[Previous] [Up] [Next]
Go backward to Copyright
Go up to Top
Go forward to Object types

General Concepts

There are two versions of Ipe, distinguishable by the letters "X" or "GL" in the startup message. The X version is a pure X client and should run on any system supporting the X window system. The GL version, on the other hand, implements the canvas as a GL area within the X application, and is therefore available only on machines running the GL graphics library, in particular Silicon Graphics workstations. The advantage of the GL version is that it can exploit additional graphics hardware of such machines such as the overlay or popup planes. The X version of Ipe has to simulate these overlay planes using the colormap, and this reduces the number of colors that Ipe still can display. The GL version can show more colors, and can display nicer bitmaps than the X version. But neglecting a few differences in the display, the two Ipe variants behave the same.

Whichever Ipe version you are using, after you start up Ipe, you will see a window with a large light yellow area.  

This area, the canvas, is the drawing area where you will create your figures. In the lower left corner you find nine buttons to select the nine different object types that you can create in Ipe, namely polylines, polygons, splines, splinegons, text objects, circles and ellipses, rectangles and squares, marks, and circular arcs. The rest of the left hand margin is used by fields that control attributes of Ipe objects (color, line width, arrows), a field showing the zoom factor, and a field that contains all buttons for the different snapping modes. On the top of Ipe's window you have the menu bar, and in the top right corner the mouse explainer, which tells you at any time what the function of the three mouse buttons is. (This concept has been borrowed from the xfig drawing editor.) The display area above the canvas shows the current file name, the current page number, the name of the last operation and its keyboard shortcut.

  Here is a summary of the function of the mouse buttons when pressed inside the canvas.


Left Mouse Middle Mouse Right Mouse
Plain (start drawing) move select Shift scale pan select more Ctrl stretch rotate select type Shift+Ctrl select more type
  The precise meaning of all these functions will be discussed later. As a rule of thumb, you might want to remember that the Shift key usually makes a mouse button less destructive than without or with the control key: scale is nicer to objects than stretch, pan is "softer" than move or rotate. Finally, whenever the right mouse button is used to select objects, the Shift key makes it non-destructive, and the Ctrl key restricts its function to objects of the current object type.

In this chapter we will discuss the general concepts of Ipe. Understanding these properly will be essential if you want to get the most out of Ipe.

  • Ipe and Mipe modes
  • Order of objects
  • The different object types
  • The current selection
  • Moving and scaling objects
  • Stroke and fill colors
  • Line style, line width, and arrows
  • Zoom and pan

  • [Previous] [Up] [Next]