The Book of Inkscape

18.4 Clipping and Masking

Another approach to cropping images is to use clipping or masking. Although here, these techniques are illustrated by bitmap objects, you can in fact clip or mask any kind of object, including groups.

Inkscape allows any object to be clipped by a path, so that only the part of the object inside that path will be visible. Starting from a bitmap object, draw a clipping path or shape over it using any convenient tool—for example, Calligraphic pen or Pencil. Then, select both the bitmap and the path and choose Object ▸ Clip ▸ Set. The clipping path disappears (it now resides in defs, A.4 Defs, View, and Metadata) but the bottom object is now clipped by it. To edit the clipping path without unclipping, click the corresponding ...