First off, for some reason during the middle of attempting to write this question, it posted already once, but I am not seeing it on the topics list. If it does appear twice, this is the complete question.

I discovered inkscape yesterday and have been following along with various tutorials and the like trying to get my bearings and understand it a bit better. I am by no means a graphics guy. The problem I am having is getting text to a perspective. I have found that selecting the text first and the perspective image second should be the correct way to do this, but no matter what I try, nothing works.

when selecting the text first, I get an error that "The second selected object is a group, not a path.Try using the procedure Object->Ungroup."

When selecting the text second, it disappears.


I am using .48 on windows 7

The steps I am following are:

New Document
Add and resize text
add perspective shape using bezier tool
select text
path>object to path
shift+select perspective shape
extensions>modify>perspective
...perspective working, please wait.....
TEXT DISAPPEARS

......As I was writing and double checking my steps, I think I may have figured it out...in at least a roundabout way....

New Document
Add and resize text
add perspective shape
select text
object>>ungroup
path>>combine
select text, SHIFT>select perspective shape
extensions>modify>perspective

is this a workaround, or the correct way of doing this?

Perspective needs a single path to operate on, it can't be a group of objects. When a text object is converted to a path it is automatically grouped to contain all the separate letters. If you ungroup them you'll get each letter as a separate object which isn't suitable for curving it into a perspective, so you have to combine all the letters into one path before applying the perspective. So your second attempt is the correct way to do it.

You might find the LPE Envelope Deformation easier to use (Path menu > Path Effects Editor). That Perspective extension drives me crazy!

brynn wrote:You might find the LPE Envelope Deformation easier to use (Path menu > Path Effects Editor).

Note that 'Envelope' ≠ 'Perspective' transformation. The 'Envelope Deformation' LPE corresponds to 'Extensions > Modify Path > Envelope…' (for an example illustrating the difference, see here).

Oh, I apologize, I do understand that they aren't the same. I should have said that in my previous reply.

But I've found that sometimes I can use the Envelope Deform LPE to achieve some simple perspective.

I'm sorry for any confusion.

/me thinks it's really time to translate his tutorial on the subject