Customer Reviews

Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (3rd Edition)

5 star:		(3)
4 star:		(3)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(1)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This might be a good basic guide to Inkscape but it is not the comprehensive guide that was expected. It once again falls back on referring you back to a previous section when stepping you through a tutorial instead of including those steps necessary to complete a task in the current tutorial that is being used. Some of the steps in some of the tutorials also make assumption as to the knowledge level of a person using this book as a guide. The author might understand what is being written, but the author is not the one paying to use this book.

It does not get into the nuts and bolts of the program either. Not enough detailed information is given for all of the various functions of Inkscape. A complete and total explanation, with examples, of every item in every menu is what is needed, not just what the author thinks might be important.

Not recommended for someone looking for a complete and comprehensive guide to Inkscape, recommended for someone looking for a quick guide.

For many of us Inkscapers who started out several years ago there were not many places to go in order to get an understanding of this application. There still seems to be a shortage even though several new tutorial sites that have cropped up since then serve to fill some of the gaps. I can't even recall if there were any published books that users could turn to back then. Although, what has seemed to have been there from the beginning is Tavmjong's evolving Inkscape manual. Not quite sure when Tav published his guide but since discovering it his guide has become quite a valuable source of documentation for many of us. It's something that I have come to rely on whenever I feel that I have forgotten a feature or needed to re-learn a technique.

I wouldn't say that Tav takes an exhaustive approach at explaining every fine detail of Inkscape but he explains what I consider are the important things by providing practical examples. It doesn't take much reading between the lines in order to grasp a feature's potential use. In addition, he throws in some tips along the way.

I might feel like I have a bit of a soft spot for Tav since I feel like he is partly responsible for teaching me how to use Inkscape and that was just me perusing the pages of his manual. There are probably quite a few of us who fiddle around with features and settings in just about any application but it's nice to know that a good reference manual exits as a companion.

Tav's guide is the number one resource that I recommend to many new users when the opportunity presents itself. I'd even recommend this book to seasoned users of Inkscape for nothing more than just having a handy reference guide to turn to.

My only gripe with this book is that I wish the images that were used were in color as opposed to grayscale. I assume that it was to keep the cost of the book down or perhaps it was just easier to print. It slightly impedes on some of Tav's tutorials. Just a minor thing really.

Actually, i have just read the 4th edition of this book in a digital format, which Amazon sadly lacks for sale for Kindle. The 4th edition has some improvements due to the new version of Inkscape being released since the 3rd edition were written, so i recommend using the newer book.

At the time when i read the book i had no knowledge of Inkscape, and being only slightly familiar with other vector drawing software. The book offers information on all of Inkscape's tools and the basic use of them, but instead of just telling how they work the author starts out with tutorials which include using most of the tools, so you can get a feel of them. The tutorial are written assuming you will do them in particular order, thus the later ones are mentioning the thing you did in the previous ones, but aren't telling you how to do them all over again. I don't know why other reviwers had problem with this, i am myself are greatly annoyed by the contrary - when authors write out each step again and again, even when i did them already for ten times.

Why i'm not giving the book 5 star rating is that some of the said tutorials were missing details not obvious to a complete beginner - for example, in one of the very first tutorials reader has to use a certain tool on several objects, but author fails to note that these objects must be first grouped in order for this tool to work. How am i supposed to know that if the tutorial isn't telling me that and the tool's description is placed well past all of the tutorials?
Also,the tutorials that tell you how to create a button and an animation for web include an overview of html, css and even some extensive scripting, which i don't see as a necessity for a book that is supposed to be a guide to Inkscape, not to web design or coding. I would't mentioned it if the author did not try to teach me a bunch of weird scripting instead of simple JavaScript we all use, when even this book is stating that the scripting included in it will be incompatible with Internet Explorer 9. Then why even mention it in the first place? If i am a webdesigner (and i am), i will not use something incompatible with one of the main web browsers, and even if i was a visual designer or someone else that piece of scripting still be useless and confusing to me.

If to let these slips pass this is a solid book and i would recommend it to a complete beginner or someone who wants a cheaper-than-other-books reference on Inkscape tools.

I bought the ebook version. I find the book informative but Tavmjong's writing is too technical and not user friendly in anyway. I wasted time just trying to figure out the sine and cosine to place a star in chapter 1. The examples are not easy to follow as he doesn't give a full step by step instructions. He tends to forget that some people are just starting out with Inkscape. I can't say I'm too impressed with his presentation and I personally don't think it's worth the price. I was looking forward to using the book but now I look at the screen with frustration.

I find this book to be a very good introduction to Inkscape. The tutorials are well chosen and serve to illustrate a wide range of the functionality available. Bah clearly knows his subject. He introduces some clever techniques that probably would not occur to the typical user (like myself).

I have the Kindle version of the book. By having the book on Kindle for the PC I was able to see color versions of the photos. What really worked well was being able to have the tutorials open side by side with Inkscape on the screen. This allowed me to easilly read the tutorial while I worked.

The book is well organized and seems to provide a level of detail that will enable most users to master the program. There were a couple of spots where I would have liked to see a bit more detail, but all in all I thought the book was very good.

Product OK. The pictures are black and white, the whole book is B & W.
Book has a lot of information for me as a newby inkscape user.
But what a great program is Inkscape and it is totally free!

There are three books I consult when working with Inkscape, this book, Kirsanov's "Book of Inkskape" and the compilation
of Open Source articles ""Inkscape for Making Vector Graphics." I find the Tavmong Bah book to be the most useful tutorial.

John Culleton

This manual (which has only just arrived), looks good. the text layout and instructions are clear and concise. I like the way it goes straight into tutorials after a well put together introduction and description of Inkscape's interface. Think it will be a while before I can master the whole thing, so can't say much more than first impressions. Inkscape: Guide to a Vector Drawing Program (3rd Edition)