Inkscape Tutorial: Custom Vector Text Treatment

[@MniHaD15]

you are the most professional and active channel on KZbin who uses inkscape your channel is seriously one of the best out there just subscribed to you a min ago

[@LogosByNick]

+Nihad Thanks! I'll keep the tutorials coming.

[@chuntahanpa]

Fully agree! I also wanted to say thank you for letting us see your skills. Cheers!

[@mankiewicz3522]

Agree, one of the best and still understandable for non english speakers like me

[@abid-ul-azam8894]

100%

[@robertoclay5729]

Instablaster.

[@SocialboutMedia]

Just keeping these comments updated Nick!! 6 years later and you're still helping a wonderous amount of people. Kudos to you and what's yours sir! ♥

[@basalduat]

Nick, I started in 1988 with Illustrator v1. You are not only an excellent designer but a Master at Inkscape. I learned alot watching you.

[@LogosByNick]

+Timothy Basaldua That's quite the compliment. Thank you, Timothy! I'm flattered that an experienced pro like yourself would say that about my work.

[@linda_sue]

Fascinating watching you deal with a glitch as well as the creative steps. Sometimes, I say, "Whaaaat?!" and then watch you change it to what you intended. Keep coming back to your tutorials, so I subscribed. Thank you!

[@MattWellmanWriter]

Just started learning Inkscape this year. I had no idea it was this powerful. Thank you for the fantastic tutorial, I'm excited to watch more!

[@DaveSkor01]

I used Illustrator A LOT about 10 years ago...haven't touched it since and not that I need it again, I've lost it - like my Spanish! Was trying to get back up to speed with Adobe once again, but found your channel...and Inkscape is FREE!! Thanks, Nick!!

[@ktor538]

I'm new to Inkscape, ex- illustrator user, I really like this technique! You make Inkscape straight forward, Thank you! subbed

[@JaredPlane]

Anyone else having trouble with the step at 7:12? When I try to unify the bezier selections it doesn't work...

[@wyckidveyzah4635]

Had the same problem, u just need to click the blue ink object and then ungroup

[@TomWhi]

Thanks, @@wyckidveyzah4635, I did the same but I had to do a "deep unlink" which from previous videos basically meant I hit the ungroup button on the blue about 10 times or more until it works :-)

[@Metamor-phosis]

I had to watch this again, this is just too good, my friend!

[@cindismith9449]

Loved your tutorial! I'll be subscribing to your channel. I had the same glitch with my circles that you did, but I clicked on it and did the Path/Union again and it worked.

[@LogosByNick]

+Cindi Smith Thanks! Glad it worked out better for you than it did for me, haha.

[@fleanardnimoy6555]

This tutorial opened up so many ideas, very awesome. Thank you!

[@LogosByNick]

+Joshua Conner Glad to hear that. Thanks for watching!

[@gxexrxmxaxnx]

After several failures of importing the texture, I figured opening it as a separate document and then copying and pasting it into the other window works just as well. Hope this helps out someone wo's having problems!

[@LogosByNick]

+X88X I've done that before myself in the past. Sometimes a new document does the trick. Thanks for your input!

[@minhaj_rahman]

Hi Nick, love your tutorials, very informative and easy to understand. I've been stuck on 7:29 for a while, after creating the shapes using the Bezier and cusp to nodes tools, I click on the Path;Union, Shift click on blue & then Path;Union again. Nothing changes and the areas do not get filled. Any help??

[@johnnyp443]

I had the same problem. I had to drop the layer created by the Bezier two steps, fill with color and delete the stroke. That fixed it for me.

[@minhaj_rahman]

johnnyp443 Thanks mate! Finally got it working now, been trying to figure this one out for ages 👍🏼👊🏽

[@kellik3554]

Bit late to the party, but what the heck. My blue layer was grouped which is why Union didn't work. I ungrouped, then selected Union, then clicked on the layer with the Bezier shapes and clicked Union again. That sorted it.

[@sponsoredmessage201]

Great tutorial, but filling in the corners for the drop shadow can go a lot faster! Just make the shape once for an upper left corner, once for a lower right, then keep duplicating and snapping. Also by now with the current version of Inkscape (0.92) one can then "Edit > Select Same > Stroke Color" instead of manually selecting each.

[@smoocharoo]

I know you're frustrated here, but it's a fantastic tutorial even years later.

[@saintjimmy2011]

your tutorials are brilliant, you make it super easy to follow along. keep it up :-)

[@LogosByNick]

+James Metcalf Glad to hear that. Thanks James.

[@brownbear5426]

me too, Ive made about 3 or 4 designs of my own from watching this. Absolutely incredible!

