I find it good practice to keep a copy of each set of objects throughout their successive changes.

The downside of path effects is that they're CPU intensive. I quite like that Inkscape provides path effects which let you change the aspect of paths in a parametrised sort of way, such that you can change the effects without loss and altogether discard them if you're really unhappy about them, getting back to your object in its pristine state. Extensions are typically Python scripts and are easy to write. They change the SVG the drawing is stored into. It's only special in the sense that's it's sufficiently commonly used that the Inkscape developers chose to provide a separate, more convenient control to work with it.Įxtensions should be more seen as external scripts: contrary to filters, their effect cannot be adjusted/removed after they've been applied. What may seem a tad misleading, is that the Object → Fill and Stroke dialogue also lets you adjust blur to objects, which effectively acts upon a filter too. This is why that when you want to make an object e.g. glow, you may want to duplicate it and only apply the filter to the copy below. Note that as soon as you apply a filter to an object, it will be bitmapped in a PDF output file even if the change isn't visible. There are many presets and they can be changed with Filters → Filter Editor. 1 Filters and ExtensionsĪ note for beginners, to answer a question I asked myself early on too when I started with Inkscape: what's the difference between filters and extensions?įilters are just SVG bitmap filters. But it's sufficiently flexible to achieve anything you'll need. Inkscape may not be feature-packed like e.g. Adobe Illustrator. Inkscape is one of these vector graphics editors which were designed with enough flexibility in mind to let you do anything you need provided some creativity.

Inkscape gradient pattern along path