• Introduction
• Introduction
• Why use Inkscape?
• Professional software
• About this book
• Interface
• Managing the workspace
• Draw geometric shapes
• Drawing geometric shapes
• Select tool
• Shape tools
• Rectangle / square tool
• Ellipse / circle tool
• Star / polygon tool
• Spiral tool
• 3D Box tool
• Draw with free hand tool
• Drawing with freehand tools
• Pen tool
• Bézier / pen tool
• Pencil / freehand tool
• Boolean
• Nodes
• Editing paths
• Align and distribute
• Node tool
• Vectorize an image
• Sculpting paths
• Color
• Color
• Palette
• Fill & Stroke dialog
• Custom colors
• Copy color
• Gradients
• Use a pattern fill
• Edit a pattern fill
• Create a custom pattern fill
• Strokes
• Markers
• Customize markers
• Text
• Text
• Writing text
• Edit text style
• Edit text color
• Adjust character positions
• Text along a path
• Flowed text (text in a frame)
• Create your own font
• Advanced techniques
• Advanced techniques
• Saving your work
• Export to PDF
• Export to raster (PNG format)
• Import pictures in a document
• Copy/duplicate objects
• Clone objects
• Customize keyboard shortcuts
• Cut or apply a mask
• Filters
• Extensions

Star/polygon tool

The Inkscape Star tool can seem unique among vector software: it offers a lot of creative and easily editable possibilities from the canvas.

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To draw a star, click and drag on the canvas. By default, the star includes 5 branches and displays 2 white diamond-shaped handles.

The handle between two branches modifies the internal radius of a star, while the other handle modifies the points' length.

To directly draw a polygon, activate the option on the control bar of the tool, which is located in the horizontal bar, above the canvas.

Ctrl allows you to force the modification of a star via the circular handle without spinning the star.

WIth only those few options, you can already create a lot of different shapes from a single star.

But there are still many possibilities. To add points to the star, enter directly the number you wish in the control bar.

To round out the points, press Shift and slide the mouse using one of the diamond-shaped handles. The further you move the white handle, the more rounded the points will be.

Use Alt to add randomization. It means that the bran­ches get further away from each other in a non-regular way.

The tool control bar grants a direct access to those different commands without having to go through the canvas or the keyboard shortcuts. The choice is yours between numerical data and direct modification on the canvas to unleash your creativity.

The circular handle offers direct modifications on the star circumferences. The other circular handle offers direct modifications on the points' length.

A single circular handle is present on the Polygon tool : it enlarges or shrinks the shape. If you don't use Ctrl, not rotating the center of the star is difficult.

Adding a slight rounding. Adding a slight randomization.

The Star tool options. The last icon resets the modifications. It can be useful if you feel lost ! Why don't you try to draw all these stars ?