Inkscape Penrose

Inkscape 0.48
L-System Extension



Coloring one of these is fascinating.
What do you see?
At first, I saw the creamy shapes, then the stars, and then started seeing polygon "balls."
The creamy shapes are stars too only rotated slightly, but I did not see them as stars. I saw them as boxy shapes.

Rendered in Inkscape, colored on layers in Paint Shop Pro.
Same color green, but different layer opacities to distinguish the different shapes.
Creamy background.

Parameters at
wiki
Mine is Order 5, Step 25
Be prepared for Inkscape to crash on an Order 5. It gets real sluggish.

Can select the entire thing and change Stroke Color in Inkscape.
If you want to color the sides in Inkscape, Path/Break Apart first, then Node Tool to select the sides and color them.
When I tried it, not all sides were properly broke apart however.
And some were transparent.
Can see that by the slight variations in the "creamy" colors on this one colored in Inkscape, Order 3.



Also
here.
Mentions:
Tessellation
Space-filling curve

More wiki:
L-system
Penrose Tiling
Shows a colored Penrose.
A pentagonal Penrose tiling (P1) on a rhombus tiling (P3).
A P1 tiling using Penrose's original set of six prototiles.
More

Previous L-System blog posts:
Sierpinski
Parameters

Manual

Inkscape Spiro Surprise

Another pretty spirograph pattern that I made just fiddling around with the parameters.
Exported and then layered in Paint Shop Pro so I could use Hard Light Layer Blend and pump up the color/contrast a bit.

Inkscape Tiled Clones Flower of Life Challenge

Flower of Life:



Made in Inkscape 0.48, but colored and layered in Paint Shop Pro.
I tried making this with Inkscape Tiled Clones and just could not figure out how to get the circles to line up correctly.
I can get close.
Anybody out there know if this is possible to do in Inkscape with Tiled Clones?
Or an extension maybe?
I did find this one Python extension that I think is supposed to do Flower of Life but I don't know how to use it in Inkscape.

I did use Tiled Clones to study how the Flower of Life is made. But in the end, I resorted to lining up the circles with grid, guides, grouping and regrouping the circles until I created the Flower of Life.

Zoomed in view of circles crossing:


As far as Tiled Clones:
P1 Symmetry
Uncheck: "Use saved size and position of the tile" I'm not sure what that is, but it was giving me some strange results.
I know the center rotation (crosshair) on the circle must be moved down to the bottom of the circle.
I know the column shift is -50% on X.
It's the row parameters I could not figure out.
I got close with a Shift and Rotation with Alternate.

I can do a mini flower of life:


Center rotation (crosshair) on the circle must be moved down to the bottom edge of the circle
P1, 1 row, 10 col (Looks like I only needed 6 instead of 10?)
Shift X -100 Col
Shift Y -100 Row
Rotation 60 col

I can sometimes get something similar with spirograph too, although the pattern is imperfect.

I first saw the Flower of Life at mathworld.

Then after I had already make mine, I found the ones at wiki:
My fav.
The one like mine.
And carpet is pretty too.

Inkscape Tiled Clones Spiral Challenge

Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7



So I've been working on this for about 4 years now. lol

4 years ago I made a tiled clones spiral by grouping a star with a spiral.
But that's not really what the Manual is doing.
The "logarithmic spiral" refers to the Base parameter in the Tiled Clones Menu.

Back in 2007 I moved the center rotation (crosshair) by grouping objects with a rectangle.

I think this may have changed over the years, but anyway, this time I just moved the crosshair on the object.
Select object with the Select/Transform Tool, click again and the arrows change and the crosshair appears. Drag the crosshair.

This is my star I used for the tiled clones spiral.



My spiral is not as perfect as the manual's spiral. But if I use the Base parameter of 2.7 my spiral gets so huge I can't display the entire thing on my screen even at 1% zoom. So, I used a Base of 2.0 and was content. :) From my understanding, the Base has to do with the stars not bumping into each other as they spiral around. Even at Base 2.7 my stars still bumped into each other in the center.

Other than the Base difference, I think my parameters are the same. My spiral looks different than the manual's spiral, but I'm happy with what I accomplished.



