The Book of Inkscape, 2nd Edition

12Editing Paths

In a typical vector drawing, an overwhelming majority of objects are paths. That's why being familiar with paths is so important—otherwise, you cannot really say you know how to work in a vector editor. Inkscape provides a rich selection of tools, commands, and effects that work on paths.

I'll start with the basics of SVG paths and the traditional path tools whose analogs you may have already seen in other software. Then, in the second half of this chapter and in the next, I'll describe the advanced Inkscape techniques for path editing that are often more efficient—and almost always more fun to use. You may find, for example, that the Tweak tool (12.6) is so natural that you will rarely need to resort to the more technical and ...