How do you do something like this in Inkscape.

What specifically don't you know how to do?

The base of it is to draw a rounded corner box. So draw the box using the rectangle tool, and with the rectangle tool still selected change the Rx and Ry values in the Tool Control Bar. Give it a one pixel stroke and a gradient fill.

Then you do the same for the Yahoo box and the Ambassador box. The only tricky part is if you look at those boxes carefully you'll see they have a white outline and then a grey outline. The only way I know how to do this is to draw a white box, then draw another box on top that is a few pixels smaller. Again, with the Rectangle tool selected you can change the box size on the Tool Control Bar.

For a little more clarity:


Set your zoom to 100% so you know you're working with whole pixels otherwise you may find things get blurry. You could also set guides to ensure everything snaps to whole pixels.

1. Draw a box using the Rectangle Tool. With the Rectangle Tool still selected, on the Tool Control Box set the Rx and Ry values to give the box round corners. Give it a 1px stroke and a gradient fill.
2. Draw another rounded box and make it white with a 1px white stroke. Even though the stroke isn't visible including it make the next step a little easier. Make the Rx and Ry values a little smaller.
3. Duplicate the white box then with the Rectangle Tool still selected, change the values in the Tool Control Box so it's width and height is 2 pixels smaller and change the Rx and Ry values to be 1 pixel smaller. Change the strok colour to grey and with the Selection Tool selected move the box 1 pixel down and 1 pixel to the right. Again, you can use the Tool Control Box to specify the exact position.
4. Select both boxes you created in step 3 and dupilicate them. With the Selection Tool selected and both boxes still selected, turn off the 2 buttons on the Tool Control for scaling stroke width and scaling rounded corners. Then squash the boxes and move into place (you can use the arrow keys to move the box). Give the box with the grey stroke a blue fill.

I have the SVG if you want it.

EDIT: Didn't see what you posted there Micro... looks great!

Your explanation Micro was well explained, I was have a problem in achieving the illusion of depth with Ambassador and Yahoo part. When I would recreate it it would always seem flat. But I see that what I was lacking was effective use of stroke to simulate an inset look. Thank you for taking the time provide a detailed explanation that help to achieve the desire look.

I have the SVG if you want it.

Yes I would like that

Click for the SVG

Although VERY similar, my method was a little different than MicroUgly's.

Thank you I appreciate this

Glad you got the help you needed.. now, spread the word that this forum helped you and help grow the forum and Inkscape

Hey Darth_Gimp, with creating the inset look, did you do pretty much what I did? Or do you have a less tedious way that doesn't involve tweaking pixels sizes?

not sure if its less tedious. For the larger white box, I made a box with a gray center and a white stroke I believe.. then duplicated it and CTRL+SHIFT'd it to fir inside the stroke.

Quick and dirty but it worked.

microUgly wrote:Hey Darth_Gimp, with creating the inset look, did you do pretty much what I did? Or do you have a less tedious way that doesn't involve tweaking pixels sizes?

>Create one rectangle
>set the stroke width to be half the total width you want your 2 rectangles to have.
>stroke to path
>Ctrl+shit+K it to seperate the subpaths.
>bingo, 2 perfectly sized rectangles

I didn't think of using stroke to path. Great idea.

Never even knew that was even in the arsenal of inkscape and is very quick by the way