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Tutorials

Make Text Less Boring In Inkscape By Adding Swashes
Make Text Less Boring In Inkscape By Adding Swashes 1024 576 Nick Saporito

Today I’ll be demonstrating how you can use Inkscape to add character to your lettering by applying these decorative flourishes known as swashes. This is accomplished using the Pencil Tool and the Power Stroke path effect. First, we’ll use the Pencil to draw a plain line in the contour of the swash, then we’ll use…

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Cutout text effect
Create A Cutout Text Effect in Affinity Designer
Create A Cutout Text Effect in Affinity Designer 1024 640 Nick Saporito

In this tutorial I’ll be demonstrating a simple and non-destructive way to create a cutout text effect where the text is represented by negative space, allowing the background to show through. Typically, you would think to use something like Boolean operations, or the Shape Builder. However, this can be accomplished in a non-destructive way using…

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Drawing the FireFox logo in Inkscape
How To Draw The Firefox Logo In Inkscape 🔥🦊
How To Draw The Firefox Logo In Inkscape 🔥🦊 1024 640 Nick Saporito

Today’s tutorial is an exercise in using Inkscape as a tool for tracing, drawing and simulating gradients. Follow step-by-step as I demonstrate how to draw the Firefox logo using nothing but ellipses and the Pen Tool. When drawing with vectors, I’ve found that it’s always helpful to try to visualize the simple shapes within a…

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Design YouTube Thumbnails In Affinity Photo
Design YouTube Thumbnails In Affinity Photo
Design YouTube Thumbnails In Affinity Photo 1024 640 Nick Saporito

You don’t need a Photoshop subscription to make glowing thumbnail designs that entice users to click on your videos. In this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to do so in Affinity Photo. The key to nailing this look is knowing which Adjustment Layers and Quick FX to use, and in this lesson I go…

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Working with gradients in Inkscape
The Definitive Guide To Working With Gradients In Inkscape
The Definitive Guide To Working With Gradients In Inkscape 1024 640 Nick Saporito

Gradients are transitions between various colors, and they’re an essential part of graphic design and digital art in general. In this tutorial we’ll be going over everything you need to know to make gradients in Inkscape; including linear, radial, mesh, and conical gradients. In short, there’s two different tools we’ll be working with to make…

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Repeating an object along a path in Affinity Designer
How To Repeat Objects Along A Path In Affinity Designer
How To Repeat Objects Along A Path In Affinity Designer 1024 683 Nick Saporito

In this tutorial I’ll be demonstrating how you can take a single object and repeat it along a path in Affinity Designer. This can be useful in creating fun patterns and decorative borders.To accomplish this, we’ll need to create an object to repeat and then make it into a Textured Image Brush.Once made into a…

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Elegant logo design made with Inkscape
Create An Elegant Logo Design in Inkscape + Free Template
Create An Elegant Logo Design in Inkscape + Free Template 1024 640 Nick Saporito

Learn how to use Spiro Paths in Inkscape to create these decorative ornaments that can be made into elegant logo and monogram designs.The secret to making these paths look fluid and natural is knowing which mode to use for the Pen Tool (I have an in-depth lesson on the Pen Tool here.) The Spiro setting…

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Create A Carved Wood Mockup with Affinity Designer
Create A Carved Wood Mockup with Affinity Designer 1024 602 Nick Saporito

In this tutorial I’ll be showing you how to use Affinity Designer to take any vector object and make it look like it’s been carved into a piece of wood. This can be an excellent way to depict the versatility of a logo design.It also works with simple illustrations, such as logos, icons, text objects,…

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Color replace in Affinity Designer
How To Replace Every Instance Of A Color In Affinity Designer
How To Replace Every Instance Of A Color In Affinity Designer 1000 587 Nick Saporito

In this tutorial we’ll be going over how to find and replace every instance of a color using Affinity Designer. Doing so manually would require you to select objects and change their color one-by-one, but as it turns out, there is a much quicker way to do this. This is not to be confused with…

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Inkscape Shape Builder Tool
Inkscape Now Has A Shape Builder! Here’s How To Use It
Inkscape Now Has A Shape Builder! Here’s How To Use It 1000 587 Nick Saporito

The Inkscape team recently released version 1.3 and with it comes lots of new tools and features. One such welcomed addition is the Shape Builder Tool, which allows you to create shapes based on the intersecting areas of overlapping shapes. In this tutorial we’ll be having a look at how to use it to make a…

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