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Inkscape User Manual

Un-official manual by Kevin Wixson

Table Of Contents

Part XI
Chapter 4: Rectangle Tool

[icon/screenshot]

Overview

The Rectangle Tool is one of the special class of tools that create Live Shapes. Live Shapes are objects that have special properties that can be edited after the object has been drawn. With the Rectangle tool, the Inkscape artist can draw a four sided shape. The rectangle, as a Live Shape, can have rounded corners, and the corners can be adjusted by dragging the handles in the upper right hand corner of the selection cue.

Editing Rounded Corners

[screenshot]

When first drawn, the editing handles for the Rectangle Live Shape are located in the top right corner of the selection cue. The vertical control is on top and will be selected when it is clicked and dragged away from the corner. As it is moved further away from the corner, the radius of the corners' curves will increase. Until the horizontal control is moved, the vertical control will modify both the horizontal and vertical rounding radius. If the horizontal control is moved, or the vertical control is selected with the Ctrl key modifier, the horizontal and vertical rounding radius settings will be independent of eachother, each controlled by the horizontal and vertical controls. To reset the controls so the vertical control manipulates both the horizontal and vertical rounding radius settings, click the "not rounded" button on the Tool Controls bar. Otherwise, holding the Ctrl key while dragging either the vertical or horizontal control, and both controls will move to form symettrically rounded corners.

Zoom Tool Control bar

The tool control bar for this tool has the following commands and options:

Node Tool Preferences

The tool behavior can be modified in the Inkscape Preferences window:

Usage

Modifiers

Additional Information

Related Topics

Comments

Date: 08/01/2005
Nickname: User
Subject: setting exact size. Howto
Message: Hello Kevin, I've not found a way to create an object, then set it's exact dimensions. I would have thought that would be in the property edit dialog. Thanks, Steven
Date: 08/02/2005
Nickname: Kevin
Subject: Setting exact sizes
Message: Steven, set the exact size of objects by choosing the Selector from the toolbox, select the object to be resized with the Selector, and change the numbers that appear in the Tool Controls bar. There has been some discussion about what exactly to do with the object properties dialog, because a lot of people think like you and I do, that the properties like the object's scale and position should be included and controlled through such a properties dialog.
Date: 10/07/2005
Nickname: Another User
Subject: Setting exact sizes
Message: I'm probably doing something really stupid but when I try setting the size and position of a rectangle using the toolbar changing one value say width changes the other. For instance I draw an arbitrary rectangel, and I set the width to say 50.00 . Then click in the height box which changes the width for example to 50.32. Then change height to 50.00 and it changes itself to say 50.19 and width to 50.06 etc. I have to iterate between if I want to converge on 50 by 50. I find it very annoying that I can't just set the dimension and position also if I'm working in pixels why do I need floating point precision anyway?

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Disclaimer

This manual is my scratch pad and development site for the Inkscape documentation project. Documentation that appears here may eventually work its way into the official Inkscape documentation, and changes to the Inkscape documentation may work it's way into this draft. It is a work in progress, so please don't mind the mess. Anything that appears here is GPL'ed under the usual licenses for GPL documentation, yada, yada, yada, or has been dedicated to the public domain. For a list of those elements that have been placed in the public domain, please click here.

Links To Official Inkscape Resources