Welcome to Inkscape Community! This collection of links to Inkscape tutorials came about as a result of my personal need for a centralized source of good quality tutorials. I've reviewed all of these tutorials, and found them to contain generally correct info about Inkscape, presented in an easily understandable format, and worthwhile. Of course it would be impossible to show every known tutorial here, and if you're looking for some specific subject, you still may need to search the internet. But I hope this will make it easier for Inkscape students, to find the info they need.
Please note, that for the most part, I've tried not to include tutorials which utilize features or techniques that are significantly changed in the current version of Inkscape. However, there are some tutorials listed, where a step that is secondary to the main goal of the tutorial, uses a feature or technique which has been changed or improved in the current version. Especially note that Snapping has been improved, and controls have changed quite a lot from the earliest versions listed here, to the current version. If you should need assistance with any tutorial, please feel free to post a message on this board, in our forum.
These skill level categories, to which I've assigned the tutorials, are strictly my opinion, but based on my own knowledge and understanding of Inkscape. The tutorial authors may or may not agree with how I've categorized them, but I do have permission from most of the authors (only one or two I haven't been able to contact). Also, you'll see that there are different kinds of bullets, which indicate the versions of Inkscape for which the tutorials were written. Here's the key:
- these are our own tutorials -- these tutorials were written for version 0.45 -- for 0.46 -- for 0.47 -- for 0.48 -- for 0.91 -- for 0.92 -- I don't know or am not sure which version the tutorial was written for
Please click on the black text of each list item to reveal the list of tutorials from each author. Click again to close. And....have fun!
BEGINNER SKILLS
Inkscape Help menu > Tutorials > Basic, and Shapes
After you've completed these, perhaps you'd like to move on to the next of Xav's tutorials, which teach more intermedicate skills.
Inkscape - Part 40 - special issue for 100th edition of Full Circle Magazine, contains 100 useful tips for using Inkscape, ranging from beginner to adanced skills
* Instructions for applying to Firefox are slightly different now.
Syllie has a gift for teaching intermediate, and sometimes even advanced skills to Inkscape beginners. I'm respecting her descriptions in my organization of her tutorials, but note that a tutorial (of hers) in the Beginner or Intermediate sections may teach skills which I would otherwise consider intermediate or advanced.
Inkscape - Part 40 - special issue for 100th edition of Full Circle Magazine, contains 100 useful tips for using Inkscape, ranging from beginner to adanced skills
Even though the author calls many of these beginner tutorials, they teach what I think of as intermediate skills. So to keep the skill levels here on Inkscape Community consistent, I'm placing them in the Intermediate section. Note that Nick always refers to the Selection tool as "the arrow".
Ok! Nick continues to be prolific with good Inkscape tutorials. So rather than make this list twice as long, I'll just refer you to his list of YT videos As of the last update of this page, there are 118 more tutorials, in addition to those above. (Plus approx 23 GIMP tutorials.)
* Don't miss the update/correction, noted under the video description, also discussed in comments. ** Also a great tutorial for a shiny button *** The LPEs covered here could be considered intermediate skills. However, some LPEs that are available now might be considered advanced skills. # Linux or Mac required for calendar, but the glass panel can be made without a calendar.
Syllie has a gift for teaching intermediate, and sometimes even advanced skills to Inkscape beginners. I'm respecting her descriptions in my organization of her tutorials, but note that a tutorial in the Beginner or Intermediate sections may teach skills which I would otherwise consider intermediate or advanced. NOTE: (t) indicates all text tutorial, (v) indicates video.
Note that these are 2 of the very few of his videos which are in English. There are many more in German, which you can find links to below, in the GERMAN LANGUAGE TUTORIALS section.
Parts 37 to 39, and 41 are more intermediate skills, and can be found in the Intermediate block.
Inkscape - Part 40 - special issue for 100th edition of Full Circle Magazine, contains 100 useful tips for using Inkscape, ranging from beginner to adanced skills
This series is ongong. Although we keep this list updated, you may find new tutorials in subsequent issues of Full Circle magazine, before we update this page.
* But for the additional use of other graphics programs, in addition to Inkscape, these would be Intermediate level. ** This is how to permanently add a custom pattern to the program. Otherwise, custom patterns only exist in the docs/files where they are applied.
Note that this is 1 of the very few of his videos which are in English. There are many more in German, which you can find links to below, in the GERMAN LANGUAGE TUTORIALS section.
Note that later tutorials build on skills learned in earlier ones. They are listed here in order from first to most current. Also note, that a couple of them show how to do the same thing with The GIMP.
Although there is no programming work underway, or even current plans (to my knowledge), native Inkscape SVG animation remains a long-time and much-requested feature. Meanwhile, there are several ways to animate, either exported PNG, SVG, or other vector images made with Inkscape, using other technology. (And especially recently, some nice new programs have been released and are still under active development!) Some of these are not for beginners, and in fact, some are quite advanced. But some could be accomplished by beginners, and some could be easily done by intermediate users.
