inkscape-manual

Tweak Tool
The Tweak Tool is an exciting way to edit drawings which largely blurs the distinction between vector and
raster editing. Instead of meticulously selecting some objects and then performing an action on the selection,
you can select all objects (or all objects you are interested in) and apply the Tweak Tool's brush to smoothly
and naturally change the shape or style of only those objects (or parts thereof) that the brush touches.
The area of the tool's action - its brush - is marked by an orange-colored circular outline that moves with your
mouse cursor. However, that area actually has no sharp boundaries; the power of the tool's action falls off
gradually, following a smooth bell-shaped profile. This makes the tool act softly and smoothly.
The tool will work on any number of selected objects; for example, you can select all Ctrl + A and "smear"
your entire drawing by Push mode or paint it by Color Paint mode. You can also apply it to groups of
objects; it will go into groups and act on individual objects inside groups. If you're trying to use it without
anything selected, it will remind you by a statusbar message to select some objects.
How to Use
Width
Force
The width of the tool's brush, in the range from 1 to 100, can be changed by the Width
control in the tool's controls bar above the canvas. You can also change width by Left and
Right arrow keys (same as in the Calligraphy Tool) at any time (including during action) as
well as Home and End. Also, as in Calligraphy Tool, the visible width of the brush is
independent of zoom; simply zooming in or out is often easier than adjusting the width if you
want to cover a smaller or larger area of the drawing.
The next control is Force which adjusts the power of the action, also in the range from 1 to
100. You can also change width by Up and Down arrow keys at any time (including during
action).
If you have a pressure-sensitive tablet and your "Use pressure" button on the right-hand end
of the controls bar is on, then the force will also depend on how hard you actually press your
pen into your tablet, changing in the range from zero to whatever you set in the Force control.
If all you have is a mouse, then the force will be constant but still settable by the Force
control.
Path editing modes
The Tweak tool has a number of modes, selectable by toggle buttons in the tool's Controls bar
and by keyboard shortcuts. Some of these modes change the shapes of paths while others
affect the colors of objects. All these modes share the Width and Force controls but
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