Making a Shield icon in Inkscape

Making the shield

  • Select the rectangle tool
  • Drag a rectangle
  • Go to Path>Object to Path
  • Select the Edit Paths by Nodes Tool
  • Select the bottom part of the rectangle
  • Click on the top toolbar (left hand side) – Insert New Nodes into selected segments
  • Press CTRL and drag down the new node to make a shield shape
  • Duplicate the shield and flip in vertically
  • arrange the bottom shield so that the tip overlaps the top shield
inkscape shield logo
  • Now Select the top shield again and CTRL + D to duplicate it
  • Hold shift and select the bottom shield (in addition to the top 2)
  • Then go to Path>Intersection:
inkscape shield logo

Making the Shield Logo

  • Add the wings! Use the rectangle tool to create a square with the same size stroke
  • Go to Path>Object to Path
  • Select the Edit Paths by Nodes Tool
  • Select the left part of the rectangle
  • Click on the top toolbar (left hand side) – Insert New Nodes into selected segments
  • Press CTRL and drag the new node on the left, to the right


  • Add the accent lines by using the Basier Pen
  • Click near the side-square – slightly to the left of it hold CTRL and click to the right of the side-square – press enter to create a line
  • Drag it near the top of the side-square
  • Path>Stroke to Path
  • Duplicate the line – hold CTRL and drag it down to near the bottom
  • Hold shift and select both lines – path>Union
  • Select the side-box and the 2 lines and put lines on horizonal alignment of side-box
  • Duplictae the side-box only
  • Hold shift – select the lines as well
  • Then go to Path>Intersection
inkscape shield logo tutorial

Inkscape – Beginner Tutorial pdf

One confusing thing with some tools in Inkscape, is that it keeps the previous settings from the last time you used the tool. So sometimes your squares will be white and not show up.

Generally use CTRL and not shift in Inkscape Vs Illustrator

XML Editor – press SHIFT + CTRL + X to edit the code

PASTE IN PLACE = CTRL + ALT + V

SELECT SHAPES by left clicking on them

  • To SELECT An OBJECT UNDERNEATH with Alt + Click (this doesn’t work on Mac – you have to select on object then tab through to the one you want)
  • To select multiple objects at once, use shift and click or drag a selection box over the objets
  • Deselect by pressing escape

Text

Https://inkscape.org

Ellipse Tool

To get a perfect circle in using the Elipse tool in Inkscape, you need to click on one of the square nodes, whilst holding down CTRL and then drag.

Perfect circle in INkscape

Rectangle Tool – Inkscape

Using the circular node, you can create rounded corners.

You can also just use the “Ry” measurement box on the bar near the top.

inkscape rounded rectangle corners

Inkscape Gradient

inkscape gradient

Fill & Stroke Menu

To show the Fill and Stroke Menu in Inkscape go to the “Object” Menu and then click on the third option “Fill and Stroke…”


Pathfinder Menu – Inkscape

For “Union” – you need to select 2 or more objects, then click on the “Path” menu.

To make a hole in an object with another object.

Place one object on top of the other

Select both objects

Then go to Path > Difference

Another example:

union difference inkscape
Select both Objects – Path menu > Difference – creates a hole in the bottom circle (if different shapes are used to make the cat image – Path>unionise first!)

Using an Image to Trim Another Image

Path > Difference



Gradient Tool

Add nodes to add more colours to the gradient by double clicking on the line.

Drag the lines at the ends to make them longer, to make the colours span further – for example across the whole shape


‘Linkedin Gradient Effect’

To create the Linkedin Gradient effect,

  • create an elipse that is about the same width as the rounded-square which forms the main outline of the logo.
  • Duplicate the green/blue square (or whatever colour your logo is)
  • Select the elipse and the new square
  • Path menu > intersection (this creates the shine/gradient area)
  • Change the elipse area to white
  • Use the gradient tool
linkedin logo inkscape

Useful Bits from Inkscape website



Dotted strokes and spirals make cool shapes

click below to dowbload as a .pdf file:

Learn more at – https://inkscape.org/learn/tutorials/

Illustrator – Creating an ‘Infinite Symbol’

How to create the Infinite Symbol in Adobe Illustrator

  • Select the Type Tool
  • Go to Type menu – Type>Glyphs>choose the infinite symbol:
Adobe illustrator - infinite symbol
  • double click to add the infinite symbol
  • Use the Scale Tool* to enlarge it (*on the right below)
illustrator toolbar


