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When doing design work, I find it extremely useful to jot down sidenotes so that I can backtrace my thought process during later revisions. These comments are not considered as part of the work itself, but merely metadata that is attached to it. If you've used libreoffice, its comment feature (shortcut: Ctrl + Alt + C) is an example of what I'm referring to.

Does something like this exist for inkscape? If it does, how do I access it?

Note: At present, I write comments outside the bounding box of the image, but I tend to forget removing them and there are svg renderers that will happily draw outside the bounding if given such an image. Writing comments as XML comments in the XML Editor is far too cumbersome to be practical

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2 Answers 2

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You could add a description and other information in the document properties metadata tab under File > Document Properties > Metadata. But these won't display on the artboard, and to view them you need to open up the Metadata tab. Obviously I don't know how practical this is for your situation.

Note: You can also add descriptions to individual objects using the Object Properties panel. The shortcut to open the panel is Shift+CTRL+O

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  • That's the best solution: doesn't depend on external files and the comments don't get rendered. You just have to remember to not pass the svg file through an optimizer that removes metadata.
    – Luciano
    Mar 20, 2019 at 13:10
  • I was hoping for a solution that would let me attach comments to specific parts of the image, but it seems that inkscape doesn't support it yet. Commandeering a metadata field does provide a viable workaround for image-wide comments though. Thanks! Mar 23, 2019 at 3:53
  • @TendersMcChiken You can add descriptions to individual objects using the Object Properties panel. Shift+CTRL+O
    – Billy Kerr
    Mar 23, 2019 at 10:10
  • The description field of the "Object Properties" panel is very close to what I want. Thank you so much for sharing this. If it's not too much trouble, could you please add this information to your primary answer where it would be more visible? Mar 24, 2019 at 13:27
  • @TendersMcChiken OK, done!
    – Billy Kerr
    Mar 24, 2019 at 15:59
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Do not include comments to your drawing, but include your drawing as a link to a document which contains the comments and possibly more links to other useful stuff such as different versions, included components, related works etc.

The size of your document stays manageable if you include the drawings as links and as low res only preview images.

You can use a spreadsheet or text editor. You can even make it with folders and shortcuts. Do not bind your hands by settling with propietary software, if something simple and controllable will do.

Some careful planning will pay itself back with 1000% interest.

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