

not the solution to the problem, but have you tried drawing with the pen tool and using a live path effect of pattern along path to get the smooth tapered path you're after?

That's how the Calligraphy tool works for me, when I have "No preset" selected from the dropdown menu on the left side of the tool control bar. If I choose any of the others, the lines are smooth as can be (except for Wiggly and Splotchy). And it looks like you can make your own, using the last item "Save..." I haven't tried it, but maybe you can make a unique one for your rivers?

I THINK I figured this one out, giving the pen just a little mass seems to make it behave much much smoother. Thanks guys !

I think your problem may be corrected from the Fill and Stroke (Shift+Ctrl+F) palette.
Choose from the fill tab tools line (where the no fill x is) the other shape.
At the end there are 2 shapes.
One is with a hole cut in itself and the other not.