Turn the Text Icon into a Shape

  • Select the infinite symbol, go to Type>Create Outlines
  • Use the direct select tool to move bits of the symbol about and reshape it

Illustrator – Drawing a Volume Speaker Icon

How to draw a volume icon in Adobe Illustrator

Making the Speaker

  • Select the rectangle tool
  • Create a black ‘vertical rectangle’
  • Copy & Paste the rectangle and drag to the right – Edit>Copy, Edit>Paste in Place. Then hold down shift and drag to the right
  • Colour the right rectangle red (Just to distinguish the two)
  • Use the Direct Selection tool and select the two corners of the red rectangle that are furthest to the right:
  • Use the Scale Tool (See toolbar above – the scale tool is on the right, near the top, usually) – drag the two corners up and down:
  • Select the two right-hand-side corners again
  • This time drag them to the right slightly, to make the red shape thicker
  • Colour both rectangles black when you are happy with the shape:
illustrator speaker

Drawing the SoundWaves

  • Using the elipse tool (found under the rectangle tool) and holding shift – drag out a circle
  • Using the Direct Selection tool – drag out a ‘selection field’ to select a point on the left:
illustrator circle
  • Hit delete to remove the left hand side of the circle
  • Select the new, semi circle
  • Switch the stroke and fill so the stroke is black
  • Increase the thickness of the stroke until it looks like this:
illustrator circle
  • Change the stroke cap to be circular
  • Copy and paste in place the semi circle and tap the left arrow key to move to the left of it

  • Unite the 2 parts of the icon with the Pathfinder – Unite tool
pathfinder

Lesson taken from this free course on Udemy – https://www.udemy.com/course/useful-tricks-and-tips-in-adobe-illustrator/learn/lecture/2988468#overview

Tips & Tricks for Customizing a WordPress Theme

Inspect Element – Dev Tools

The Chrome Inspect Element function is instrimental in making these changes to your WordPress theme.

Let’s say for example, that you want to change the main header on the homepage of your WordPress theme – then right click and choose “Inspect Element”.

Then click on the arrow icon on the top left of the window that opens, and your arrow should automatically select whatever you hover over.



Use a Text Document To Track Changes

Copy and paste code that you want to make changes to.

Make your changes in your notepad document and add a comment so that you can easily identify what you have changed.



Paste Changes into the Appearance>Customize>Additional CSS window

Once you have selected your code from the text/notepad document, you can go to the WordPress admin section /wp-admin and the Appearance menu and then “Customize”, then near the bottom, you should be able to paste in your new CSS.




To Preview CSS Changes

In inspect element, click the “+” icon on the top right.

You can then add styles to different elements.

Be aware that you may need to edit the parent element, to see any changes (rather than the specific element)

CSS WordPress inspect



To Remove Elements on a Webpage

In CSS, if you change the “Display:” value to “none”, from inline-block etc.

display: none;

You’ll need to copy & paste the whole block of code from inspect element’s CSS window, into the Custom CSS menu’s window in WordPress’s (Appearance>Customize>Custom CSS)

The video below has more details on how to do this:




To Change the Colour of Elements

Use the same method as above – i.e. select the element with the inspect element tool.

  • Select the item that you want to choose using the arrow in the Inspect Element window (arrow is on top left)
  • Then change the colour using the panel on the right:
  • Finally, paste the new code for that element, into the Custom CSS window in WordPress (go to Appearance>Customize – wait for the Customize menu to load and then click either “Customize CSS” or “Additional CSS” which is normally located near the bottom left


Change the Colour of Font-Awesome Icons

This is easily done, the same way as shown above.

Select the icon, then change the colour in the CSS panel of inspect element on the right.

Select all the CSS in that window and then paste it into the Custom CSS/Additional CSS window on the left:

CSS WordPress inspect element



Changing the Fonts on Your WordPress Theme

Go to fonts.Google.com to see all the available fonts (well, most of them)

fonts.google.com

Open Inspect-Element – click the arrow on the top left of the window

Then, again just select the text that you want to change and this time change the font-family value to the one you want

font family

Remember to add all the code/CSS from the window precise window that you edit on the right, to the Customize/Additional CSS panel on the left.

Using this method you can also change:

Padding & Margins
Containers
Background Image, Position etc.
Sidebar




!Important

By adding !important to your CSS, you can ovveride all other rules relating to that element. Use this sparingly though as it will get confusing.

More info on !important here – https://css-tricks.com/when-using-important-is-the-right-choice/