Open Inkscape from Go -> Applications. This should create a new blank Inkscape document. Save it in your account (the O: drive) as lab1a.svg. Enlarge the window (bottom right corner) and then increase the zoom to a percentage that still lets you see the whole page, also from the bottom right corner.

From the File menu of the window choose Document Properties. Click on the Page tab, then select the page orientation as Landscape. In the Grid/Guides tab choose to show the grid. Then in the Snap tab make sure that the options Snap bounding boxes to objects, Snap to object paths, Snap nodes to grid, and Snap bounding boxes to grid are selected.

Ex. 1 Technical drawing
We will try to recreate the following image, taken from here:

Let's start by creating a circle. Click on the circle button to the left of the window, then draw a circle in the middle of the page while holding the Control key down to make a perfect circle (otherwise it will be an ellipsis). Once the circle is done, go to the Object menu, then click on Fill and Stroke. In the Stroke Style tab, increase the Width of the stroke to 1.5. Then in the Fill tab, move the RGB dials until you get a pale blue color, then make it about halfway transparent. Close this window when you're done.

Next, click on the Bezier Curves and Lines button, also in the left bar of the widow. To draw the first horizontal axis, click to the left of the circle in the middle, then go to the right of the circle in a straight horizontal line and click again (use the grid for it). After that right-click anywhere to end the process. Repeat the procedure to draw the vertical axis, going from the bottom to the top.

Without deselecting the second line, from the Object menu select the Fill and Stroke again. In the Stroke Style tab, select an arrow for the End Marker (bottom of the window). Click on the Select and Transform Object pointer at the top of the left bar of the window. Click on the horizontal line to select it, then add an end arrow to it.

Add 3 horizontal lines about halfway above the horizontal axis, as seen in the image. We need 3 of them because they have different width. After you draw each of them, you might have to click on the Select pointer, deselect them, then proceed to draw the next. Make the Width of the first part to be 2 pixels wide, and of the second part 3 pixels wide.

Add a line starting from the center of the circle, passing through the intersection of the second horizontal line and the circle, and going out a little bit. Add an arrow to the end of this line. at this point save your file, and don't forget to save it again from time to time.

Add a line that is tangent to the circle in the intersection point (like the one marked "horizon" in the image). Start at an approximately appropriate position above the point. As you pass by the intersection point while moving the mouse to the end point, the line should snap to the circle. If the line was not long enough as you drew it, click on the selection pointer (arrow at the top of the toolbar) and drag one of its corners out to make it longer.

Add a vertical line for the one called gnomon in the image. The start and end points should snap to the lines that they cross. Change the width of this line to 3. At this point it's a good idea to zoom in on the relevant part of the image.

Next we'll create an arc marking the angle at the center of the circle. Draw a line segment where the first point is on the diagonal and the second on the horizontal axis. Click on Edit path nodes right below the selection pointer. Drag the middle of the segment up to make it curve. You may have to zoom in more for this operation.

To make things easier, click on the selection pointer and copy this curve (Ctrl-c, Ctrl-v) to the similar angle at the intersection point of the diagonal and the second horizontal line. You can edit the size of the curve with the selection tool to make it fit at the new position. To add it to the angle just below it, make another copy, then from the Object menu choose Flip Vertically. Now you can move the curve and adjust it to the lines it must stand on. Repeat the procedure to add a marker to the angle marked with 50^o, flipping the curve horizontally this time.

Let's add some text to this figure. You can zoom out for this purpose. Click on the A button in the toolbar on the left side of the window. Click above the vertical axis and type N. Select this text with the same tool, then click on the T button in the top bar of the window. Make the font larger, maybe 24, and bold, then click Apply. Using the selection pointer, make a copy of this object at the bottom of the vertical axis, then switch back to the text tool (A) and change the text to S.

Add another text box next to the tangent line and type horizon. Change the font for this one to about 18 and also bold. Then go back to the selection pointer. Click inside this object until you see rotation arrows at the corners. Rotate the object until it is approximately parallel to the tangent line. Then deselect it, then move it close to the tangent line.

Add another text box containing the word gnomon. Change the font to match the horizon text. Then select the object with the selection pointer and from the Object menu, choose Rotate 90^o CW. Move it to the appropriate position.

Add one big rectangle to the image covering all the objects. Edit the fill of this rectangle using a linear gradient with some light transparent colors. Then with this rectangle still selected, go to the Object menu and click on Lower to the Bottom. Everything else should appear on top of it now.

Save this file, then from the File menu choose Export bitmap. Make sure the tab Drawing is selected, and that the file format is png, then click Export. Open the png file separately to double-check the result.

Ex. 2. Vector-style art
We will try to reproduce the following image, taken from here:

This will be detailed in the homework.