Inkscape Worksheet 2 Working With Text

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…