Kendra Schaefer

In keeping with the technophile tradition of finding ever-more-convenient ways to perform already-way-too-easy tasks, I’ve put together a quick list of 10 super-useful keyboard shortcuts for navigating around Inkscape.

Place an object below or above other objects

With your object selected, use the Pg Up key (not the up arrow) to raise that object above (in front of) other objects on the same layer. Use Pg Dn to push it backwards in the stack.

Zoom In & Zoom Out

Press the + (plus) button to zoom in, or press the – (minus) button to zoom out. No more switching over to the magnifying glass for you.

Open your text and font panel

Hold the Shift and Ctrl keys and then press T to open up your text panel. This is particularly useful in the Windows build of Inkscape 0.46, which contains a bug that does not let some users change the font using the main drop down box. But you can change the font through the Text & Font options screen.

Object to Path

With your object selected, hold the Shift and Ctrl keys and press C to convert the selected object into an editable path.

Holding Object Structure

Hold the Ctrl key while you are drawing a shape or resizing an object to make sure it maintains its integrity. For example, when using the ellipse tool, holding the Ctrl key while drawing will create a perfect circle.

Rotation

With your object selected, hit H to flip it horizontally, V to flip it vertically

Switch to the Bezier Pen Tool

Though Inkscape lists the Bezier Pen hotkey as Shift F6, you can also switch over by simply pressing B.

Direct Selection / Node Editing & Object Selection

Inkscape lists the Edit Path by Nodes tool hotkey as F2, but you can actually just press N. Press S to switch to your Select and Transform Objects tool. I flip-flop between these often.

Change Node Handle Length

With a single (or multiple) nodes selected, press the < and > keys to lengthen and shorten both handles on the selected nodes. If you hold the Shift key while you use these, only one handle will lengthen / shorten at a time.

Instant Gradients

Draw any object, then press G to jump right over to your gradient application and editing tool. If you want to edit the direction of a gradient that has already been applied to an object, select the object and press X. If you press X with no object selected, or if the selected object does not have a gradient on it, you’ll get the 3D Boxes tool instead.