Hello everybody. This is my first post on this forum, so please forgive me and don't scold me too hard if I do sth wrong.

I have a path and I'd like to draw a nib calligraphic line along this path. I know I could do it by holding Ctrl button during drawing, but it won't work well if the path is long and complicated. Is there any way of doing it automatically? Convert a path to a calligraphic line? Use pattern along path to do it? Will appreciate any suggestions, thanks.

hi grubel. If you have a path to which you want a calligraphic effect added you probably want to use the pattern along path extension not the path effect, because you can check the ribbon option. Note that for the pattern, which has to be raised above the target path in the z-order, is a rectangle that has been converted to path and has had the add nodes extension run on it. The more nodes the smoother effect, in general.

Please note that with paths that have tight turns and overlaps you might still have to do some manual edits to fix things. I have found that adding a stroke reduces the number of edits you need. This may work for you.

Thanks very much for the advice. It's not perfect, of course, but better than drawing a line along the path with my mouse (to do list: "buy a tablet"). Wonder if the next version includes apllying nib/brush style to a path...

See also a discussion on the inkscape-user mailing list last year about this problem, specially this illustration by Rob Antonishen.