Inkscape Worksheet 2

Working with Text

1. Type the text ‘Water Eventt’. Make the text 72pt Times New Roman and place the
centre of the text 105mm from the left hand side and 270mm from the bottom of
the page.
Use the control palette (or Text menu) to change font and size. A sheet of A4 paper is 210 wide by
297 high in portrait, hence 105mm will centre the text on the page. You can also centre text on a
page by dragging out a text box using the text tool(F8) and then typing as above. ( Spend a couple
of minutes familiarising yourself with placing, changing and moving text. Note that you do not
have to create a text box to add text but centering etc may not do what you expect!
2. Choose a few different fonts until you find one
you like. Change the fill to a suitable colour
and give the text a black stroke.
You will probably need to reposition the text once the font has changed to get it back into the
centre of the page.
3. Add the words ‘Blue Lagoon’ in 36pt italic beneath and right-align all the words to
the edge of the page. Group the two objects so that you can move them around
without losing the alignment and position them in a little from the top right of the
page.
Use Ctrl+G and Shift+Ctrl+G to quickly group and ungroup objects.
4. Scale the objects keeping their aspect ratio so that the lettering extends from
roughly 120mm from the left to 20mm from
the right, and position about 15mm from the
top.
Select View>Show/Hide>Rulers so that you can use the
rulers to help you position the text quickly.
5. Use the Type tool to add an ‘s’ at the end of the words ‘Water Event’.
Note that even after scaling and grouping the text objects, the Type tool allows you to edit the text.
If you want to realign the text objects, you will need to ungroup first.
6. Save your work as ‘ws02-sign01.svg
7. Close the document and open a new one. Place the text ‘Water Events’
anywhere on the artboard in 48pt Arial. Reflect
the text along the horizontal axis, keeping the
original. Apply a shear to the reflection and
select a grey-shade fill to create a shadow
effect. Don’t forget to group the two objects so
that you don’t accidentally separate them. Duplicate the objects to another area
on the artboard and experiment with the shear and shading and opacity,
alignment, etc until you are happy with the appearance of the shadow effect. Add
the text ‘Blue Lagoon’ below and save as ws02-sign02.svg
Create duplicates (Ctrl+D) then drag one object away (Ctrl constrains movement). When
shearing, hold down the shift key to stop the letters moving away from the original. Use Ctrl-Z to
undo actions if you don’t get the effect you intended (you can Ctrl-Z to step back through all your
recent actions, not just the last one). Use trial and error to adjust and readjust the appearance of
your work until you feel it ‘looks right’. If you want to compare two effects, duplicate (Ctr+D)
your work (after grouping the objects together), drag one copy to an adjacent area and apply the
effect you wish to investigate. This is known as using a ‘scratch area’ and allows you to
experiment without risk to your artwork. When you’re happy, delete the one you don’t want, and
group the objects in the one you want to keep so that you don’t accidentally misalign them.
8. Open a new document, place a large ellipse in the centre of the artboard and use
the type tool to place the text ‘Rainbow Falls’ on the top of the ellipse path with a
red fill.
You will first need to create an arc from the ellipse, (or you can draw an arc with the pen too
which will be a ‘path’) then make that a path (Path>Object to Path). Create the text. Select both
paths, then Text>Put on Path. Then select the text only and change font size to fit. Examine the
effects of the paragraph alignment on the position of the text on the path. What happens if you try
to delete the ellipse or drawn arc?
9. Alter the fill and stroke of the lettering; use the selection tool to scale the lettering
with and without constraining the aspect
ratio. Inkscape keeps type as text, as opposed to
shapes, so that you can continue to edit what you’ve
typed in even after applying effects.
10. Apply a gradient rainbow fill.
In the Fill and Stroke Box click on the Fill Tab and the Edit tab under the Linear gradient box
.Experiment by adding and deleting stops to create your gradient fill. Apply this to your text (see
Inkscape tutorials > Tips & Tricks.)If you double click on the text which has a gradient fill
applied, you will see ‘markers’ where the stops are applied. Move these to obtain different effects.)
11. Create the remaining text, choose a font to
complete the logo, group the objects that
comprise the logo and scale and position at the
top of the page. Save as ws02-sign03.svg
12. Export the completed logos as a bitmaps and
insert them in a Word document. Now you are on the way to creating your signing
system.
13. Summary
Conceptually there are two main ways to treat text;
As artwork – use letters and words as part of the design of your work.
As copy – unless there are just a couple of lines of text ALWAYS prepare your copy in a word
processor and place it in a text area in your work. However, Inkscape doesn’t cope very well with
importing large amounts of text.
Once you have placed your copy, control the text to get the appearance you want, but avoid the
temptation to edit it in situ. Instead, go back to the word processor, edit there, and re-place in
Inkscape. It will save you time and effort in the long run…