[@jocargua]

Tired of flat palette colors, and looking for dirty, grunge, retro, and textured effects. I found this. Thanks..!!!! Inkscape every day is growing and growing.

[@rblihovde]

Nice looking text treatment! Great video!

[@SOC18242]

Hi Nick -- Love your stuff but run into issues sometimes with functionality that doesn't hold for version 1.0.1, like the marrying of objects for adding dimension to the letters that starts at 5:00 -- I've found that the unify feature won't work when the letters have had a stroke added, even after converting both the object and stroke to paths, breaking apart, then re-unifying. This works on letters with no stroke added. Have you had the same experience? Any work-around you can think of? Thanks for any guidance you can give.

[@Accomodare]

At 10:45 you say center on the horizontal axis, but you click the button which centers it on the vertical axis.

[@LogosByNick]

I probably mis-spoke. "Do as I do, not as I say" lol

[@DVSPress]

Absolutely top-notch tutorial!

[@guiadelamujermexico6124]

You sir, are a master of your domain, just a natural teacher, thanks a lot

[@Firigion]

Tipo for people following this. Around 5:30 you coud have made a small triangle (using the snap to intersections and snap tu cusp nodes) and copied it over for every letter, since you moved them all the same.

[@birdy27designs77]

Love love love your tutorials! Been using Inkscape for years, but I always knew there was a lot more to learn. But for this tutorial I'm getting tripped up when I add the thick black stroke after using the bezier tool on the corners. I've tried going back and redoing the corners several times. But whenever I add the thick black stroke I get weird points and even when I go to "objects to paths," I can't seem to get rid of the points. Anything else I can try? I guess I'm not being precise enough when using the bezier tool, but I'm getting as close as I can. I really want to finish this tutorial, but don't think I can go any further until I get things to look like yours at 8:06 or so. Thanks!

[@yannikolas1413]

Sorry the reply is 3 years late but I had the same problem and what I did is instead of using a path, I used Control + ) to outset the text to make it thicker which seemed to work

[@birdy27designs77]

@@yannikolas1413 😂 Thanks so much, Yan! Wow! I don’t even remember this! So much has happened in the last 3 years. But I appreciate your reply! I’m going to go through the whole tutorial again and see if I can try what you suggest.

[@yannikolas1413]

@@birdy27designs77 No problem, I hope it helps

[@sithlordofVA]

Hey, Nick...When I go Path>Stoke to Path it fills in all the cut outs in the As & Bs i my daughters name. Any idea how I can work around this?

[@rockymtns99]

I also had that happen when I was practicing this with my son's name. The letters D A & O filled in. I thought I was doing something wrong.

[@LogosByNick]

+sithlordofVA Sounds like some kind of glitch. I would try inserting new nodes into those letters before converting stroke to path and seeing if that works. Just use the edit paths by nodes tool, select all nodes, then click the button on the far left that says "insert new nodes"

[@sithlordofVA]

+sithlordofVA GUYS...I added a few more steps...after I duplicated it and added the stroke I made a second duplicated copy...one the second copy I went to Path> Stroke to Path (this emptied out the fill). Path> Break Apart (this fills everything back in), Path>Combine (emptied fill once again. Next I selected my two duplicated copies, Aline both on the H&V. Next, I selected the "filled" one then the "stroked" one. Finally, Path> Combine...then I can finish with the rest of Nick's awesome tut!

[@TheBelcebub]

Hey, thanks for another great vid! Instead of manually adding the diagonal objects, you could have also extruded from path for the same effect (extensions/generate from path/extrude/polygons). Either way, result's the same.

[@LogosByNick]

+TheBelcebub Yes indeed. I've used that method before as well. Thanks for the tip.

[@lamshirley1045]

Why does it need a stroke-to-path, break-apart, and union? Why can't be just adding stroke?

[@roninenlightened6350]

This is a 4 year old tutorial where inkscape had to be used with a bit of workarounds. With the Modern version of inkscape, you can simply use the Path > Linked Offset feature or use the Offset feature in the Path > Path Effects menu.

[@Joskyn]

Hi Nick great videos, quick questions when joining the corners as seen at the 5 min mark does it work the same for curved letter like a G or a C. Thanks.

[@LogosByNick]

+Joskyn Thanks. Yes, it'll work, but you'll have to turn on "snap to paths" as well. The "snap to cusp nodes" function only snaps the cursor onto corners.

[@Joskyn]

Awesome thanks for the help.

[@davegb446]

If you do this with more words do you have to do it separatly?

[@jaysonlorenzo2577]

you can make your own font if you like. well that's much easier.