Zoom of center:


Wallpaper:
(Setup in Inkscape, edited in Paint Shop Pro.)



The other spiral challenges:

Inkscape Tiled Clones Wallpaper Flower

Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7

Here's the flower I created with Tiled Clones from that video, another zoomed in wallpaper.



Select Original (Shift/D) and pull out the original petal used for cloning, then fiddle with different colors. Radial gradient on petal, which doesn't look that great zoomed out, but I liked it when zoomed in. Those little dots in the center are fill pattern (Fill/Stroke Menu) on a circle object. Another gold circle behind it as the dots are transparent background. Exported and finished in Paint Shop Pro.

Inkscape Clone Patterns

Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7

Some interesting Clone Patterns I made while playing with Tiled Clones.







A few Tiled Clones videos:

Clones and Spray Tool
Unset Paint.

Radial Tiled Clones
Flower petal, Ctrl/drag node straight up, Moves crosshair center of object.
I think his Shift Tab parameters are backwards. Dated June 2009. The crosshair thing is important to know.

About Inkscape's Tiled Clones 17 Symmetry patterns, Wiki might have some interesting links on the subject. I haven't checked them yet, but maybe some pattern ideas there.
See Wallpaper Group.

Inkscape Live Path Flower

Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7

Flower:



Good news: Happy accident
Bad news: I can't repeat it. I can get similar, but I like this one the best. Probably too many variables.

I was playing with a star copied onto a spiral within the Path Effect Editor under the Path Menu (Pattern Along Path) and comparing that to the Pattern Along Path under the Extensions Menu.

Google Fonts Won't Display in Firefox - Fixed

At Blogger Buzz it says there are additional fonts to use, but Firefox was not displaying them correctly at Google Fonts.

I fired up IE8 and, yes, the fonts display correctly.

I check NoScript and AdBlock and Firefox About:Config...
But wait...NoScript Icon has a little dot on it...
Blocked Object.



Aha! That's the problem.
However, I could not figure out what setting to change so it would be fixed permanently.

Via this site, Thank you.

Here's the setting to uncheck:




Now I can play a little with fonts.
I like:

I'll have to figure out how to use them inline in my blog posts, if that's possible.
Probably have to tweak my template, I suppose.

Inkscape Colorize Stroke Markers

Yes, the Stroke Style Markers can be colored—with Filters.
Stroke color just changes the line color, the Markers stay black.

Pencil or Bezier Pen work to draw the line.
Then Objects, Fill and Stroke, Stroke Style Tab to style the line and add the Markers.
Use the Node Tool to adjust direction of Markers and line.
Then add the Colorize Filter.
Because the Marker is black, it doesn't change color until you go into the Filter Editor.
Default Colorize settings will not change black color. That is the case with Paint Shop Pro Colorize as well, so maybe that's normal. But at first, I just thought I could not change the Marker color at all.
Not so.
Filters, Filter Editor
For Colorize Filter,
Change the Color Matrix Component to Type: Matrix, instead of Saturation.
Or Blend can be changed from Multiply to Normal.
The Flood Component area is where you can choose the Color.
Tada! The Marker should now be the color you desire it to be. :)



UPDATE:
Can change the marker color under the Extensions Menu.
Extensions/Modify Path/Color Markers To Match Stroke.
I think that's eventually going to be fixed.
Ref1
Ref2
There's also additional info on creating your own custom markers.
END UPDATE

Something I hadn't realized is that in the Filter Editor, if the Filter has a Flood Effect component, that will change the color.
Like the Clouds Filter has a Flood in it, so that means you can change the cloud color from white to whatever you want.

There isn't much information out there on the Filter presets and how to tweak them. I'd like to see more details on the "Effect" part of the Filters Editor. What those Effect components do, what the connections do, as well as what the parameters at the bottom do. Not the minutiae technical math, but the general effect each has on the overall result of the filter.
Like, say you want to create a Filter. How do you decide what Effect to use, what connections to make, and what parameters to fiddle with? Who's the Inkscape Filter guru to go to for this kind of thing? :)

Something else under the Fill and Stroke area to play with are the Patterns.



