![]() We’re going to dig in and do some serious adjustment of the points and curves that make up that parenthesis.įirst off, fire up the Edit Path by Nodes tool and click on the parenthesis. Rotate that little sucker around until it’s shooting off at roughly the same angle as the end of the S. This allows you to click one of the corner arrowsand drag it around, freely rotating the shape. The arrows around the outside of your selection box will change from the outward-pointing arrows (like in the previous image, which allow you to resize an object) to these curved arrows at the corners. You can do that by just single-clicking on the letter you’ve selected. It’s curving to the left at the moment, so I need to flip it by going to Object > Flip Horizontal.Īnd then I’ll want to rotate it around to get its narrower end lined up with the exit stroke of the S. Since I want the swash to come out of that final S and curve downward to the right, I’m going to want my parenthesis starting out in that direction. Next up, let’s turn one of these parentheses into a swash! The yellow diamond is that same point that was highlighted in red. All I need to do is grab that one point (the diamond highlighted in red)…Īnd click-drag it up into the H. Now I can see all of the points along the shape of the letter. I’ve selected the Edit Path by Nodes tool (where my tealarrow is pointing), then selected the letter S. I don’t like the way the S and H meet – there’s a little triangular gap where the letters don’t quite meet up. Now’s the time to fix any spacing issues, or any other problems you may see with your lettering. This makes every letter (and each of the two parentheses) into separate vector objects. Those parentheses can serve as the building blocks for a thousand and one cool swashes.Īs we usually do when manipulating text, first I’m going to convert the typed-in letters to vector objects by selecting the text and going to Path > Object to Path…Īnd then ungrouping everything by going to Object > Ungroup. ![]() I wasn’t sure at the time if I was going to need both of them or just one, so I grabbed them both. Lots of you probably already have this font installed – I think I’ve had a licensed copy bundled in with some software or other on every new computer I’ve purchased over the last 15+ years.įirst off, I’ve typed out my word, and added in the two parentheses. I’m going to use Brush Script MT as my font, because I see it used often in designs of this style. But we’ll be getting into some more in-depth manipulation of points and curves. If you’ve followed along with my previous Inkscape tutorials, I think you’re ready. By building your own, they're yours to use for any purpose: personal, commercial, logos, you name it!īear in mind, this is edging into slightly more advanced Inkscape territory. And while yes, you can find fonts with sets of these kinds of swashes, most of those are only free for personal use. ![]() Others refer to it as a “pilsner” swash, because of their use in beer logos.Įither way, they’re totes cool-looking. Some refer to this as a “baseball” swash, because it’s often used for baseball team logos. ![]() In this tutorial, we’ll be creating the exact “Swashes” design that you see up above. So today I’m going to show you how to use Inkscape to make and add decorative swashes to ANY font. Or if they do, they might not be exactly what you want. A small selection of available literature about Inkscape can be found here.Īll development info can be found here and in the Inkscape Wiki.Adding swashes and flourishes to the beginning and end of words can really up their level of fanciness! But not every font comes with swashes built in.Screencasters Video Tutorials - Long series of Inkscape tutorials, suitable for beginners, but slightly outdated.Many more videos by individual artists are listed on this page. More tutorials, from throughout the Inkscape community, can be found here. Interactive versions can be accessed from within Inkscape, via Help menu > Tutorials. The official tutorials linked below are read-only. Learn How to Use Inkscape Frequently Asked Questions Written Tutorials
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