This tutorial, for Inkscape beginners, shows one way to draw a sheet of paper, or “page” icon.

Enable the Rectangle tool, by clicking this button in the main toolbox, along the left side of the Inkscape window , or press R on your keyboard.
Press the mouse button, and hold it down while you drag the mouse. See how you can make different rectangles: long and skinny, or wide and short? Drag out a rectangle to represent a sheet of paper.
Switch to the Selection tool by clicking this button in the toolbox .
Look at the Tool Controls bar above the canvas. See the image below to find the right toolbar.

First, on the far right, click on the “px” button to open the dropdown menu. Choose in (inches) from the menu, or whatever units you prefer. Next, make sure the lock icon between the W and H boxes is unlocked. If it’s locked, click on it to unlock. Then either type to change the numbers, or click the plus or minus buttons. Set W = 8.5 and H = 11.0. Your rectangle should jump immediately to that size.
If you wish your paper to be a different color, just click on a color chip on the palette below the canvas. It is highlighted in a pink rectangle below. If the color you want is not shown, click on the up/down buttons on the right side of the palette, to see more colors.
Switch to the Pen tool . See the animation below, to follow the next few steps.

Draw a triangle which will be used to cut off a corner of your sheet of paper. Click once at the place where you want to start drawing your triangle. Move the mouse to the next corner of your new triangle, and click once when it’s in the right position. Move again to the third point of the triangle, and click once. Finally, move the mouse back to the starting point, and put the mouse inside that tiny square. It turns red when you’re in the right place. Click once.
Keep the new triangle selected. Press the Shift key, and hold it down while you click on the large paper. Now both objects – new triangle and original paper, are selected at the same time.
Click Path menu > Cut Path.
Three things just happened. First, the new triangle disappeared, but don’t worry – it’s supposed to disappear. Second, the corner was cut away from the piece of paper (although it’s hard to see without zooming in). And third, the color of the paper also disappeared. You should replace the color, as shown in the animation, because it makes some later steps easier.

Next, click any open area of the canvas. This deselects everything.
Now drag the new corner piece away from the rest of the paper.
Notice the Snap Control bar along the right side of the window. In Inkscape versions before 1.0, and 1.3 and after, the snap control bar either is, or can be affixed to the window. In versions 1.0 through 1.2, the snap control bar “floats”. Set your snap options like they are shown in the animation.
While the new corner piece is still selected, go to the Tool Controls bar, and click one of the Rotate 90 degrees buttons, twice. Either this button or this button .
Drag the corner piece back over to the rest of the paper, so that one corner snaps back to the paper. (If you have trouble with snapping, please feel free to visit our forum, or use the comment section below, to ask for help.)
Switch to the Node tool . With this tool, you can adjust the paths directly. As you can see in the animation, it’s a bit tricky to get the tool in the right place. Watch for the little icon beside the mouse to change to a tiny 4-way arrow. When you see that, press the mouse button and drag the mouse. The line should move. In this way, you can curve the line, so that it looks like the paper is bending.
If you want to be able to move the paper around without the two pieces coming apart, select them both at the same time, with the Selection tool, as you learned in step 8. Then click Object menu > Group, or this button on the Commands bar , or the keyboard shortcut Ctrl + G. (Grouping allows more than one object to behave as if they were one object. It is reversible with Ungroup.)
If you want this drawing to be an icon, you can make it much smaller. Look at the Tool Controls bar, and find the small lock icon, which is between the W and H boxes. If it looks like a closed lock , leave it that way. If it looks like an open lock , click on it once, to close the lock. This will make sure the paper does not lose its proportions when you scale it. Now you can either change the numbers in the boxes, or you can drag the corner arrows on the canvas, to change the size of the paper.

In Part 2 of this tutorial, we will show how to add shading and other effects, to create different depictions of a piece of paper (such as a line drawing, a cartoon effect, or realistic appearance).

If you have any questions or comments about this tutorial, please feel free to post a message in our forum. If you want to learn more about how to use Inkscape, you might want to look at Inkscape for Artists – Step by Step . And you can find many more tutorials like this in the menu at the top of this page.