Forum: Inkscape Resolution

Posted by David Knecht ATT (Guest)
on 2009-10-10 21:44
(Received via mailing list)
I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling images for
publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for
answers?  Second, is there a way to get Inkscape to display the
resolution of an image in dpi or ppi? Also, where do you adjust the
ruler settings?  Dave

Dr. David Knecht
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Co-head Flow Cytometry and Confocal Microscopy Facility
U-3125
91 N. Eagleville Rd.
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269
860-486-2200
860-486-4331 (fax)
Posted by Jon A. Cruz (Guest)
on 2009-10-10 21:53
(Received via mailing list)
On Oct 10, 2009, at 12:16 PM, David Knecht ATT wrote:

> I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling images  
> for publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for  
> answers?  Second, is there a way to get Inkscape to display the  
> resolution of an image in dpi or ppi? Also, where do you adjust the  
> ruler settings?  Dave

Well in general SVG is vector images. There are no dots nor pixels,
only mathematical curves. In essence they have infinite resolution,
although individual images might be good at different sizes.
Posted by Shawn H Corey (Guest)
on 2009-10-10 22:11
(Received via mailing list)
David Knecht ATT wrote:
> I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling images for
> publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for answers?
>  Second, is there a way to get Inkscape to display the resolution of an
> image in dpi or ppi? Also, where do you adjust the ruler settings?  Dave

I'm not sure what you mean by labelling but you can create and edit the
document's meta-data with File->Doucment Metadata...

Inkscape uses SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics.  It doesn't really have dpi
or any fixed measurements.  All measurements are only relative to
itself.  Dpi only becomes important when you render the image to a pixel
format, like PNG or JPEG.

You can change the ruler settings with the Default units in
File->Document Properties...


--
Just my 0.00000002 million dollars worth,
  Shawn

Programming is as much about organization and communication
as it is about coding.

I like Perl; it's the only language where you can bless your
thingy.
Posted by John Culleton (Guest)
on 2009-10-10 22:51
(Received via mailing list)
On Saturday 10 October 2009 16:10:33 Shawn H Corey wrote:
> David Knecht ATT wrote:
> > I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling 
images for
> > publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for 
answers?
> >  Second, is there a way to get Inkscape to display the 
resolution of an
> > image in dpi or ppi? Also, where do you adjust the ruler 
settings?  Dave
>
> I'm not sure what you mean by labelling but you can create and 
edit the
> document's meta-data with File->Doucment Metadata...
>
> Inkscape uses SVG, Scalable Vector Graphics.  It doesn't really 
have dpi
> or any fixed measurements.  All measurements are only 
relative to
> itself.  Dpi only becomes important when you render the image 
to a pixel
> format, like PNG or JPEG.
>
> You can change the ruler settings with the Default units in
> File->Document Properties...
As I understand it Inkscape can indeed import and export again
bitmapped images, which is what I believe the original poster is
aiming at. Chapter 18 of "The Book of Inkscape" by Dimitry
Kirsanov is titled "Bitmaps." But to label bitmapped images (put a
name on the image?) I suggest Gimp.  That is a program that
deals natively with bitmaps, and bitmaps only.

Scribus deals with either, but has only a tiny fraction of the
drawing capabilities of Inkscape.

"Label images for publication" confuses several of us.  Do you
mean put a line of description for each image below it on a
printed page? Any competent DTP program (and even some
incompetent ones) can do that.
--
John Culleton
"Create Book Covers with Scribus"
http://www.booklocker.com/books/4055.html
Posted by Terry Brown (Guest)
on 2009-10-11 04:46
(Received via mailing list)
On Sat, 10 Oct 2009 15:16:13 -0400
David Knecht ATT <david.knecht@uconn.edu> wrote:

> I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling images
> for publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for  
> answers?  Second, is there a way to get Inkscape to display the  
> resolution of an image in dpi or ppi? Also, where do you adjust the  
> ruler settings?

Inkscape can be a good choice for adding labels on top of images,
particularly if you're going to export the image in a format which
combines bitmap and vector, like .pdf or .eps.  I'm assuming you want
to add labels / scale bars / arrows pointing to features on top of a
photograph.

If you're publishing say a 300x300 pixel crop from micrograph of
something, and it's going to be printed about 3 inches across on a
2400 dpi output device (i.e. a journal), creating a .pdf or .eps this
way gives you nice sharp edges on the labels you add on top of the
image, even though the image itself is going to be a little coarse.

