Hi there,

This is my first message in this forum, but I hope to visit it often.

My name's Francisco (Fran for friends), and I am from Spain. I have wide experience with programs like The Gimp, but no experience at all with vectorial drawing like Inkscape, neither Illustrator or so... I have done basical things with Scribus for a local newspaper, but it is not exactly the same thing.

So, I used to make the preview designs for my websites with The Gimp, but I think that using Inkscape could be more productive and will open a new world of possibilities for me that has been closed till today. So I am starting to learn Inkscape in the better manner I know: learning by doing.

One thing that I need for a webpage design I am currently working on, is to fill an area with a pattern that vanishes at one of the border. To do things like that on The Gimp, I used to use a layer mask, then filling it with a black-to-white gradient (that means full transparency to full opacity). But I have no idea on how to get the same effect on Inkscape.

Any hints?

Thanks a lot in advance,

Welcome Fran!

Inkscape has masks too, and to my knowledge, they work in the same general way as GIMP (the black or white maps the opaque or transparent). I'm not sure if Inkscape can mask a layer, but you can definitely mask objects. I'm not terribly familiar with using them, but since you are, you should be able to pick it up pretty easily. In Inkscape, you first have to draw a closed path in the shape that you need for the mask. That can be with Pen or Pencil, or you could even start with a shape like Rect or Ellipse, and then use Path menu > Object to Path. Use the Node tool to edit the path after you draw it. And use the Gradient tool to fill it with the gradient. Then select the new gradient/path, and the object that you're masking, then Object menu > Mask > Set. (Hold Shift to make multiple selection.)

Another way to do what it sounds like you want would be to use Blur. A blur is technically a filter, and there are many filters packed into Inkscape (Filters menu and Filters Editor), and a few others can be found here and there around the internet. But the most basic blur can be accessed in the Fill and Stroke dialog. However, the blur affects all the sides of an object, so if you need only one side like that, it might not work. Although that said, it is possible to use Clipping (which is Inkscape's native cropping tool) to block the blur in certain areas. This is probably more of an intermediate level technique though, and might not be the best way to start with Inkscape. But I guess it depends on your skills and patience to learn new things

I would suggest looking in Help menu > Inkscape manual > Quick Start. There are a bunch of tutorials which altogether cover all the basics of Inkscape, and then some. Or in my signature are links to other tutorials (video and written). I've found that to be a great way to start learning Inkscape! I also found Help menu > Tutorials to be especially well-written for beginners. However, those aren't the kind of tutorial where you end up with a finished image. But they do walk you through all the basic tools and techniques.

If you start working on an image and get stuck, feel free to post the details, and we can give specific steps

You would do more or less the same thing in Inkscape, except that the mask is not applied to a layer, but an object or group of objects selected at the same time as the masking shape, which is, just like GIMP, filled with a gradient that controls the transparency of the final combination.
http://tavmjong.free.fr/INKSCAPE/MANUAL/html/Clip-Masking.html

Thanks a lot, but I am facing very basic problems though. I have search about selecting objects, but I did not find the way to select both the mask and the underlaying object while the mask is over it, since the mask object has the same size (in fact it is cloned from the original one)...

Any hint on this silly question?

Best regards,

Thank you both. Your answers has been really useful to me.

I see that you posted another topic on the selection issue. But as I said there, you can hold Shift and Alt key, place mouse over both objects and click once, then click again (a double-click is too fast).