[@Southerngrindwoodworking]

Is there a reason why when you do 20 width and when I do 20 width mine is like 5X the size?

[@LogosByNick]

It might be that your overall graphic is much smaller than mine. Just choose a size that looks about right.

[@davegb446]

what's the difference between holding shift and contol while scaling and just holding ctr when scaling and just holding shift when scaling?

[@TechieSewing]

What do you use for showing keys and mouse buttons pressed? I looked into comments of several videos but didn't see this asked. Thank you :)

[@LogosByNick]

This was when I used Linux. There's an app called Keymon. Haven't found anything similar for Windows yet unfortunately.

[@TechieSewing]

@@LogosByNick Thank you! I'm on Linux but key-mon is unsupported for years so would take some persuading to install.

[@surinfarmwest6645]

Nick, very interesting and as always many thanks for sharing. Public holiday of some sort here so spending the day wisely "Research". No idea why I have not spotted this before. West

[@andreshiever3887]

Great Tutorial Nick

[@MrSidCharming]

On the first duplicate; send to back; give stroke; increase stroke to 20; path/Union; path/BreakApart; path/union... on the break apart (with letters having inside pockets "R", "O") the whole inside fills with the new layer, Not what I was expecting (an outline with exposed inside of those letters but filled completely) is there a work around? I tried instead of path/BreakApart but Ungroup... no luck.

[@MrSidCharming]

+Robert Wagner (found answer below and cleaned up for my purpose to post here) After I duplicated it and added the stroke I made a second duplicated copy… on the second copy Path> Stroke to Path (this emptied out the fill). Path> Break Apart (this fills everything back in), Path>Combine (emptied fill once again. selected my second duplicated copy Aline both on the H&V. selected the "filled" one then the "stroked" one. Finally, Path> Combine… then finish with the rest of Nick's awesome tutorial!

[@rivergrrrl1256]

Another great halftone tutorial. Thank you-- 🌟

[@coryjeffreys5146]

Nick I’m still learning but will the newest version of Inkscape work for all your older tutorials?

[@LogosByNick]

Yes it should for the most part. I can't think of anything in older versions that's been taken away in newer versions.

[@bobbybear5057]

Great tutorial and thorough narration! One concern though... Is anyone else having problems using this technique with letters that are enclosed (A,B,D,P for example)? When it comes to the step where you take the red font and send it to the bottom most layer, apply a red stroke, send that stroke to path, then break it apart; all the enclosed spaces become filled with red and cannot be deleted without deleting the entire letter. Am I doing something wrong? Any help would be greatly appreciated. Thanks!

[@bryanlizardi8574]

Hey i was wondering if you figured out that problem you had with the open letters

[@El_Traficante]

Hello. Thanks, and although this is not timely, I can say that I do equates to what are outcomes if your same actions. Could it be version difference? I am using 1.2.2, from december of '22

[@poweredbygeeko]

very nice! simple but super effective!

[@claudrocker]

This tutorial is superb!

[@appmeurtre]

17:00 when i try to click union some of the circles disappear. idk why could somebody help me?

[@dekrache1001]

How do you get dark-themed inkscape?

[@LogosByNick]

+De Krache I'm using a dark theme for Linux which makes all applications dark. I might be making a tutorial this week showing how to get the dark theme for Windows as I seem to get asked this question a lot. If you'd like to know how, just search KZbin for "inkscape dark theme windows" and there should be a video about it already.

[@dekrache1001]

Thanks! actually I googled it and yeah i did get a link for black version now :D

[@gregetto2009]

The halftone was weird - kept dropping circles. Between each copy, I broke apart the halftone groups and then re-unioned them and it seemed to fix the problem.

[@LogosByNick]

+Gerret Peters Yeah that's of glitches and problems happen when you're working with a large quantity of nodes. I have that problem regularly.

[@newbie1515]

cant seem to get my circles to interpolate... what might be the problem?

[@jktolford8272]

Much later but . . . Did you convert the circles to paths using Objects to paths in Paths menu? One way to tell is use edit nodes tool. Circles will have 3 nodes to edit each affecting entire circle (or ellipse) in a different way. Paths have 4 nodes each of which has a more local effect that distorts the curve.

[@rhessex]

Interesting that you say 'let's see if it works' when applying the final texture! If it hadn't taken, what reasons / solutions would you consider? (yes, it happened to me! The texture works on a simple object, but not on the final text graphic - no greying out either, so doesn't appear to be a processing power issue).

[@kymmoulds]

Very good tutorial. Many thanks.

[@JohnHolloway94]

On the grunge texture, I can't get it to path and difference with the letters.

