HOWTO draw diagrams with Inkscape

General

• YouTube videos:
  • Flow charts (2017)
  • Connector tool (2021)
  • Connector tool (2024)
  • Flow charts (2020)
  • Crossings in flow charts (2023)

Connector tool

• Connector tool documentation ^†
• book section about the connector tool ^†
• release notes — 0.43, 0.44, 0.48, 1.1 ^†

† Discusses the "avoid selected objects" and "ignore selected objects" features.

Align and Distribute toolbox > Remove overlaps

• release notes for v 0.44

Align and Distribute toolbox > Unclump

• release notes for v 0.44
• StackExchange question

Connector tool > Nicely arrange selected connector network
(also)   Align and Distribute toolbox > Rearrange as graph

• release notes for v 0.44   (here, it's referred to as "Automatic Diagram Layout")
• book section   (here, it's referred to as "automatically rearrange connectors")

Standard components

There are standard shapes defined in ISO 5807. Some places you might download these shapes as a template:

• https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flowchart#Building_blocks
• https://inkscape.org/~mikapyon/%E2%98%85uml-activity-diagram-template
• https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Category:SVG_diagrams
  • Category:SVG flow charts
  • Category:SVG UML diagrams
  • Category:SVG network diagrams
  • Category:SVG sequence diagrams
  • Category:SVG cryptography diagrams
  • Category:Valid SVG created with Batik:Diagrams
  • Category:Valid SVG created with Inkscape:Hasse diagrams
  • Category:Valid SVG extracted with Inkscape:Diagrams

For electrical circuit diagrams on commons.wikimedia.org:

• Category:Valid SVG created with Inkscape:Electrical diagrams
• Category:Valid SVG created with XCircuit:Diagrams
• Category:Valid SVG created with Other tools:Electrical diagrams

Places where Inkscape is documented

Official documentation:

• https://wiki.inkscape.org/
  • When you try to login, it says "This Wiki is no longer used as a place for user documentation".
  • license — GPL v2
• Inkscape Beginner's Guide
  • read — https://inkscape-manuals.readthedocs.io/en/latest/index.html
  • contribute — https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape-docs/manuals
  • license — GPL v2
  • discuss — https://chat.inkscape.org/channel/documentation
• tutorials
  • read — https://inkscape.org/learn/tutorials/
  • contribute — https://gitlab.com/inkscape/inkscape-docs/documentation/-/tree/master/tutorials
  • license — GPL v2
• still-being-written manual
  • read — https://inkscape-ltlnx.readthedocs.io/en/latest/
  • contribute — https://gitlab.com/ltlnx/inkscape-manual
  • license — CC BY-SA 4.0
  • discuss — https://chat.inkscape.org/channel/documentation
  • pages that mention connectors: [1]

Third-party documentation:

• FLOSS Manuals [about]
  • license — GPL v2
  • discuss — http://lists.flossmanuals.net/pipermail/discuss-flossmanuals.net/
  • Note: This is part of their pre-2015 archive, and can no longer be updated. Backstory — [1] [2]
• book by Tavmjong Bah
  • license — conventional copyright