Nodes must be selected before they can be edited. Selected nodes are indicated by a change in color as well as a slight enlargement in size. The handles of the selected nodes are shown, as are the handles for adjacent nodes. If the handles get in the way of selecting nodes, they can be toggled off by clicking on the Hide Handles icon in the Tool Controls. Clicking the icon a second time toggles the handles back on.

Nodes can be selected for editing a number of ways:

Nodes can be added (or removed) from the selection by holding down the Shift key while using one of the above methods.

New in v0.45.

Nodes can also be added to or removed from the selection by hovering the cursor over a node and using the Mouse Wheel, moving “up” to add nodes and “down” to remove nodes. The Page Up and Page Down keys can be used in place of the Mouse Wheel. This selection technique is especially useful in conjunction with node sculpting.

Two modes are possible: The default mode adds nodes based on the spatial distance from the cursor. If the Ctrl key is held down, the nodes are selected based on the linear distance measured along the path. In this latter case, only nodes in the same sub-path can be selected.

Tab selects the next node in a path if one is already selected. This is usually the adjacent node in the direction the path was drawn. If no node is selected, it will select the first node. Shift+Tab will select the previous node in a path. Ctrl+A selects all nodes in a selected path. ! inverts the node selection for any sub-path with at least one node selected. Alt+! inverts the node selection for the entire path.

The mouse can be used to move nodes and handles by dragging them. It can also be used to alter the shape of a path between two nodes by dragging the path. And finally, nodes can be inserted anywhere along a path by double clicking the path or by clicking the path while holding down the Ctrl+Alt keys.

This section covers using the keyboard to move nodes and to adjust their handles. The keyboard can also be used to add and delete nodes, change the type of node, and to join or break paths. For these latter uses, see the keyboard shortcuts in the following section on the Node Tool-Tool Controls.

In this section, Left- and Right- applied to the Ctrl and Alt modifying keys refers to the keys on the left and right side of the Space bar. Using a left modifying key causes the left handle of a node to be modified; using a right modifying key modifies the rightmost handle. The definition of which handle is left or right is not always completely obvious as when one handle is directly above the other or when the leftmost handle is moved to the right of the former rightmost handle.

Nota

Updated for v0.46. The scaling and rotating operations described below are different if one node is selected as compared to two or more nodes. If two or more nodes are selected, the nodes act like an object and scale or rotate around the center of the selection, as described in “Transforms with the Keyboard” in Capítulo 5, Positioning and Transforming. If the mouse is over a node, then that node is used as the center of rotation. It is also possible to flip the nodes horizontally and vertically by using keyboard shortcuts. An example of editing multiple nodes. The rectangles on the right are formed by one path. By selecting all the nodes on the right side of the path and using the normal transformation commands a perspective effect can be achieved. Use < to move the nodes closer together and the Arrow keys to move the nodes to the left and up.

The Node Tool-Tool Controls provides an easy way to access many of the methods of editing nodes.

The Node Tool-Tool Controls.

The Align and Distribute dialog (Objecto → Align and Distribute... (Mayús.+Ctrl+A)) has special commands for editing nodes when the Node Tool is in use.

Align and Distribute dialog when Node Tool is active.

The commands will align or distribute selected nodes and can be useful to evenly place markers on a straight line (as shown in the figure below).

A path composed of nodes connected by straight line segments as drawn (top), aligned and distributed (middle), and with scissor markers (bottom). (Markers can be added by using the Stroke style tab of the Fill and Stroke dialog (Objecto → Fill and Stroke... (Mayús.+Ctrl+F)). See “Markers” in Capítulo 9, Attributes.

The commands available are:

The Sculpting mode of the Node Tool allows one to easily manipulate a complex path, adjusting multiple nodes at the same time. The basic use is to select a group of nodes and then drag one of the selected nodes with the mouse while holding down the Alt key. Only the dragged node moves the full amount. The selected nodes at the end remain fixed and all the other selected nodes will move a distance that is a function of how far they are from the dragged node. The function takes the form of a Bell Curve distribution. This is best illustrated by the following diagram.

Adjusting a group of nodes using the Sculpting mode. Top: A straight line with many nodes. Middle: The line after selecting all nodes and dragging the middlemost node with the mouse while holding down the Alt key. Bottom: The line after selecting only the leftmost nodes and dragging the center of the selected nodes down while holding down the Alt key.

As usual with the Node Tool, only paths may be sculpted. Any other objects must be converted to a path first. In the following illustration, a star has been converted to a path and then the innermost nodes were selected and one was dragged.

Sculpting a star. Left: A star converted to a path. Right: After selecting the center nodes and Alt dragging one node to the left.

The uses of Sculpting are endless. One can easily manipulate text into interesting shapes. In the following example, the text is sculpted in two different ways.

Top: Regular text. Middle: Text converted to a path with additional nodes added. First the leftmost characters were selected and one of the middle nodes dragged upward. This was repeated twice for each three letter group on the right. Bottom: The same text as above, but this time the bottommost nodes of each letter were excluded from the selection.

With a tablet, pressure sensitivity can be used to control the extent to which neighbor points are dragged. Neighbor nodes will move farther if the pressure used is greater. The tablet input device must be enabled; see the Calligraphy Tool section.

Sculpting of a straight line using the pressure sensitivity of a tablet. Applied pressure increases from top to bottom.

A number of different “profiles” are available. As of now, it is not possible to switch between the profiles using the GUI. You can switch by editing the sculpting_profile parameter in the file preferences.xml in your Inkscape profile directory.

Available profiles for Sculpting. Top to bottom: 0, 1 (default), 2.