Inkscape Tutorial

XI. Legend Information. At this point, we will place Title and Legend information on the map. Select the "w2d_Legend" layer. The layer will already have two sub layers "NorthArrow" and "ScaleBar". Make sure they both locked so you don't accidentally change them. Finally, make sure "w2d_Legend" layer is unlocked, visible and highlighted.

A. Add A Title. The title will normally contain the name of the cave in large type and any other information your mapping style dictates.
1. Title Layer. We could just put the title in the w2d_Legend layer, but to keep things well organized, we are going to add a new sub layer for the title. Right click on the w2d_Legend layer and select the "Add Layer" option.

This will bring up the "Add Layer" dialog. Set the Layer Name to "Title" and set the Position option to "As sublayer of current." Press the "Add" button when you are finished.

This will insert the new layer underneath the Legend layer. Select the Title layer and make sure it is unlocked and visible.

2. Title Font. Now select the "Text Tool" from the tool bar on the left.

First we need to choose a default font and font size. Select the "Text -> Text and Font" option from the menu bar.

Choose a Font Family and a Font Size. For a title you probably want to choose a size in the range of 20 to 24 points. Normally you will be centering the text around the North Arrow or the Scale Bar, so choose the "Center" option. Now press "Set as Default" button

3. Placing The Title. Now click on the map at the point where you want to place the Title. A small vertical cursor will appear. Now just type your title. The image to the right shows the Fulford title centered on the north arrow.

If the title ends up in the wrong place, use the "Selection Tool" to drag the text to the the right position.

If you are not happy with the font face or size, you can change value using the options on the top tool bar.

B. Legend Box. In the next step, we'll create a shadowed legend box. This is where you will put information about the meaning of symbol and other similar data.

1. Legend Box Layer. We could just put the title in the w2d_Legend layer, but to keep things well organized, we are going to add a new sub layer for the title. Begin by selecting the "w2d_Legend" layer. Right click on the w2d_Legend layer and select the "Add Layer" option.

This will bring up the "Add Layer" dialog. Set the Layer Name to "TitleBox" and set the Position option to "As sublayer of current." Press the "Add" button when you are finished.

2. Make Rectangle. We will start by making a rectangle, so select the "Rectangle Tool" on the left-hand tool bar.

Now click on your map at the point you want to put the Legend Box and drag. A rectangle will form as you drag.

If the rectangle is not the right color or the border is wrong, we'll fix that now.

3. Adjusting the Rectangle. On the menu bar select the "Object -> Fill and Stroke" option. This will bring up the "Fill and Stroke" options in the right hand panel

a. Fill Color. First we will be setting the color that fills the center of the rectangle. Start by selecting the "Fill" page. Make sure the "Flat Color" button is down. You will probably be using a white background color, so adjust the colors to white

b. Border Color. Next, select the "Stroke Paint" page. Again, make sure the "Flat Color" button is pushed. Next, use one of the color selection tools to pick a color. You will probably be using black so adjust the color to black.

c. Border Style. Finally, we are going to set the border line thickness. I usually use a thickness of 1.25 pixel, but choose a thickness that looks good to you.

d. Drop Shadow. We'll now add a drop shadow to our legend box to give it a nice three-dimensional effect. First well choose the "Node Selection" tool (Using this tool for the Drop Shadow is important because of small bug in Inkscape.)

Next select the rectangle and then choose the "Filters -> Shadows and Glows -> Drop Shadow" option from the menu bar. This will bring up the "Drop Shadow" tool box.

This window controls the appearance of the drop shadow. First, enable the "Live preview" option. This will allow you to see the affects of your changes immediately.

The two offset options shift the position of the shadow underneath the box. The more offset, the more three dimensional it appears. The blur option controls how fuzzy the shadow appears and the opacity controls how transparent shadow is.

What value you choose will depend on your own personal taste. The values displayed above will give the drop shadow you see to the right. Remember you can always change the value later so don't worry over it too much.

