I'm creating a path, and periodically, when my cursor is hovering over it, a red "line" appears within the stroke.
My path looks lovely, but boy, does that red thing look wonky! It never seems to have anything to do with my drawing, in all the years I've played with Inkscape, but . . . does it matter? Is it possible that that wonkiness of that red line could come back to haunt me? Or can I really just ignore it, as I have been?
Are you talking about the red line when using the node tool ( F2 or N ). If so, it's just to assist you seeing which paths are under the cursor at that time.
With the node tool selected the path will be temporarily displayed as a red line as you move your mouse over it. This serves two purposes: it shows you which path will be selected if you click (useful where there's a lot going on in a drawing) and it shows you the shape of the path with no Live Path Effects (LPEs) applied. LPEs can be applied without you even realising it, as they're automatically used with some of the drawing modes - such as if you use the 'Shape' options in the Bézier tool.
If the colour or existence of the red line offend you, you can change it. Double-click on the Node tool to open the preferences with the Node pane visible. You can play around with the options in the "Path outline" section to tweak the effect. Turn off "Show temporary path outline" to stop it appearing as you mouse around.
No, as long as my shape won't suddenly collapse into that freaky red shape (I'm using b-splines, so yes, that would explain the difference), it's okay.
I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't regret ignoring it.
Beginners' Questions Is that red line important at all?
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I'm creating a path, and periodically, when my cursor is hovering over it, a red "line" appears within the stroke.
My path looks lovely, but boy, does that red thing look wonky! It never seems to have anything to do with my drawing, in all the years I've played with Inkscape, but . . . does it matter? Is it possible that that wonkiness of that red line could come back to haunt me? Or can I really just ignore it, as I have been?
Thanks!
Are you talking about the red line when using the node tool ( F2 or N ). If so, it's just to assist you seeing which paths are under the cursor at that time.
With the node tool selected the path will be temporarily displayed as a red line as you move your mouse over it. This serves two purposes: it shows you which path will be selected if you click (useful where there's a lot going on in a drawing) and it shows you the shape of the path with no Live Path Effects (LPEs) applied. LPEs can be applied without you even realising it, as they're automatically used with some of the drawing modes - such as if you use the 'Shape' options in the Bézier tool.
If the colour or existence of the red line offend you, you can change it. Double-click on the Node tool to open the preferences with the Node pane visible. You can play around with the options in the "Path outline" section to tweak the effect. Turn off "Show temporary path outline" to stop it appearing as you mouse around.
No, as long as my shape won't suddenly collapse into that freaky red shape (I'm using b-splines, so yes, that would explain the difference), it's okay.
I just wanted to make sure I wouldn't regret ignoring it.
Thanks for putting my mind at ease, both of you!