Episode 095
Episode 095 – Coffee Stain
by heathenx
In this episode I’ll take a look at creating a coffee stain in Inkscape v0.46.
Tags: coffee stain, doodles, jitter, paper
by heathenx
In this episode I’ll take a look at creating a coffee stain in Inkscape v0.46.
Tags: coffee stain, doodles, jitter, paper
August 27th, 2009 at 1:17 pm
[...] Episode 095 has been posted. [...]
August 27th, 2009 at 9:34 pm
Good job. Although I thought you were going to draw those doodles yourself.
But then I forgot that you only doodle naughty things when you’re on the phone! 
One thing that I’ve started doing recently in setting colours is to right-click on the palette colours when an object is selected and it gives you the choice between setting the stroke or fill to that colour. It’s a little bit faster than dragging them to the fill or stroke box on the left. That said, it wasn’t that long ago that I almost always used the colour wheel and F&S dialog and didn’t use the swatches at all.
Good stuff sir.
August 28th, 2009 at 8:45 am
@Richard Querin
True…and since we are now a G rated blog I can’t show anyone those doodles. Too bad. It’s some of my best work.
That’s a good tip. I get stuck in my old habits. Just recently I discovered a few features that I started using that I’m sure have been in there for ages.
August 28th, 2009 at 1:40 pm
When I read “stain” – I thought this episode would be riddled with “Black Dress” and Monica references… I was sorely mistaken but a good screencast nonetheless!
Great job as always!
August 28th, 2009 at 1:46 pm
Forgot to mention — you could have used your pencil from episode ?? instead of the JPG route… for what its worth
August 28th, 2009 at 4:43 pm
I think you could also hold shift+left click on the color you want and Inkscape will set it as your selected object’s stroke color
September 1st, 2009 at 10:03 am
Nice episode, thanks again.
I use left click on colours to select fill and shift-left click to set stroke. It’s a good sign when a software allows you to do the same thing in various ways.
I’m working hard to make Inkscape my tool for graphics at work and I managed to cram in some nice Inkscape icons on my last project presentation
It’s the only way to learn it properly when you give yourself a real challenge sometimes.
JimR
September 1st, 2009 at 10:20 am
Strange, when I do a difference or a union it doesn’t work if I select both shapes with a box. It only works when I select each of them with shift.
JimR
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:15 am
@JimR
That is strange. I normally select my objects individually but windowing around them should work as well. Changing the Z-order of the objects controls what gets subtracted.
September 2nd, 2009 at 8:20 am
One of my online friends, Narayan, suggested that I could have used the Tweak tool to roughen up the edges instead of adding nodes and jittering them. If anyone tries this on their own then perhaps they could experiment with that tool. I rarely use the Tweak tool but I’m going to give it a second look now.
September 2nd, 2009 at 5:02 pm
Not bad tutorial, but not to many interesting, one of the worst tutorials for me.
September 6th, 2009 at 12:16 am
It’s already the 6th and no new tutes for this month. Lift your work rate please. The last tutorial was good.
September 6th, 2009 at 7:47 am
@Zlatko – Sorry to hear that. But every tutorial can’t be a homerun for every viewer. Thanks for watching though.
@Mark – Hehe. We’re both fully employed and do these things when we have the free time. We love doing them and yes, we don’t always do them often enough, but in this case it’s one of those ‘you can have the car in any colour you want… as long as it’s black’.
Glad you want more, but promising a increased production rate? I have to burst your bubble.. at least for me. 
September 6th, 2009 at 2:48 pm
@Richaard – No big deal, this is still the best place for learning Inkscape, how you make the pages you use in tutorial, is a JPG or made in SVG?
September 6th, 2009 at 6:19 pm
I have played with the Tweak tool a bit.
Some of the things that I picked up:
The tool doesn’t work well with straight paths, try to curve them a bit before using the tool.
The brush size is related to the zoomed portion of the image.
Don’t panic when your path disapears or partially disapears, just use undo and try a slightly different setting.
Hope this helps.
September 11th, 2009 at 10:14 pm
I tried the tweak tool, and it definitely is faster.
My method:
1. Draw a circle.
2. Duplicate it (CTRL+D)
3. Resize it to make it smaller (SHFT+CTRL+Drag its handle inwards).
4. Select both circles and then take a difference. (Path> Difference)
since the smaller circle is on top, it will be subtracted from the bottom larger circle.
This leaves a ring.
5. Now draw a shape that overlaps on 1/3rd of the ring (anything-rectangle/circle, will do).
Select the ring and this shape and take a difference. (Path> Difference)
This will break the ring and make a C shape.
6. Select the C shape. Add plenty of nodes (so that the tweak tool can work better on it).
In my .47 pre2-1 version, this command is in Extensions>Modify path>Add nodes.
If you are using .46 version of InkScape, it could be in a different menu.
7. use tweak tool on it (adjust the width and force parameters).
Use it in Grow mode to create “warts” in the shape (local spreading of coffee)
Use it in shrink mode at the ends to make them rounded.
use it in Roughen mode on some parts of to simulate coffee absorbed/spread in paper
September 11th, 2009 at 10:32 pm
An interesting twist:
Show that there is some writing under the stain, and its ink has spread because of the paper.
The point to be noted is that the ink will spread only under the stain, and the remaining part of the writing has to appear normal.
To do this-
1. Place a doodle to overlap with the stain.
2. Duplicate both stain and doodle.
3. Select them and take a difference (Path>Difference).
4. Add plenty of nodes (so that the tweak tool can work better on it).
In my .47 pre2-1 version, this command is in Extensions>Modify path>Add nodes.
If you are using .46 version of InkScape, it could be in a different menu.
5. Use tweak tool in roughen mode.
6. now select the roughened doodle shape and move it just over the original doodle (use PageDown/PageUp as required)
September 13th, 2009 at 9:58 am
oops- In step-3 above, use the Path > Intersection (not difference).
October 13th, 2009 at 7:35 pm
Cool tutorial, as always!
In 0.47 development build 22040 I’m having trouble getting Add Nodes to work. I found that they had moved the Effects menu to the Extensions menu. But even if I say the maximum segment length should be 1 pixel, no new nodes are added. Whether I have the Selection or Node tool selected at the time doesn’t seem to matter. Oh – do I need to select all the nodes? Nope. That doesn’t seem to help either. Any idea if I’m missing something?
October 14th, 2009 at 7:10 am
@Aurelian Design
Well, I’m sure you noticed that I did not make this tutorial with 0.47. Regardless, adding nodes in 0.47 still works, it just works slightly differently due to a new dialog. You need to make sure your object is a path first. That’s important. Select your object and then Path>Object to Path. Then Extensions>Modify Path>Add Nodes. Take the defaults. Now double-click your path and you’ll see many nodes were you only had 4 to begin with.
October 14th, 2009 at 6:35 pm
Thanks. Got it working. Must have been a shape not a path, though I was pretty sure it was a path.
June 5th, 2010 at 3:52 am
Looks very great!