You don't really need to worry about resolution until you export the
image, the export image dialog shows you both the size in pixels and
the dpi of the export you're creating.  As long as the export is
as large or slightly larger, pixel wise, than the photograph you're
labeling, you won't be losing resolution, but there will probably be
some resampling of the image, so it won't be pixel identical with the
input photo.

I think the ruler uses the "default units" setting from the document
settings dialog (far right of the top tool bar).  If you want to make
the change permanent you need to edit and save the default template in
the templates directory, e.g. /usr/share/inkscape/templates.  Seems
there should be a user local path for this, but I don't know it.

Cheers -Terry
Posted by ~suv (Guest)
on 2009-10-11 16:27
(Received via mailing list)
On 10/10/09 21:16, David Knecht ATT wrote:
> I am new to Inkscape and trying it out as a way of labeling images for
> publication.  First, is there a way to search the archives for answers?

There are many web sites with archives of the mailing list:

sourceforge.net: hosts the list and its archives, often slow web
interface for searches, sometimes doesn't load the page at all.
<http://sourceforge.net/mailarchive/forum.php?forum...

nabble.com: often used to link to older messages here in the list.
Allows posting as well (registration necessary).
<http://www.nabble.com/Inkscape---User-f1927.html>

gmane.org: imho the leanest interface and the fastest
<http://news.gmane.org/gmane.comp.graphics.inkscape.user>

... besides all the others I haven't bookmarked ;-)

hth, ~suv
Posted by David Knecht ATT (Guest)
on 2009-10-11 16:57
(Received via mailing list)
Terry has clarified what I want.  In the past, we have used Canvas to
prepare figures for publication.  They are usually mixed bitmaps and
vector graphics on a letter sized page format.  Thus a pure painting
program will not work.   We take images from our microscope in a
bitmap tiff format and use a drawing program to lay out multiple
images, then add labels like arrows, scale bars, descriptive text
etc.  Then the whole thing is saved as a tiff or jpeg at 300 dpi and
sent to the journal for publication (hopefully).  On the Mac, Canvas
was always our first choice for this, and then Deneba decided to stop
supporting the Mac version of their software.  Corel got out of hte
business years ago, so there are really no good commercial drawing/
painting programs left for the Mac.  You can do it with Photoshop, but
it is much easier to use a vector drawing program that can handle
images than a painting program that can add objects.  Also, that
program is a confusing mess to teach to new students in the lab.  That
is why I am turning to open source to see if I can get the job done
that way.  The reason I asked for resolution, is that the images we
use are often much larger (at 72 dpi) than we need so you have to
rescale them to the 4" column size of the journal and it is often
easier to specify a resolution to resize all images to the same size
than to drag the corners to resize. Also, it clarifies that you are
actually increasing the resolution rather than down sampling (as
Powerpoint often seems to do).  How would I ask the developers to add
a box in Object Properties that reads out the resolution of a
bitmapped image? It would be very useful for people like me.   Dave

On Oct 10, 2009, at 9:59 PM, Terry Brown wrote:

> particularly if you're going to export the image in a format which
> You don't really need to worry about resolution until you export the
> the templates directory, e.g. /usr/share/inkscape/templates.  Seems
> stay
> ahead of the curve. Join us from November 9 - 12, 2009. Register now!
> http://p.sf.net/sfu/devconference
> _______________________________________________
> Inkscape-user mailing list
> Inkscape-user@lists.sourceforge.net
> https://lists.sourceforge.net/lists/listinfo/inkscape-user

Dr. David Knecht
Department of Molecular and Cell Biology
Co-head Flow Cytometry and Confocal Microscopy Facility
U-3125
91 N. Eagleville Rd.
University of Connecticut
Storrs, CT 06269
860-486-2200
860-486-4331 (fax)
Posted by Jon A. Cruz (Guest)
on 2009-10-11 19:44
(Received via mailing list)
On Oct 11, 2009, at 7:56 AM, David Knecht ATT wrote:

> their software.  Corel got out of hte business years ago, so there  
> corners to resize. Also, it clarifies that you are actually  
> increasing the resolution rather than down sampling (as Powerpoint  
> often seems to do).  How would I ask the developers to add a box in  
> Object Properties that reads out the resolution of a bitmapped  
> image? It would be very useful for people like me.

Interesting. Have you perhaps looked into Scribus for at least some
aspects of this? It is a good prepress application, and preparing for
print is what it is focused on. At least some of the workflow might be
easier in that application.
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