4. Adding Legend Items. Legends usually contain descriptions of the symbols used in a map. As a result, creating a legend usually involves copying symbols from the map into the legend box.

To do this, you will need to unlock the layer that contains the map symbols so they can be selected. Normally this will be the "w2d_Detail" and "w2d_Detail_shp" layers.

Now enable the "Select Tool" by clicking on the button in the Tool Bar to the left.

Next, locate a good example in the map of one of the symbols you wish to place in the legend. Select it by clicking on it with the mouse and then type Control-C to copy it to the clipboard. Finally, making sure the TitleBox Layer is selected, press Control-V. This paste the item on the screen, but it probably won't be in the Legend Box. Just drag the symbol to the proper position. Repeat the process for all the symbols you want to include in the Legend.

a. Labeling Symbols Once you have pasted symbols into the Legend Box, your Legend will probably look something like the image to the right.

The next step will be to label each item. While you are doing this, don't worry too much about the position or alignment of the symbols or text. We will take care of that in a later step.

Begin by selecting the "Text Tool" from the tool bar on the left.

We'll also need to choose a default font and font size. Select the "Text -> Text and Font" option from the menu bar.

Choose a Font Family and a Font Size. For the legend you probably want to choose a size in the range of 10 to 12 points. You also want to choose the "Align Left" option. Now press "Set as Default" button

Now click in your Legend Box to the right of one of the symbols.. A small vertical cursor will appear. Now just type your description. Again, don't worry about the alignment at this point. Label all your symbols in this way. When you are done, the Legend should look something like the image to the right, with the symbols misaligned.

If you are not happy with the font face or size, you can change value using the options on the top tool bar.

b. Aligning Symbols and Text. At this point we are going to use Inkscape's alignment tools to perfectly align all the text and all the symbols. Select the "Object -> Align and Distribute" option from the menu bar. The alignment tools will appear in the right-hand panel. Set the "Relative to" option to "First Selected".

Switch to the Selection Tool and then select the top symbol.

We are going to use it as the base position for all the other symbols, so make sure it is exactly where you want it.

Now hold down the "Shift" key and select the text the pertains to the symbol. Both items should now be selected as depicted on the right.

Press the align centers button. The symbol and the text should now be vertically aligned.

Now click anywhere on the screen to deselect all items, then reselect the top left symbol. Next, holding down the Shift key, select all the rest of the symbols (and none of the text.)

Finally, press the "Align Left Edges" button.

All the symbols should now have their left edges aligned. Finally, do the same thing with the column of text descriptions.

When you get done, the edges will be aligned but the spacing probably won't be right. To fix this, we will use another Inkscape tool. Select the "Object -> Rows and Columns" option from the menu bar. This will bring up "Rows and Columns" tool.

Select each of your symbols, starting with the top one. Set the number of Rows equal to the number of items and set the columns to 1. Set the Align options as shown to the right. Finally set a spacing. In this case, I used 12.4, but the actual number you will have to find by trial-and-error. Press the "Arrange" button and see what happens. The program will evenly space the items vertically. If the spacing is wrong, adjust the vertical spacing value and try again. If you lose the symbols completely, hit Control-Z to undo the last change and bring everything back.

When are satisfied with the spacing, do the same process on the text descriptions. Since the text will be a different height from the symbols, you will need to use very different spacing from the symbols.

The steps described above can be repeated over and over until you are happy with the alignment. When you are finished, the result should look something like the legend to the right.

c. Grouping. As a final step, you should group all the elements in your legend together so the whole legend can be moved or adjusted in one operation. Start by selecting the "Selection Tool" from the left-hand tool bar.

Now select one of the objects and then, holding down the Shift Key, select the rest of the objects one at a time. Be sure to include the legend box itself. Finally, hit Control-G. This will group the object together. You now should be able to drag the whole legend to a new location. If one of the elements wasn't selected, it will be left behind when you drag. If that happens, hit Control-Z to undo the operation and reselect the group and add the omitted item by holding down the Shift key and clicking on it. Hitting Control-G will add the item to the group.

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