I liked Polka dots, large.
Change the color of those.
Extensions, Color, Randomize
And/or Extensions, Color, Custom
Then add Filters, Shadows and Glows, Glow.
Add a black rectangle behind the dots.
Try Filters, Shadows and Glows, In and Out
With a Black background they looks like balls, with a white background they look like suction cups.

Manual Fill-Stroke
All those stripe patterns are used for hatchings. Oh.
New in v0.48, Swatches, Auto Palette.
There's a lot in this section to study.

UPDATE 30Dec11 (See Comments)

So after I applied a Pattern from the Fill and Stroke area,
then I went into the Extensions Menu at the top of the screen to Color the pattern.




Online Manual References (v. 0.47/0.48)
Start Page
Anatomy of Inkscape (Shows Extensions on the Menu Bar)
Fill/Stroke Menu
Extensions Color
To me, Custom is a little strange or hard to understand. :)
Try Replace color.
The dot pattern is black (RRGGBB = 000000) so
Replace color: 000000
By color: da00e0
And the black dots become pretty purple dots.


You can get the RRGGBB from within the Fill/Stroke area:


That might not be a completely accurate explanation of the hexadecimal colors as used here, but close enough to get the job done.

If you have further questions, you might find more timely help on the Inkscape Forums.

Inkscape Tiled Clones Those Manual Patterns

I'm working in Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7.

Is it just me, or were those Tiled Clones Manual Pattern examples hard to figure out?

The clue:
Manual Tiles Symmetries
“The pairs of numbers indicate the row and column numbers.”

(1,1) is the original object shape. Oh.
I don't know if I had that epiphany before when working with Tiled Clones, but I sure didn't remember it. :)

It is much easier to learn Tiled Clones by creating them, rather than reading about them, because you get the instant visual connect between what you do and the result. So just go fiddle with the parameters and see what happens. If things get really messed up, hit the Reset and start over.







NOTE: Triangles are difficult to pattern perfectly with Tiled Clones. Even if I get them aligned correctly, Tiled Clones still creates hairline gaps. I can tile simple triangle patterns in Paint Shop Pro with no gaps, using duplicate, flip, mirror, rotate.

How about some 3D Boxes. Yes, they can be cloned. Object to Path first.

Windows 7 File Association Problem Solved

In case this happens to someone else, and it usually does.

When I installed Inkscape, I did not use the installer. I just downloaded the zip and unzipped and ran the program.
I set File Association on *.svg the usual way no problem.
But then...
I decided to move Inkscape.
*.svg files were no longer associated with Inkscape and I could not associate the file the usual way.
Windows 7 just ignored it.
So
I used
ccleaner to scan for registry issues, yup Inkscape, ran the registry cleaner.
Problem solved.
I am now able to association *.svg files with Inkscape again.

Possibility - Music

It's been quite a while since I've found any good new music.

I like this song:
Possibility
by Sierra Noble
(b. 20 Feb 1990)
Canadian singer-songwriter (Winnipeg)

(Scrolling lyrics below the video.)
0:10 Woke up at midnight all alone
0:14 was it a dream that you had phoned?
0:18 were you even thinking of me?
0:21 is it even a possibility?
0:24 missing me,
0:26 is it even a possibility?

She's a fiddle player.
Sierra Noble Fiddles in Wolseley

Night - Poem

I was playing with Text Flow and Justify in Inkscape 0.48 and just happened to create this image.
I like it, although the text got a little too small when I made it fit my blog.
It looks better on a white or light background, rather than my current dark blog theme.

Download podcast and read text here:
Writers Almanac Public Radio
6 May 2008 Podcast
Garrison Keillor reads the poem about 3:33 into the podcast.

Archives

Inkscape Tiled Clones

I started playing with Tiled Clones in Inkscape 0.48.
Just walking thru the menu and options and creating samples.

What can be cloned?
Text? Yes. Must be converted to path first, otherwise the text won't rotate and get unexpected results.
Effects? That heart I created and then added a filter to can be cloned as is. That was unexpectedly easy. lol

I thought this seamless tile was pretty:

Seamless, transparent background, free to snag if you want it.

