Selector Tool
The Selector Tool is used to select, position and transform objects on the Canvas with the mouse or other input device.
How to Use
Click once on an object with the Selector Tool to select it. The object will be framed with a bounding box (a black, dashed line) and scale handles will appear. Click again on the same object and the scale handles will change to rotation and skew handles. If the object is part of a group, the group will be selected, and dragging the object handles will transform the group. Double-click an object with the Selector Tool and the tool will change to the appropriate tool to edit the object (i.e., if you double-click an ellipse, the Ellipse Tool will be activated, etc.).
Selecting Objects
Just click any object once to select it.
Adding Objects to and Removing Objects from Selection
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Shift+Click objects to add them to the current selection or to remove them from the selection.
Rubberband Selection
Rubberband selection is made by clicking on emptly canvas space (or over locked objects which are unselectable) and dragging the rectangular "rubber band" over several objects (i.e. click at one place and keep the button pressed while moving the mouse). Shift+Click will start the Rubberband Selection over objects as well.
Touch Selection
Touch Selection allows you to select objects by drawing a freehand path across them. This mode is very convenient in situations where you need to select objects so intermingled that selecting them by the other methods is too difficult or tedious.
If you are drawing a rubberband rectangle, press Alt to switch it to the touch mode. The rectangle will disappear and a red touch path will be shown instead. When dragging from an empty space, you can press first Alt and then start to drag to get the touch mode (note that your selection must be empty, otherwise Alt dragging will move the selected objects instead).
To start a touch selection from a point over an object, or to add to existing selection by touching, press Shift+Alt and then start to drag.
Inverting Object Selection
Use ! to invert the selection to all unselected objects within the current layer; use Alt+! to invert the selection to all unselected objects within all unlocked layers.
Moving Objects
To move an object or an object group with the mouse, click on the object and hold the mouse button while dragging to the new location.
Dragging an object or several objects while holding Ctrl enables you to keep them aligned on an axis using the snap options.
To move objects precisely with the Selector Tool, you may use either of two methods:
Pressing the keyboard's cursor arrows moves selected objects 2px in the direction of the arrow. The default step can be changed in Inkscape Preferences.
Entering the coordinates into the Tool Controls bar X and Y coordinate controls will position the bottom left corner of the selection's bounding box at precisely the indicated coordinates.
Transforming Objects
There are two modes within the Selector Tool which are used to transform objects: scale and rotate/shear modes. You can switch between scale and shear/rotate modes with the mouse or keyboard:
Activate scale mode by selecting an object with only one click (if it is unselected) or by clicking it once (if it is already in rotate/shear mode). Activate rotate/shear mode by selecting and object with a double-click (if it is unselected) or by clicking it once (if it is in rotate mode).
Switch between modes by pressing Shift+S while using the Selector Tool.
Scaling
Scaling an object resizes it vertically, horizontally or both. To scale and object, activate the scale mode.
To resize a selection in scale mode, drag the handles at the corners or press < or > (the factor for key scaling can be set in Inkscape Preferences).
You may also scale a selection by adjusting the parameters of the width and height boxes on the Tool Controls bar
Lock the width and height proportion with the lock toggle on the Tool Controls bar.
Hold Ctrl while dragging if proportion constraint is needed.
Hold Shift to use the center point of the object as the center of the transformation.
Dragging the scale handles with Alt scales the selection by an integer factor, i.e. up to 2, 3, 4, etc. times the original size or down to 1/2. 1/3, 1/4, etc. of the original size either horizontally or vertically (or both). * In some Linux distributions, you may need to adjust your meta-key settings to make this work.
Rotating
Rotating a selection is done in rotate/shear mode, and makes the selection turn around its axis point or rotation center.
To rotate the object with the Selector Tool, drag the arrow handles which are found at the corners or press [ or ].
Hold Ctrl while rotating to constrain rotations to 15 degree increments.
Rotation Center
The Rotation Center of the selected object specifies the point around which to rotate the object. It looks like a crosshair and may be placed anywhere on the canvas, not just within the bounding box of the object. When several objects are selected, they use the rotation center of the first selected object. If the first object does not have center set (i.e. if it's in a default central position), then several objects will rotate around the geometric center of their common bounding box
To move the rotation center of an object, click and drag it to the desired spot. It will snap to the bounding box of the object as well as other snap points as set in the Preferences.
Compare rotation around center which is in it default position
with rotation around center which is moved to upper right corner of a shape:
Shift+click on the rotation center resets it back to the center of the object's box.
Skewing or Shearing
Skewing or shearing objects can be done in rotate/shear mode as well. This transformation shifts the parallel bounding edges of the selection in opposite directions so that the selection is warped diagonally.
To skew the object with the Selector Tool, just drag the arrow handles placed at the middle of each sides. Horizontal handles will skew horizontally, meaning that horizontal line will keep preserved and that only vertival lined will be affected
Mirroring
Mirroring flips a selection either vertically or horizontally. Flipping a selection while in scale mode makes it flip within its bounding box, so that the bounding box remains fixed.
However, in rotate/shear mode mirroring happens about an (imaginary) vertical/horizontal axis through the rotation center:
To mirror an object vertically, select -> or pressV.
To mirror an object horizontally, select -> or press H.
There are also two buttons in the options bar that can do the same.
Scaling of Stroke Width, Rectangle Corners, and Fills
There four preferences that control whether or not to scale stroke widths, scale rectangle corners, transform gradient fills, and transform pattern fills with the object, represented by four toggle buttons in the Tool Controls Bar.
Tips
- The Transform Window (-> or Shift+Ctrl+M) can be used for precise transformations. Changes
- Press Esc to deselect, cancel selection, or cancels drag or transformation.
- Ctrl+Click or Shift+Ctrl+Click will select objects within groups from outside that group.
- Select Under: in Selector, Alt+click selects the object at cursor which is below (in z-order) the currently selected object at cursor; if the bottom object is reached, Alt+click again selects the top object. Thus, several Alt+clicks will cycle selection through the z-order stack at the click point. Combining Alt with Ctrl ("select in groups") and Shift ("add to selection") works, too. Note that on Linux, many window managers steal Alt+click by default; reconfigure your WM so you can use Alt+click in Inkscape.
- Drag Selected: in Selector, Alt+Drag moves the currently selected object(s) no matter where you start the drag, unlike regular drag that first selects the object under cursor. This is convenient for dragging objects that are behind other objects in z-order. On Linux, you may need to disable dragging the window with Alt in your WM if you want to use "drag selected".
