Inkscape Symbols

The FOSS vector graphic program, Inkscape, has a bunch of useful features. Many are pretty obvious, like the ones shown in the standard toolbar on the left side of the Inkscape window. These basic tools are primarily used for creating and manipulating objects and paths directly on the document page. The rectangle tool is an obvious example. The next illustration shows the three common states of a rectangular object.

Dialog Boxes

There are also tools which need a dialog to be effective. The dialogs typically are at the right. The Export dialog is in focus in the next illustration.

• Several dialogs may be open at once, and show as tabs in the dialog "window".
• Dialogs launch from several different Menus...
  • Export is File > Export but also can be launched by the shortcut Ctrl+E and has a dialog tab icon: .
  • Align and Distribute is Object > Align and Distribute or the shortcut Shift+Ctrl+A and has a dialog tab icon: .

You probably don't need any of this review if you are a semi-regular user of Inkscape. Below the illustration, we'll talk about Symbols and their dialog.

Introducing Symbols

Inkscape developers have made a convenient and easy way to access and use a large number of standard symbols.

The symbols which are shipped with Inkscape come from several sources and include recognizable images that are familiar in daily life like this pair of bathroom signs (with and without background).

Bring up the Symbols dialog by menu Objects > Symbols... or shortcut Shift+trl+Y.

Explore the various standard sets, if you have not already done so. In Inkscape v.1.4 on Kubuntu Linux, there are 21 symbol sets, collected in SVG files and stored so any user account on a computer can access them. Inkscape's Symbol dialog displays a thumbnail view of each symbol in the selected file.

There are several sets of symbols shipped with Inkscape like the AIGA Symbol Sign set which is described in this way:

AIGA is an association of graphic arts professionals. The images are a collection from various artists. This set was published January 1, 1974 according to the file's metadata and the images have a CC0 public domain dedication. As such, anybody can use them freely.

Using a Symbol

Each symbol is typically an SVG group, and can be treated as such when put into your own document.

With a document open, new or old,

• open the symbols dialog
• select the set
• decide which symbol you want to use
• click and drag the preview image from the dialog over onto your open document.

Once the symbol image is in your document, it is a clone of the source file image. Generally, you will be able to modify the clone; you can apply color changes, resize, rotate, etc.

(downhill skiing symbol from the United States National Park Service Map Symbols set)

But, watch out for "gotchas" like this boat launch symbol from the same symbol set. In this case, a simple change to red leaves the trailer tire black. To fix that, you need to unlink the clone Edit > Clone > Unlink Clone or Shift+Alt+D and ALSO ungroup Shift+Ctrl+D to work with the individual parts of the boat launch image. In particular, watch out for the tire which is a stroke-only circle (ellipse), while all the other parts are filled paths.

Custom Symbols

If you need symbols not included with the standard install, Inkscape has a way to make custom sets of your own. After seeing a comment on Mastodon social media in the fediverse,

Over time, I've created (or attempted to recreate) clipart images, some of which might be suitable for use as symbols in Inkscape. Gathering them together in a folder has been my primary method, and it has worked okay that way. Once I started to play around with the symbol dialog, I decided to try that method instead. I started by trying to create a group of custom symbols from work I'd done and then pulled many of my "emote faces" together.

How do I convert a page of images into a page of re-usable symbols?

You can use Inkscape to change images into symbols. There is no set number needed. These are the steps I used.

• Copy your set of images for symbols to a new Inkscape document
• Group all parts of each symbol (even if it is all made from single path)
• Give each group a useful ID name using Object > Object Properties (shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+O) (Tap Set button to finish the ID change)
  (You cannot use a symbol name already used. You'll be warned if you do)
  
  (click image to enlarge it)
  It is recommended, but not required, to also enter a label and a description. I have not done these yet.
• Select one group/object
• Open Object > Symbols… (shortcut: Shift+Ctrl+Y) dialog and click the + button to add/convert the symbol
• Repeat for each group/object
  (the symbols are attached to this page and will be “cloned” to their new use on other pages)
• Save file to an archive location
• Copy the page to /home/username/.config/inkscape/symbols (This is Kubuntu Linux location)
  and username is your user name!

Here are images of the set as seen in the SVG file and also as seen in the Symbols dialog.

If you want to use my "emote" symbols, you are in luck. I've done what I hope is a good enough job of the conversion steps and have a downloadable SVG file you can copy to the equivalent file location mentioned above on your computer. The emotes images are freely shared using the CC-0 public domain dedication license from Creative Commons. Enjoy!

Right click to download (Save link as...) this SVG file → emotes.svg and save it to a temporary location (downloads folder?). Then move or copy it to your user's .config/inkscape/symbols folder.

Apology: When I was making these cartoonish faces over several years, I made no effort to make their internal background anything other than white so the faces would stand separate from a illustration's background. That's a drawback. Most standard symbols are like the bathroom symbol mentioned earlier, have either no background or are inverted with a black-square and clear figures to work well against any document background color. While it would be possible to go back to unset the fill color of all the faces (for easier editing), it would have made the symbol thumbnails all look solid. Likewise, removing the face color would only make the face features show against your document's background color, without a face color at all.

Still, with just a bit more work, you can remove the white fills once you copy one into a new document.
In the case of the laughing face, un-linking the clone and un-grouping makes it possible to remove fills.
There's not just one fill for this face/symbol. The head, the individual ears, and the teeth are all filled.
If you make the effort you'll get the following result:

Maybe you won't even want the teeth filled, though that will make them disappear against the black fill of the open mouth unless you also remove that mouth fill.

If you want to apply a different skin color, change the face-area fills of the un-grouped parts.

Thanks to Maren Hachman (@Moini on the Inkscape forum) for the helpful comments and recommendations.

References:

• Working with Symbols in Inkscape - Youtube video by Sweater Cat Designs