If you want to permanently save some of your inkscape preferences, like having the grid enabled whenever you start inkscape with specified grid spacings, etc., you can do this by saving the inkscape document with all your preferences as default.svg in the folder /usr/share/inkscape/templates/

From that point on, inkscape will be picking up the modified default.svg that you saved, and you will have your preferences activated.

Related thread:
viewtopic.php?f=5&t=161

I just thought it is important enough to be put in here..

For windows, it is <Wherever you have installed Inkscape>\share\templates, that is, if you have installed Inkscape in C:\Program Files\Inkscape\, then you should save default.svg in C:\Program Files\Inkscape\share\templates.

you don't need to become root and put default.svg in /usr/share/inkscape/templates, you can put the file in ur home directory ~/.inkscape/templates

Will this change also work when you open a drawing (like a .jpg) by clicking on it in Windows, or when you do the Open dialog in inkscape?

Great idea! it really work, thank You a lot

Could someone explain how to make this preferences file in newbie language please? I understand where to place it, but not how to make it. I'm now using Win 7, 64 home version and my preferences no longer save, but I don't know what a preference file should look like. Using .47 Inkscape, it's interesting that in prior versions of Inkscape (Windows 2000) the preference file automatically saved, but it doesn't anymore.
thanks much
dee

Margorita,

Will this change also work when you open a drawing (like a .jpg) by clicking on it in Windows, or when you do the Open dialog in inkscape?

I don't think so. It will open any existing image, just like the preferences are set for that image.

flamingolady,
I'm not entirely positive about this, but I'm just about to set up a default template of my own. So I'll edit this, if I find it doesn't work as I expect, or to add helpful tips, etc. For now, I think this is how it goes:

1. Open Inkscape, and set up a document to your liking. For example, I will remove page border shadow, and set it to 100% zoom (rather than the 35% default) because these are the things that annoy me the most. In fact, I think I might try to make more than one template, if I can figure it out. In the others, I'll have a Landscape orientation and a grid set to 1 x 1 px. In another message somewhere, I saw where someone wanted a checkboard pattern (which most raster graphics programs use to indicate transparency). So this person would literally draw a checkerboard pattern, and all their docs would open with checkerboard (then they would draw on top of it).
2. After you get a new blank doc set up exactly as you want every new doc to open, and without any image drawn (unless you want that checkerboard), save as "default.svg". Actually, if you used Inkscape to make webpages, for example, you would draw out the sections for each page design. So not necessarily a blank doc, but probably in most cases -- it depends on what is your intended use.
3. Next, after reading the various links from previous messages, it looks like you put that file in this folder: in 64-bit Windows 7 (which is what I'm using at the moment) Program Files (x86)/Inkscape/share/templates. If you look in that folder, you'll see all the same page sizes and dimensions that you also see in Document Properties > Page tab > Format. For Windows XP, it's the same thing, except it's in Program Files (no x86). For other OSs, I don't know.
4. Because there already is a default.svg in that folder (containing the default preferences that you want to change), you'll probably get a dialog saying something like - default.svg already exists in this folder, do you want to overwrite (or replace, or something like that).
5. Regarding making more than one template, I believe that there can only be one default.svg, which is what opens when you 1st open Inkscape. But it looks like you could make as many templates as you want, and they will appear in Document Properties > Page tab > Format.

I hope this helps for now. And as I said, I'll edit later if I find it doesn't work as I expect it will. (Probably tomorrow, it's very late where I am!)

Edit -- Note that my item #5 did not work as I expected. Even though I put other templates into that folder, they do not show up in Doc Properties. Oh well, at least I have my own custom default page now! Everything else worked as I expected.

Brynn,
Thank you, you've made it so this task is now doable! I also hate the 35% zoom, so that'll be my first to go too, then the snapping thing, lol. (note to Brynn - I'm also flamingolady from the LDD site, in case you were wondering).

Also, just to note: I've made several templates, it's easy too, I just made it the size I want and saved as a template, and they all show up when you click to make a new file!

thanks much
dee

You're welcome

Hi,

how can I save interface-settings like "Layers" und "Fill and Stroke" I want them to appear everytime I start a new inkscape project. I tried to save it like the grid spacing/zoom on your example (default.svg) but it didnt work.

Mythos