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Inkscape window off screen

What To Do When The Inkscape Window Opens Off Screen

What To Do When The Inkscape Window Opens Off Screen 1024 602 Nick Saporito

If you’re trying to open an Inkscape SVG file using Windows, you may occasionally run into a problem where the Inkscape window opens off screen and out of view — particularly if you’re using dual monitors like I do. I personally experience this whenever I try opening an SVG file that was created in Illustrator, and it can be incredibly frustrating.

In today’s post I’ll be going over a simple and quick fix for when the Inkscape window opens off screen.

Inkscape Window Off Screen

The first step is to make sure that you have the Inkscape window selected from the Windows toolbar. Although it may not be visible on your screen, it can still be selected. You’ll know it’s selected by the appearance of the Inkscape application icon.

Inkscape not selected

This is what the icon looks like when it’s not selected.

 

Inkscape window selected

This is what the icon looks like when it is selected.

With the Inkscape icon selected, pres Alt + Spacebar on your keyboard. This should render a menu — probably in the top-left portion of your screen, as depicted below…

Window menu

Once you have that menu on your screen, use your arrow keys to navigate down to the Maximize option and press Enter.

Maximize

This should solve the problem. Your Inkscape window that was previously off screen will now be maximized and in view on the monitor that you performed these steps using.

Document Properties Menu Opens Off Screen

Another common problem you may experience when using Inkscape with dual monitors is that the Document Properties menu sometimes opens off screen as well.

Document Properties menu in Inkscape

When this happens, simply press Ctrl + W on the keyboard. This will close the Document Properties window. Even though you can’t see the menu on your screen, if you clicked on it or used the keyboard shortcuts to open it, it’ll still be open and active.

After you’ve used Ctrl + W to close the window, try opening it again. It should now be opening on your screen.

Help Needed?

If you’ve followed the steps outlined above and you’re still having these problems, leave a comment below and I’ll see what I can do to help you out.

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Want to learn more about how Inkscape works? Check out the Inkscape Master Class – a comprehensive series of over 50 videos where I go over every tool, feature and function in Inkscape and explain what it is, how it works, and why it’s useful.

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Nick Saporito

Hi, I'm Nick— a Philadelphia-based graphic designer with over 10 years of experience. Each year millions of users learn how to use design software to express their creativity using my tutorials here and on YouTube.

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