hello, I had a question you may be familiar with. I'm coming to inkscape from years of using abode illustrator. it's an awful software in many aspects and inkscape so far has been a far more efficient solution for me. but there's one thing I couldn't figure out concerning the operation of the layers panel.
in Illustrator you can intuitively drag layers and objects in the layer panels, to rearrange them or move them between layers. in Inkscape, the only way I can do that is via the menu interface, which is totally fine when making simple icons and such, but when I design more elaborate illustrations and posters, it starts to become a little confusing.
in some forums I found that people suggest to simply drag objects in a similar way to illustrator but I haven't managed to pull that off. is it indeed possible?
sure the later panel is open all the time. but the items there aren't draggable. I'll be honest, I've been struggling to install Inkscape on my Linux machine the past 2 weeks. the flatpak installation crashes immediately upon launch, as if the moment it was installed. so instead I installed an appimage from the official website but it's been acting up.
it's fully functional in terms of the design features. but it won't let me rearrange my workplace. I cannot drag panels from where they're placed when I reveal them from the menu, which is different to the experience I had when I tried it on Windows.
I'll try again tomorrow on Windows to drag layers and objects in the layers panel. the issue might be a bug in my improvised setup.
Which Inkscape version do you use? In the current version (1.3) you can drag and drop object selections in the Layers and Objects dialog. I can't recall when was introduced, but earlier versions couldn't do this.
so the version is 1.3.2. I booted Windows and installed the same version. I had absolutely no problem to drag layers and objects in the layers panel and I could also rearrange my workspace freely. so the problem is clearly with the Linux version I'm running. it leads me to suspect that it's the appimage file, that isn't ideal as installing the offical flatpak release... but unfortunately there seem to be a bug with that release because as I mentioned before, the software installed from the official release won't load.
several people running Linux as me have reported this bug on Inkscape's Gitlab in the past 3 months...
I believe the issues you're having with dragging objects and layers around is due to an incompatibility with Wayland display environment and Inkscape. While X11 is being phased out for Wayland, have you tried Inkscape on X11?
I'm not sure which Linux distro you're using, but on OpenSuse Tumbleweed I have a login screen upon booting up. At the lower left using a KDE Plasma based desktop I have a session selector that includes options like Plasma on Wayland or Plasma on Xorg/X11. If you're using Gnome or other login manager the session details might be at the top.
Curious if running Inkscape on X11 fixes your drag/drop object re-ordering as it does mine. I keep checking Wayland from time to time to see if Inkscape drag and drop is fixed. As of today, 2025-03-23, it is still a bug in Wayland/Inkscape.
Beginners' Questions dragging layers in layers panel
Inkscape.org
hello, I had a question you may be familiar with. I'm coming to inkscape from years of using abode illustrator. it's an awful software in many aspects and inkscape so far has been a far more efficient solution for me. but there's one thing I couldn't figure out concerning the operation of the layers panel.
in Illustrator you can intuitively drag layers and objects in the layer panels, to rearrange them or move them between layers. in Inkscape, the only way I can do that is via the menu interface, which is totally fine when making simple icons and such, but when I design more elaborate illustrations and posters, it starts to become a little confusing.
in some forums I found that people suggest to simply drag objects in a similar way to illustrator but I haven't managed to pull that off. is it indeed possible?
thanks for your tips :)
You don't use objects (and layers) panel ?
Ctrl + shift + L
Personnally, I move it left to canvas, so it's always displayed, and let the other panels to the right.
sure the later panel is open all the time. but the items there aren't draggable. I'll be honest, I've been struggling to install Inkscape on my Linux machine the past 2 weeks. the flatpak installation crashes immediately upon launch, as if the moment it was installed. so instead I installed an appimage from the official website but it's been acting up.
it's fully functional in terms of the design features. but it won't let me rearrange my workplace. I cannot drag panels from where they're placed when I reveal them from the menu, which is different to the experience I had when I tried it on Windows.
I'll try again tomorrow on Windows to drag layers and objects in the layers panel. the issue might be a bug in my improvised setup.
Which Inkscape version do you use? In the current version (1.3) you can drag and drop object selections in the Layers and Objects dialog. I can't recall when was introduced, but earlier versions couldn't do this.
so the version is 1.3.2. I booted Windows and installed the same version. I had absolutely no problem to drag layers and objects in the layers panel and I could also rearrange my workspace freely. so the problem is clearly with the Linux version I'm running. it leads me to suspect that it's the appimage file, that isn't ideal as installing the offical flatpak release... but unfortunately there seem to be a bug with that release because as I mentioned before, the software installed from the official release won't load.
several people running Linux as me have reported this bug on Inkscape's Gitlab in the past 3 months...
Hi Yotam,
I believe the issues you're having with dragging objects and layers around is due to an incompatibility with Wayland display environment and Inkscape. While X11 is being phased out for Wayland, have you tried Inkscape on X11?
I'm not sure which Linux distro you're using, but on OpenSuse Tumbleweed I have a login screen upon booting up. At the lower left using a KDE Plasma based desktop I have a session selector that includes options like Plasma on Wayland or Plasma on Xorg/X11. If you're using Gnome or other login manager the session details might be at the top.
Curious if running Inkscape on X11 fixes your drag/drop object re-ordering as it does mine. I keep checking Wayland from time to time to see if Inkscape drag and drop is fixed. As of today, 2025-03-23, it is still a bug in Wayland/Inkscape.
Take care bro