Watch the video Starting with Inkscape.

This video shows you how to change the layout of the program when you use it for the first time.
We change the theme, make the icons bigger, and change the place of a toolbar.
Then you see how to pick a tool and draw some shapes.
At the end of the video you learn about zooming in and out and moving around.

Welcome Screen Introduced in Inkscape 1.1

Starting with Inkscape 1.1 you will see the Welcome screen when you open Inkscape. It has 3 tabs:

1. Quick Setup. Here you can choose what Inkscape looks like.
You can change the colors of the program and icon style.
The Canvas option changes the default color for the background.
Click the Save button if you want to change the settings.

In this course we will use
Appearance > Classic Inkscape with Dark option disabled.

2. Supported by You.
Here are 2 links to the official Inkscape website.
There you can request to participate in the Inkscape project.
Click Thank you, to move on.

3. Time to Draw.
At the top, you can see your recently opened files.
Below it are files with pre-defined settings, or templates, from which you can choose.
Click on the New Document button to see the startup screen.

If you don’t want to see the Welcome screen next time, you can change that, as shown in the image below.
You can also do it by unchecking
Edit menu > Preferences > Interface > Windows > Miscellaneous > Show Welcome dialog.

The Startup Screen

Part of the Interface	What can you use it for?
Page	When you open Inkscape, you will see a number of bars with buttons and a blank sheet in the middle. This sheet is called the page and is an A4 sized document. Each new document always starts in a new window.
Canvas	The page and all the space around it, is your canvas.
Anywhere	You can zoom in and out and draw anywhere on the canvas.
Menu Bar	Almost everything can be controlled from the menus in the Menu bar.
Commands Bar	The Commands bar contains the most commonly used commands.
Tool Box	The main toolbox lies along the left edge of the window. The Tool controls bar is linked to it, which you can see in the video.
Snap Controls	The Snap controls are located at the top right of the window. The left button toggles the feature on or off. The arrow button on the right opens the menu. Snapping allows you to place objects precisely in relation to each other, to grids or guides, or to the page.
Palette	The palette lies along the bottom of the canvas. With this you can give color to objects and lines.
Status Bar	The Status bar, at the bottom, displays lots of important information.
Tips	In the middle area of the status bar you can always read useful tips.

Zoom level On the right side of the Status bar is the zoom level in percentage steps.
Rotation To the right of that is the angle of rotation of the canvas.