Bracket keys and kern in OS X?

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Jmx
Posts: 49
Joined: Sun Dec 14, 2008 2:32 am

Bracket keys and kern in OS X?

Postby Jmx » Mon Nov 30, 2009 11:01 am

Hi,

I'm trying to figure out how to use the bracket keys in OS X to rotate letters.
I can get bracket keys with:
alt+( = close bracket [
shift+alt+( = open bracket {


But how do i rotade letters as described with (select letter and use bracket keys to rotate) ?

Also.. i've tried to find how to kern/track a block of text, not just single letters, but can't find any info how to do that, does anyone know how to do this?

Thanks ;)

~suv
Posts: 2272
Joined: Sun May 10, 2009 2:07 am

Re: Bracket keys and kern in OS X?

Postby ~suv » Tue Dec 01, 2009 1:59 am

Jmx wrote:I'm trying to figure out how to use the bracket keys in OS X to rotate letters.
Rotating objects, selected characters or nodes with keyboard shortcuts doesn't work with most Apple keyboard layouts (many localized keyboard layouts (i.e. other than 'U.S.' or 'U.S. Extended') have the same issue, independent of OS and manufacturer AFAIU). There is no alternative for these special 'rotate' commands so far: no menu commands exist and there are no verbs defined for them to be used in a custom keymapping file in '~/.config/inkscape/keys/default.xml'. I will add related bug reports later, if needed (there are several ;-) of them already filed).

Jmx wrote:how to kern/track a block of text
Have you set up a custom keyboard mapping for X11 as described in the FAQ to change the left 'option/alt' key into a real 'alt' key recognized by Inkscape? That's the first step needed on OS X for using other keyboard commands with 'alt' like alt + cursor keys, alt+<, alt+> and others.
It doesn't however solve the first issue about the failing 'rotate' keyboard shortcut - you can't use a modifier like 'alt' or 'shift' twice in one keyboard shortcut like alt + (alt+().

Generic kerning is described in the manual Inkscape » Text » Kerning, Shifting, and Rotating Characters like this: «If no characters are selected, the following commands apply to the characters in a line of text after the current cursor point.»


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