Here's what it looks like tiled.


Letter "a" with gradient, Convert to Path,
Tiled Clones
Glide Reflection 180

Manual:
Clones
Tiles
If you want to clone more than one object at a time, they have to grouped first.
There's a Clone section in the File, Inkscape Preferences area.

Inkscape Giro Spiro Wallpaper

Here's something I haven't seen anyone do in Inkscape.
Bonus: It's fun and easy.

Telephoto person that I am, I got into looking at the Inkscape spirographs zoomed in.
I tended to like the more complex and imperfect ones.
Decided to make wallpapers out them.
Now there's all kinds of things a person could do with this idea.
But I like the minimalistic versions the best.



Extensions, Render, Spirograph
I just kept playing with it until I got ones I liked.
The Stroke size is often too thick/large to see intricate details, so I usually have it turned down to 1 or decimals below that even.
I set up the File, Document Properties for my desktop size (1366x768) and turned on Page Border.
Added a colored rectangle in the background and then enlarged spirograph and moved it around to see what part I liked best for wallpaper. Move the rectangle out of the way if you don't want it as part of your export.



It takes a l-o-n-g time to File, Export Bitmap on these huge spirographs.
Could add a smaller duplicate spiro in the center hole.
Or could make that center hole scenery like stars, clouds or mountains.
Could add more background interest like gradients, light texturing.



Another idea is to layer simple spirographs.
See wiki
Ungroup and pull apart to see the individual spirographs.

Examples for inspiration:
forum

Info on spirographs:
Manual

Inkscape Filtered Hearts

I'm working in Inkscape 0.48 Windows 7.

So there are tons of preset filters and I put those towards the last on my list to explore in Inkscape. I played with those when they first came out and there were no presets on the menu but others shared their filter settings in *.svg files. I also plan to check out the cloning feature again. I haven't worked with that since way back in version 0.45? I think. So I'm curious about changes there.

Filters make Inkscape very sluggish. That's probably the biggest issue with them right now that I can see. How do people deal with that. Is there some way to merge the filters to the object to improve performance. That's probably the main question I have that I want to dig for.

The Filters can be turned off.
Manual
View, Display, No Filters

Filter Presets
1. Two categories of filters: normal objects vs bitmaps (Extensions, Raster?)
2. Help Text popup at the bottom
3. Can add your own filters to the menu (See also Release Notes 0.47)

I tried various filter effects on the Heart I just made.
Lots of nice edges effects and more.

My favorite Effect on the heart is probably the
Texture
Jam Spread



I tried to add a drop shadow in Inkscape and I got a drop shadow but it also darken the whole image.
I went back and added a drop shadow FIRST, then the Jam Spread Texture and that worked. I think what happened is the Texture created transparent areas on the heart so that the drop shadow showed through?

Release Notes 0.47 says:
By default, if the selected object already has some filter applied, the chosen filter will be merged with the existing filter for combined effect. However you can also overlay several filters to an object while keeping them separated: simply press Ctrl+G after applying any filter and then apply another one; the filters will then display separately in the Filters Editor.

It gets a little confusing working in the Filter Editor when you have lots of filters applied to lots of objects. All filters applied to all objects are listed there. But I *think* Ctrl+G worked as described above.
What is Ctrl+G? Shortcuts are handy, but they don't teach.
Running mouse over Menus, I see Ctrl+G is Objects, Group command.
And how does one manually execute a "merge" command? What if I want to merge all the filters on an object to improve Inkscape performance, can I do that?

On the plus side, since the filter effects are dynamic not static, I can make changes to the object without undoing the filter effect.

Ctrl/G (group) an object to a filter and the filter effect won't change when you move the object.

Warped Rainbow is kinda pretty, also under Textures.



Bevels

Combined Lighting:



Distort
A good place to look for different ragged edges effects. Here are a few I liked on the heart.

Chalk and Sponge:


Rough and Dilate:


I did not have a Stroke color on this heart. And yes it will change the look of the applied effect.

Scatter

Cubes:



Overlays
Frost is pretty on the heart.



Menu Visual: