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Using Inkscape 1.2.2 (1:1.2.2+202212051550+b0a8486541), let's say I have this situation:

inkscape drawing

I have a "physical" page which is 100x100 mm; and then "actual" page represented by the sqare which is 70x70 mm - therefore, the two guidelines on the image indicate a "margin" of 15 mm.

Then, I have a circle (red) with 10 mm in diameter.

I would like to place this circle in the middle of the page horizontally, and in the middle of the "margin" vertically.

The first part - place this circle in the middle of the page horizontally - is easy: just select the circle, Align menu: choose Relative to: Page; then click "Center on vertical axis" button (hover over buttons for description).

The second part - place this circle in the middle of the "margin" vertically - is the one I have a problem with:

  • If I could select the guides, together with the circle, I could have called e.g. "Distribute vertically with even spacing between top edges", and be done with it. The problem is - I cannot "select" the guides, even less two of them together, even less together with an object.
  • On the other hand, I could draw a temporary object just to do this kind of vertical alignment/distribute and then delete the temporary object, but I hate drawing temporary objects just for alignment purposes and deleting them.

So is there a better way to center objects within "margins" (or between two guidelines)?

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    Your question is similar to this one of many years ago. One answer stated that Inkscape doesn't "have a concept of a selected guideline" (i.e. it is not possible to select more than one guideline at a time), and I don't think this has changed.
    – Paolo Gibellini
    Mar 8 at 10:45
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    You may hate drawing temporary objects to enable alignment, but sometimes there is no other option. Inkscape has no concept of margins, and you can't alight things using a guideline, because you can't select a guideline and so you can't use the Align & Distribute functionality with it. What I would suggest you do is to use guides and snap to guides. Inkscape has extensive snapping options.
    – Billy Kerr
    Mar 8 at 11:56
  • It seems you could center the red circle on the artboard (or page) then move it up 42.5 mm to center it in the top margin. If you cannot use align/distribute with guidelines and are not wanting to create any temporary object to snap to then just do the math.
    – Kyle
    Mar 8 at 15:38

1 Answer 1

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It's not possible to use the Align and Distribute panel with guides, because a guide is not an object you can select, and so you can't use that with the align tools.

Here's an alternative method. No extra objects need to be drawn. All you need is to set one guide, and use snapping.

  1. Draw your 70 x 70mm square, and make sure it is aligned to the centre of the 100 x 100mm page using the Align & Distribute panel. This will make your margins 15mm all round.

  2. Drop a horizontal guide near to the middle of the top of the page (in the middle of your margin area). This doesn't have to be accurate

  3. Double click the horizontal guide, and set the X co-ordinate to 50mm and the Y coordinate to 7.5mm (i.e. the exact middle of the 15mm margin).

  4. With Snapping to Object Rotation Centres enabled, move the circle until it snaps to the guide.

An example showing steps 2 to 4

enter image description here

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