Confused about drawing line segments?

Question

I am a newbie to Inkscape. I have a problem when drawing line with Inkscape.

want to draw a picture like this. But I don't know how to make the line and the inside of the line show different colors. If I directly use the color palette under the interface, the area surrounded by the line segment is changed to that color. If I use shift+click on the color swatch below, the outside and inside of the line segment are adjusted to the same color. I want the lines and the interior to show different colors, like the picture above (black and gray). Also, I cannot change the length of one side of the line segment in the picture above. If I lengthen one side, the other side will become longer accordingly. Can someone teach me? Thank you!

I still have a stupid question. I think maybe it is not appropriate to open a separate question to ask. I can’t adjust the position of the picture. I use the arrow -> <- on the keyboard, the color palette will move, and the picture will not move. How can I move the part of my concern to the middle?

Answer 1

There are several possible ways to do this. Here I'll concentrate on using some path effects and filters to do this. This method allows you to create a re-usable element you can duplicate and adjust any way you want.

1. Draw a path like this with the Bézier tool, and apply a thick stroke

2. Add a small arrow head marker in the stroke panel

3. Set the stroke to grey

4. Open the Path Effects panel (Ctrlt+&), click the + button to add a Corners Fillet/Chamfer path effect, then click and drag the corners to round them

5. Do Filters > Morphology > Outline, like this

6. Do Filters > Shadows and Glows > Drop Shadow like this

7. And now you have an arrow which can be adjusted any way you want