• Introduction
• Manual has moved!
• Why use Inkscape?
• Professional Software
• About this Book
• Installing Inkscape
• Windows
• Mac OS X
• Gnu/Linux
• Getting Around in Inkscape
• Interface
• Managing the Workspace
• Drawing with Geometrical Shapes
• Ways of Drawing with Inkscape
• Shape Tools
• The Selector Tool
• Squares and Rectangles
• Circles, Ellipses and Arcs
• Stars and Polygons
• Spirals
• 3D-Boxes
• Freehand Drawing
• Freehand Drawing
• The Pencil Tool
• The Pen Tool
• The Calligraphy Tool
• Boolean Operations
• About Nodes
• Editing Paths
• Stacking Order
• Align and Distribute
• The Node Tool
• Tracing an Image
• The Tweak Tool
• Color
• Colors
• The Color Palette
• The Fill And Stroke Dialog
• Custom Colors
• Copying a Color
• Creating Gradients
• Creating a Mesh Gradient
• Using Patterns
• Modifying Patterns
• Creating Custom Patterns
• Strokes
• Markers
• Ordering Markers, Stroke and Fill
• Customizing Markers
• Text
• Text
• Writing Text
• Styling Text
• Changing Text Color
• Moving and Rotating Letters
• Putting Text on a Path
• Flowing Text into a Frame
• Creating Custom Fonts
• Advanced Techniques
• Beyond the Basics
• Saving Your Work
• Exporting a PDF File
• Exporting a PNG File
• Exporting to other File Formats
• Importing Pictures into a Document
• Importing other File Formats
• Copying and Duplicating Objects
• Cloning Objects
• Customizing Keyboard Shortcuts
• Clipping and Masking
• Filters
• Extensions
• Live Path Effects
• Where to Go from Here
• Test Chapter (for trying out styling)

Importing Pictures into a Document

Sometimes, it can be necessary to use raster images in your drawing, be it for copying from a sketch you made, vectorizing a raster image, or for adding a photo into your design. Depending on the purpose, a raster image can be linked to, or embedded. Linking to an image means that Inkscape loads the raster image from the place where it is strored into Inkscape everytime the file is opened. In consequence, if you move or delete the raster image file or the SVG file, or share the file with someone else, the link between those two breaks, and instead of the image, you will see a red frame. So it is often safer to embed raster images into the SVG file instead. This will make the file larger, but your drawing will not change due to moving your files around.

To import an image, use File > Import. In the dialog that opens, you can select the file.

Then a dialog will ask you if you would like to link or embed the image in question.

Don't panic if you have selected the wrong option for embedding or linking, you can change this any time. Select the image, right-click on it, and then either select 'Extract Image' or 'Embed Image', to change to the other mode.

The imported image will be inserted at your mouse cursor's position, or, if the mouse is not currently on the canvas, into the middle of the visible area of your drawing.

Bitmap Image Import Dialog

When the imported image is only linked in the document, and later moved away, Inkscape will not be able to find the image. A beautiful red frame with a cross will be displayed on the canvas instead!