[@phillipm2368]

Nick,bro,really awesome.Thank you very much.But this is 1 problem.The link for grunge texture doesn`t work(protocol 404).If u can please replace the link.Thank u very much for ur work)

[@LogosByNick]

+drummer Greatest Sorry about that. Fixed. Should work now.

[@phillipm2368]

+Nick Saporito (LogosByNick) Awesome thank you very much

[@jacobrussell1215]

Great tutorial!! I'm trying it out now though and the phrase I'm using has an O and 2 S's, how do you make the shadow on a curved edge like that?

[@omkarghawate470]

Hey Nick, the fonts i install in inkscape just don't show up inside inkscape, even some of the preinstalled fonts don't show in inkscape. But the same fonts work fine in gimp. Can you help me out?

[@omkarghawate470]

Every time I have to type something i have to open gimp and type in it and then alpha to selection > selection to path > export path then import that path into inkscape, in other words it's headache

[@cyqe8206]

Could you please explain why we break apart, then union...like....what does it affect, please be explaining these details to us cause we want to apply the use of those features on our own and not just copy paste what you do here....i hope you're getting me, but thanks still for these tutorials they're top notch 👌

[@CreateInChaos]

my iinkscape does not do that node situation where you connected the letter with the blue

[@t4nc616]

I down loaded the font but how do i get into the font library

[@muabuon378]

Hi there, I've been having problems with copy and paste of a vectorized text into another Inkscape document. It became a raster image so I couldn't do anything with it

[@AugustusOmega]

Another way to get that half tone to work for sure is to export the letters as a PNG then work with the bitmap, guaranteed to work

[@drtechtek2165]

You opened my creativity again, thnx :)

[@clonboymusic]

hi nick, thanks for this tutorial, great stuff! 2 questions 1. what is the difference between grouping an object or unify it. sometimes you just group sometimes you unify 2. would you do a tutorial about mixed media, for example vectorize a jpg and use it with the normal vector stuff. thanks again watching every tutorial! and i got better incredibily.

[@LogosByNick]

+Mister Onemoveahead Thanks. Good questions. 1.) Grouping objects is just temporary. The group objects can remain in their respective colors as separate objects, but behave as a unit. Unifying them is permanent. It makes them a single object, and in 1 color. 2.) Yes I have that lined up as a possible tutorial in the future -- taking a vector image that has been rasterized, then re-vectorizing it

[@clonboymusic]

+Nick Saporito (LogosByNick) thank you nick, will contact you soon for some personal training ;-)

[@flaviagonzalezgarrido733]

Hi, thanks for this tutorial! I do it and looks amazing, I'm so excited :D. Good job

[@tyte90]

And another great video!! Thank you.

[@ashleyls6280]

How do you add font to Inkscape? Sorry I’m new to this

[@muhammadsofyan7211]

What your OS use?

[@eiplank.5288]

hallo nick! ein tolles video. vielen dank für's posten

[@LogosByNick]

+ei plan k. danke :)

[@alissonalmeida353]

Could you make a tutorial with an vintage typography using Inkscape?

[@OwenTam]

Does this work with Inkscape 1.0?

[@JeffHenneforth]

I'm using 1.0 and have tried it several times following Nick step by step exactly. I'm getting really weird results. I think something has changed. Problems really start @7:12. Someone addressed that below by suggesting to ungroup the blue letters. I tried that and at first it seemed to work, but when I got to @7:38 things started going wonky again. Something is definitely different.

[@OwenTam]

@@JeffHenneforth Nick made a video about Stoke to path. You should check that out. He shows how to fix that.

[@JeffHenneforth]

@@OwenTam Thanks I'll make sure to check that out

[@JeffHenneforth]

@@OwenTam Just retried after watching Nick's update video about the Stroke to Path and it worked perfectly! For anyone else that may be wondering that video is at kzbin.info/www/bejne/iaqTn4ihitlseaM

[@cnaber9827]

I'm stuck. I can't make an intersection between the red lines and the text. Nothing happens when I do it! Does anybody know why?

[@GAHIstudio]

Thanks Nick👍🏼👍🏼👍🏼

[@tzeditions610]

Thanks for the super tutorials!

[@eliasmena7666]

great video!

[@LogosByNick]

+Elias Mena Thank you

[@tibolefevre]

"As always, thank you for sharing !" ;-)

[@LogosByNick]

+Thibaut Lefevre haha, thanks

[@igortikho]

Awesome man, many thanks!

[@LogosByNick]

+игорь тихонов Cheers

[@TheSqualle34]

great tut!

