Email from Richard

A while back I did a short video about Inkscape. Inkscape is an alternative to the Expensive Corel Draw. Richard, a reader of this blog saw the video and has been using the program for a while. Unlike me he read the documentation. The following email is from Richard with some good information. Thanks for sharing Richard.

Since watching your tutorial for making name plaque patterns using Inkscape, I've been playing with Inkscape. I found some extra info in the documentation online at http://inkscape.org/doc that streamlines kerning the letters closer together. Check the Inkscape tutorial: Advanced toward the end. This is a quote:

"One of the most common operations in text design is adjusting spacing between letters and lines. As always, Inkscape provides keyboard shortcuts for this. When you are editing text, the Alt + < and Alt + > keys change the letter spacing in the current line of the text object, so that the total length of the line changes by 1 pixel at the current zoom..."

You can select the text and hold down the appropriate keys until the letters are as you want. Suggest holding down in bursts because program isn't as fast as the clicking you hear and the changes might continue after you let up on the keys.

Thanks for introducing me to a free program that has the Path > Union feature. That is the one function missing in AutoSketch and Paint Shop Pro and is so handy when making text scroll patterns.

Regards,
Richard