Some of these are Inkscape extensions, some are standalone programs, and others consist of writing code in a text editor or API (SMIL, CSS3, or JavaScript). For people who already know how to write these codes, or are quite familiar with SVG/XML, this is probably easy to learn. But for those who aren't so "code-oriented", one of the Inkscape extensions or stand-alone programs might be a better choice.
JessyInk comes installed with Inkscape (Extensions menu > JessyInk). There is some info about it in the Inkscape manual. And you can find more info on the project page (such as documentation in their wiki). JessyInk creates a slideshow type of animation, for viewing in browsers, by means of embedding JavaScript in the SVG file.
Sozi is an extension which needs to be installed. It provides a more smooth type of animation, such as zooms and rotations; which is accomplished by using JavaScript in the SVG file. There is a series of tutorials on their website. However, Inkscape version 0.91 will probably be the last version where Sozi can be installed as an extension. It is being developed into a standalone program.
XIA can either be installed as an extension (into Inkscape), or as a standalone program (alongside Inkscape). On their website is documentation in the form of a PDF file, an instructional video, as well as sample SVG files, showing each (and every one) of XIA's capabilities. These are mostly drag and drop functions, which can be used to make some simple games, along with several typical interactive functions, such as when clicking or mousing over. XIA produces interactive HTML5 images/files.
The GIMP is a free/open source, 2D graphics editor, which can create, import and export, both raster and vector images. It has a relatively simple and easy to use GIF animation feature, which can use PNGs exported from Inkscape. Note that there are MANY programs which will animate GIFs and other formats. A quick internet search should turn up more than you can imagine!
Tupi is free/open source, 2D animation software, which can use both raster and vector images. Their Docs page provides links to their wiki, as well as some video tutorials. Also check out their Demos page.
Synfig Studio is free/open source 2D animation software, and can import and utilize SVG images. And now, Inkscape can export the native Synfig format, SIF. There are both a manual and tutorials in their wiki.
Blender is a free/open source 3D animation suite. See below for a tutorial using Blender. And there are both manual and tutorials on their Support page.
Snap.svg is a free/open source JavaScript library for working with SVG using an API. You may want to start with their Getting Started page, and then move on to their Docs page. See below for a couple of tutorials on using Snap.svg.
An SVG Button - SVG and the Web - an example using Inkscape images and all 3 types of animation - SMIL, CSS3, and JavaScript.
Simple Animation - an example using ECMAscript to animate an SVG object.
A Neon Sign - Animation is 2 full tutorials, 1 showing how to make a GIF animation, and another showing JavaScript animation of the same image; but which are only available in the print and PDF versions of the manual.
These tutorials are in a separate category, because they are specifically designed to prepare images to be used with home/craft cutting machines. I don't know for sure, but I think they would also apply for digital or computerized vinyl, wood, and/or metal cutting; because they all follow same general principle of cutting along a path.
I'd say most all of them would fall into the Intermediate Skills category.
Note that not all home/craft cutting machines are compatible with Inkscape. So be sure to do your homework, before you buy one.
Note that I have not reviewed these tutorials, since I don't read or understand German. However, this is an advanced Inkscape user, so I expect the instructional content will be high quality.
Note that I have not reviewed these tutorials, since I don't read or understand German. However, this is an advanced Inkscape user, so I expect the instructional content will be high quality. But there could be other issues, e.g. with the sound. So I'd appreciate if you let me know, if you find any problems with these tutorials.
Note: This manual is much improved, since I last looked at it a few years ago (and found many blank pages). I actually wasn't planning to include it in this list. But now there are only a couple of unwritten chapters. So especially for beginners, if you haven't checked it out lately, you may want to.
Note: This small manual is especially well-written for beginners, imo. (A couple of images could be very mildly nsfw.)
Inkscape 0.48 Illustrator's Cookbook, by Mihaela Jurkovic and Rigel Di Scala Packt Publishing
Building Web Applications with SVG, by David Dailey, et al. CodeProject.com or Scribd.com (about SVG in general, rather than specifically about Inkscape)
Thanks to the authors of all these wonderful resources, for their contribution to the Inkscape community. I know I would never have been able to learn how to use Inkscape, without help from the materials which they've so generously written, and made available!
If you'd like your tutorial to be listed here, or you know of books or tutorials that you think should be listed, please post a message (or use our contact form, if you don't want to register). Especially I'd like to know about more non-English tutorials ;-)
I hope you'll have time to browse through the rest of the Inkscape Community website. Especially you may be interested in registering, so you can display some of your work in our gallery. In my experience, there aren't many all-Inkscape galleries around the 'net, which anyone can use. So I hope you'll enjoy using it. You can navigate using the tabs/menu bar at the top of every page. Happy Inkscaping!
- these are our own tutorials
-- these tutorials were written for version 0.45
-- for 0.46
-- for 0.47
-- for 0.48
-- for 0.91
-- for 0.92
-- I don't know or am not sure which version the tutorial was written for