[@LogosByNick]

+Squalle Squ Thanks

[@kentworthington3086]

I couldn't get around the Path>Difference glitch. soooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo................

[@kentworthington3086]

+Kent Worthington nvm, just recreated each individual circle lol

[@LogosByNick]

+Kent Worthington Yeah those glitches can be a paid sometimes.

[@musthafakamal9828]

Path to union, select path to stroke, then select duplicate.......by that i'm all lost in paths, unions, groups and strokes.

[@mobinsayyari]

Hi i love your videos when i start watching they are so good! but my pc is not that good for this stuf can you help me to make cool photo for me? :)

[@mobinsayyari]

:|

[@LogosByNick]

+mob say A computer needs a decent amount of memory to handle something like this. At least 8gb. I think a memory upgrade would be very beneficial and wouldn't cost too much :)

[@mobinsayyari]

+Nick Saporito (LogosByNick) i got laptop now its not that good so it dont have that much i am looking to buy gaming pc later :)

[@awesomedesign6724]

great work....

[@seemsas]

thank you for teaching this

[@LogosByNick]

+seemsas Glad you liked it

[@alfifardian]

Thank's nick

[@antonioserrano2711]

Hello, something is not working out for me. I'm stuck at the little boxes around the corners, specifically when I click the blue part of the letter while holding shift, I go to path union but Instead of filling the edges of the letters the only thing that changes in blue is the outside line that connects the corners. The inside lines of the boxes disappear, and the center part of the corners remain white. I manage just to outline the corners.

[@antonioserrano2711]

thank you in advance.

[@antonioserrano2711]

+Jose Serrano and English is not my first language sorry

[@nyte_drake9959]

I have the same Problem. I can't find the "snap to cusp note" button. I have the inkscape version 0.91

[@cismifikriyat3940]

thank you

[@chris-9488]

You lost me at ungroup it with that button right there. I can't see your cursor, and there are a lot of buttons to choose. So which button is the "that button right there"?

[@LogosByNick]

The one that says "Ungroup" if you hover your cursor over it. Or you can press control + shift + g

[@mastermill79]

Thank you for this :)

[@LogosByNick]

+mastermill79 My pleasure. Had fun designing it (before I started recording it, anyway. haha)

[@priyoabulhasan]

i like your tutorial, try to make all precision,....path->different, union, break apart...i like it,..keep post, thank u

[@sexychickens4515]

This was cool! Thanks for sharing, even if it meant the death of your computer cx

[@LogosByNick]

+Sexy Chickens lol it's funny, when I'm planning these tutorials and not recording it, everything runs like clockwork. Once I start screen capturing, everything starts going south.

[@Siegezys]

+Nick Saporito (LogosByNick) Happens to me when I record desktop but when I record games it is buttery smooth.

[@jesuscamposromero895]

Hermano admiro tu trabajo sigue así!

[@calebowusu2068]

Thank you.....

[@ahmeddeiaa3943]

awesome , like always, new technique is given. keep it up

[@LogosByNick]

+ahmed deia Thanks

[@YegSasha]

To everyone watching what you are learning in these tutorials obviously they are more detailed that what a paid lecturing serviced would provide.. and from a guy that has adjusted the whole inkscape platform UI to reseble the photo shop ... (its a mental thing) as i am definitly adjusting mine now... Nick is it possible to pick your brain for a few matters? would really like to ask you a couple questions regarding graphics and the inkscape ui...

[@indech]

How does one do that? How do I adjust the UI to look like Photoshop?

[@YegSasha]

Look at photoshops and then look at Inkscapes

[@sirmissalot8065]

just google Inkscape dark theme

[@YegSasha]

or that : )

[@fafaaye]

Just an advice, I think. You can make the vector smaller while working on it and then resize the final vector to a bigger one, or simply export that vector into your desired size so it won't take so many resources :)

[@benyowaty]

GREAT ! :)

[@cyqe8206]

7:22.... that's when it all went to hell

[@mbayelab]

Nick you are so dope

[@CaineTheBuilder]

I love Nick Saporito(notice profile picture)

[@gregorya.meadows5350]

HOW DO YOU ADD DOWNLOADED TEXT IN INKSCAPE? @NICK SAPORITO

[@davidcrokettt6089]

You sound like a young George Clooney. Everyone thinks it, trust me.

[@alphonso6942]

When I am too poor to afford Al ;')

[@SSQUAC]

"We're going to start this tutorial by upgrading our processor and cooling it with liquid nitrogen."

[@veronikahlawiczkova4343]

Please help me what am I doing wrong. The red circles to add to the text I click different, but nothing happend :(.