How to make Icons in Inkscape

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Fill and Stroke

Fill adds colour to the body of the shape you have created. Stroke creates and outline around the shape. You can change the opacity of both, as well as adding gradients of colour to them. This section will detail the advanced functions of Fill and Stroke.

It is worth noting if you create a small shape with a stroke and later enlarge this shape the outline looks a lot bigger than you originally intended. This can of course be fixed later, but its something you should be aware of when designing your image.

Fill and Stroke Task Bar
You can access the task bar in a few different ways: Right click on your shape and select Fill and Stroke. Click on the colours selected next to the Words Fill and Stroke, these will either appear in the top right or bottom left corner of your screen depending on your set up. Finally you can also access it by pressing SHIFT + CTRL + F.



As you can see above, the colours are split in to RGB. It is advisable to use the colour wheel for now, to go there, just click the wheel button.

Blur and Opacity
whether you are on the Fill or Stroke tab these sliders essentially do the same thing.

• Opacity: Moving this down from 100% will make the selected object more or less opaque. You can also switch off the Fill or Stroke by clicking the X on the top row of options, directly below the work FILL.
• Blur: Moving this slider down from 100% will blue the object. Bluring is mainly used to blending. Though we shouldn't really need to use this option.
  

Stroke Options
The Stroke Options tab allows you to change the width of the stroke, and whether you want rounded edges, or sharp corners on your object. In the image below you can see the Stroke is 1mm thick. The Dashes drop down indicates it is a consistent dash pattern, rather than a dotted line. Markers can be ignored. Join determines where it is a rounded corner or sharp corner. Cap gives you a rounded end point if you wish rather than a line stopping dead. Order determines whether you want the stroke to sit on top of or beneath the fill.


Creating Gradients
You can access Gradients via the Fill and Stroke Task Bar - by clicking on the Linear or Radial Gradient icons, as shown in the image below. You can also access by clicking on the Create and Edit Gradient Tool or Pressing CTRL + F1.

• To change the direction of the Gradient. Click on either the White Square or Circle and drag it in the direction you want it to go.
• To create more Gradient points double click on the blue line with the Griadient tool, once happy with the Gradient Points position move on to the next step.
• Click on the Stops drop down menu and select the first one, then select the colour you wish to use from the colour wheel. Also check your opacity level. Then select the next stop from the Stop drop down menu and pick a colour and opactiy. Until all of your Stops have been coloured. You can still move the Gradient points about after this to get the desired effect. Here is an examplewith 5 gradient points going from dark in the bottom left corner to light in the top right.
  

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