inkscape-pages 1.2
Pages support for Inkscape. Inkscape has now pages!
Author: Cosmin Popescu [cosminadrianpopescu@gmail.com]
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About:
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This is a free program. You can use it, distribute it, modify it,
do what ever you want with it. Any suggestions, reclamations,
bug reports or any other ideas that you may have, please send them
at cosminadrianpopescu@gmail.com
This extension is tested only on Ubuntu 11.04, but normally should
work on any platform on which Inkscape works. Being written in
Python, there shouldn't be any problem with it. It enables multi
page support for Inkscape. One of the very important features
Corel Draw has and Inkscape didn't had yet.
Features:
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- insert pages
- insert page margins
- use a master page
- different master page for left and right pages (odd or even pages)
- move object from one page to another
- rearange pages
- remove pages
- export to PDF
- navigate through pages
Important:
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If you want to also use layers with this extension, please create them using
the "Add new layer" option from the extension. Once created the layers, do not
drag them on out of the current page layer. This is the only restriction.
Otherwise, you can use the layers in any way.
Setting the shortcuts:
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Edit the keys.xml file and set your shortcuts
Linux and Mac Installation instructions:
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In a command line, do the following:
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foo$ tar -xvf inkscape-pages-0.1.tar.gz
foo$ cd inkscape-pages-0.1
foo$ sudo ./install [es|ro|en]
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For example, if you want to install it in Spanish, you have to do
sudo ./install es. By default, if you not specify any language,
the English version will be installed.
Basically, what this does is copying all the .inx and .py files from the modules folder in the inkscape
extensions directory, then add in the keys/default.xml file the content of the
./keys.xml file. Then, just restart the inkscape. You should have the Table sub-menu
in the Extensions menu.
If, for any reasons, the install will fail you can do all this manually.
Copy the .py files from the modules folder and then the .inx files and
the pages_t.py file from the modules/[your language] folder inside the
inkscape extensions directory. For example, if you want to install it
in Spanish, copy the content of modules/es folder inside the inkscape
extensions folder.
then edit the keys/defaults.xml
(on Ubuntu this folder is located in /usr/share/inkscape folder) and add the
content of the keys.xml folder.
That's it. Restart the inkscape and you're done.
Windows Installation instructions:
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Just run the executable. You will be required to input the Inkscape
installation folder. Usually this is C:\Program Files\Inkscape. If
this folder is in another location on your system, just input the
correct path and click install. After, restart Inkscape and you're
done.
Don't worry about deleting or overwriting anything from Inkscape. The
inkscape-pages installer will only add files in the shares\extensions
folder. When uninstalling, only those files which have been added will
be deleted.
How to use it:
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Of course, before using the pages feature, you have to create a multi page document.
From the "Extensions" menu, select Pages and then Create multi page document.
A document with a single page will be created. If you previously had anything on the
document, everything will be copied on the newly created page.
You can observe the page number at any time in the status bar, at the current layer.
This will always show the current page.
I've set shortcuts for the most important functions: navigation and insertion of new
pages. Since the PgUp and PgDn shortcuts are used by Inkscape, I set the navigation
on the Ctrl + PgUP and Ctrl + PgDn. You can change these shortcuts and also you can
add your own. Just check the .inx files to see each function id and then insert a new
line in the keys.xml file before installing it.
Once the document is created, everything should be straight forward. You can easily
navigate through the pages using the shortcuts, you can add new pages, remove pages,
add page margins, move objects from one page to another (using the "Move selected
objects" option) or reorder the pages (using the "Move current page" option).
Master page
The master page is used to display elements in all pages. To edit it, just navigate to it
(Extensions -> Pages -> Go to -> Master page). Everything you insert here, will be
visible on all pages. If you want to insert page numbers, create a new text area using
the text tool in which you have to type the text "#page#". Of course you could also
type anything next to the page text. Only the page text will be transformed according to each
page, while everything else will be untouched.
For example, if you type "This is page #page#", on the first page this will appear as
"This is page 1", on the second page this will appear as 'This is page 2" and so on.
If you want different master pages for left and right pages (odd and even pages),
while editing the master page, select the objects that you want to appear only on
left pages or only on right pages and then click Extensions -> Pages -> Master Page ->
Display selected objects in...
While editing, if you want to see which objects appear on which pages, just use the
filtering option (Extension -> Pages -> Master page -> Filter).
Printing
Of course, if you use the Inkscape print option, only the current page will be printed.
In order to print the full document, you will have to use the Export to PDF option and
then to print the generated PDF document.
By default, the exporting will generate a PDF file for each of the indicated pages your home
folder in a subfolder called pages-export. Depending on the Windows version, the home folder could
be under C:\Users\[Your user name] or in C:\Documents and Settings\[Your user name].
If you have pdfjam
(http://www2.warwick.ac.uk/fac/sci/statistics/staff/academic-research/firth/software/pdfjam/#download)
or pdftk (http://www.pdflabs.com/tools/pdftk-the-pdf-toolkit/)
installed you will also be able to create a single document.
pdfjam is specific for Linux systems, while pdftk can be used for Linux, Windows and Mac.
The default location will be /tmp/exported_pages.pdf. If you want to modify the
location, just modify the tool command from the export parameters window.
For Windows users: You can download pdftk from http://www.pdflabs.com/docs/install-pdftk/.
Follow the instructions to install it and save the exe file in a PATH folder. Otherwise, modify the tool
text box to indicate the folder where pdftk is saved. Then just modify the output path and you're done.
For example, if you save the pdftk exe file in d:\temp\pdftk and you want to save the resulted document
in d:\pdfs, then the tool text box should look like this:
d:\temp\pdftk\pdftk %i cat output d:\pdfs\output.pdf
If you don't have or don't want to use this tool, you could use the Adobe Acrobat Professional
and join all the files generated in the pages-export folder in a single file.
