• 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)

Moving and Rotating Letters

Aside from deforming a text with the Selector tool, Inkscape offers numerous options to have fun with texts, adapting them to the design, while respecting them. [that's what it says in French, does anyone have a better idea that is less philosophical?]

To use the following options you need to select the text, words, or letters you want to move with the text tool, and then increase or decrease the value of the option in the tool controls bar (the default value for all of them is 0). The change will immediately be visible on the canvas.

Changing spacing between letters. The option allows you to change the distances between all letters in the selected text, or the selected letters. This is useful if your font size is very small, because it improves readability.

Changing spacing between words. Here you can change the distances between all words in your text, or the selected part of the text.

Changing horizontal kerning. The option changes the distance between the two letters in the position of the cursor. All letters that come after will move by the value you indicate in the input field.

Changing vertical kerning. One of the options is for changing the position of a word or single letters in relation to the base line. This means that the selected word or letter will be moved up or down, and will no longer rest on the same line as its fellows. 

Changing letter rotation. One last opotion allows you to also rotate single letters (or all selected letters).

If your design requires a more radical change of the shape of the text, it is possible to make a text follow a path or to put it into an arbitrarily shaped frame.

Options of the text tool that change the letters' positions.

Changing the kerning allows you to create more elegant text blocks.

Standard text.

Changing the kerning allows you to create more elegant text blocks.

Text with a little kerning added.

Adjusting the height to achieve typographical effects.

Text with exaggerated kerning and rotation.