#Inkscape stroke to path examples how to
#Inkscape stroke to path examples software
#Inkscape stroke to path examples license
#Inkscape stroke to path examples series

#Inkscape stroke to path examples series

Want to learn more about how Adobe Illustrator works? Check out my Illustrator Explainer Series - a comprehensive collection of over 100 videos where I go over every tool, feature and function and explain what it is, how it works, and why it's useful. Want to learn more about how Inkscape works? Check out the Inkscape Master Class – a comprehensive series of over 60 videos where I go over every tool, feature and function in Inkscape and explain what it is, how it works, and why it’s useful. If you have any questions or need clarification on anything e’ve gone over in this post, simply leave a comment below. Working with paths can help you transform your text in ways not possible outside of a vector environment.

ConclusionĬonverting text to a path in Inkscape is a simple process that doesn’t immediately produce any visible changes on your canvas. It may even be helpful to create a duplicate copy of your text object and put it aside, just in case you need to go back and make changes later on. This is why it’s important to ensure that you will not need to edit your text again before making the conversion. Instead, it is seen as a series of letter-shaped objects. Understand that once you’ve converted your text to a path, it is no longer recognized by Inkscape as a text object. This means that you won’t be able to go back and change things such as: One disadvantage of converting text to a path in Inkscape is that once the text is converted, the text object itself is no longer editable as a text object. PrecautionsĬonsidering all of the benefits of converting text to paths, does this mean you should always convert every text object you create to a path? Absolutely not.

#Inkscape stroke to path examples software

This means that if you were to save your logo files without converting the text to paths, you could potentially be sending over a document with the font file embedded, which could be a violation of the font license.Ĭonverting your text to path ensures that the letters generated with the font software will become vector shapes and are no longer text objects. Most fonts explicitly state that you cannot transfer the font file to somebody else.

#Inkscape stroke to path examples license

When Designing LogosĪnother example of when converting text to a path is necessary is when you design a logo that contains text for a client or some other third party.Īs we’ve gone over in previous lessons, every font comes with its own usage permissions based on the license it came with. This sort of thing is only possible once a text object is converted to a path. However, after converting it to a path, we were able to alter its perspective and extrude it to make it look 3D. The name in the logo started out as a simple text object.

#Inkscape stroke to path examples how to

One example of such would be a previous tutorial where we went over how to design an esports logo with Inkscape:

When Creating Elaborate Text DesignsĬonverting your text to paths allows you to apply additional effects and alterations that can be used to create unique designs. Otherwise the design may become corrupted if the end user opens the file with the font embedded and they don’t have that font installed on their system. This means that a third party can open the document and the text will appear the same on their screen as it does on your screen. When you are finished with the text portion of the design, and you have proofread everything and are certain that no other edits will need to be made to the copy, converting the text to paths finalizes the “design” of the individual letters.

In a tutorial from last year we went over how to design print-ready book covers in Inkscape: To put things into context, here are a few examples from tutorials we’ve gone over in the past where converting text objects to paths was a necessity. It also allows you to add Path Effects - an assortment of advanced transformations that can be made to vector paths that otherwise could not be applied to text objects. Let’s address this.Ĭonverting your text to a path allows you to edit the structural properties of each individual letter as if it were a custom shape: Converting text to a path allows you to edit the nodes of each letter. You may be curious as to why it is you would even convert text to a path in Inkscape in this the first place. Nodes can be transformed individually, allowing you to shape the object (or path) however you’d like. In short, paths are objects that consist of a series of coordinate points on the X and Y axis known as nodes. Objects with filters and/or path effects applied.The following are examples of objects that are not paths: A tracing generated with the Trace Bitmap tool.A line or shape you have drawn with one of the pen tools.A shape that you have generated with one of the shape tools.In other words, a path is simply a vector object in its purest form.